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Time for a mailbag? No! Time to ask for questions to put in (and then take out of) the mailbag? That’s the one. January is a pretty quiet month in the realm of baseball labor stories, when the players and the league aren’t in open war, at least. So what better time to put out a request for questions from you, the reader, than now?
This is how the mailbag usually works. If I receive a few smaller questions, I can bundle the answers together into a response article or two. If I get some questions requiring larger and more complex answers, though, those end up as standalone responses. So, feel free to go big, small, or anything in between: ask what’s on your mind, whether it’s topical or historical or just something that’s been nagging at you and related to the scope of this newsletter.
As for myself, I’m once again thinking of the effects of climate change and the destruction they wreak, thanks to Los Angeles being on fire — not necessarily as it pertains to sports, no, but since two MLB teams call Los Angeles home (even if one of them is more like “Los Angeles”), the thought of how these disasters impact sports in the future does come to mind, as well. I’ve written about this a bit before, however, in reaction to hurricanes on the other coast. So I don’t think I have enough thoughts to put together for something else on the subject just yet. But the fires being about nine miles from Dodger Stadium, and the fact that the air itself is dangerous to breath during wildfires like this, certainly has something tugging at the back of my mind.
Spring training isn’t for another month or so, which is also part of why there’s so little going on now. There remain free agents out there, however, but I’ll get to and annoyed by that as camps approach.
Last thing: I ended up writing a feature for the upcoming Baseball Prospectus season preview annual, so if you grab a copy of that book, you’ll be able to read it. The topic itself should be familiar to readers of this newsletter — they do have you write what you know and all — but there’s also a whole lot of other great stuff in those annuals every year besides my own work. Or in spite of my work, depending on your point of view.
Get those mailbag questions in!
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