You know the season is almost here…

when the baseball magazines hit the stores.

When you think about them, these publications seem quite quaint. After all, once you commit to putting something in print, it’s pretty much outdated the minute you put it on the shelf. Sure, some things remain the same, such as last season’s statistics. Since numbers are numbers, they should be the same from one magazine to the next, so we won’t even consider them. Each magazine also has a list of phenoms and the top amateur players so we’ll also let those go.

Then there are the feature articles. Now that Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine have virtually lost their charter, this is the closest thing we have to printed long-form stories.

But let’s just look at one of the bigger reasons for these things: the predictions. But remember what I just said about outdated info? Things will change: There are still some free agents to be signed. There are still some trades that will happen before Opening Day. And, unfortunately, there will be injuries of greater or lesser degrees. Any of these could turn winners into losers and vice versa. Not to mention the batters and pitchers picked for the major awards that will have to be revised.

That said, let’s look at each of the three mags I purchased last Sunday. In alphabetical order…

Athlon Sports 2020 MLB Preview ($9.99)

Probably the most fun of the bunch, thanks to things like “Calendar of the Weird,” “There’s a First Time for Everything,” “15 Things to Watch in 2020,” and a look at the 1994 Montreal Expos, who were winding their way to the pennant before their dreams were crushed by the strike. Other features include a look at defensive shifts; how teams economize; the slew of new managers take the reigns of ML teams; tears over the lost allure of batting average as a key stat; players celebrating their first big league hit; a look back at the 2010 draft as a kind of “where re they now” deal; and how the baseball is juiced.

Lindy’s Sports Baseball 2020 Preview (“The Baseball Preview For Smart Fans.” $9.99)

Fewer features:

• State of the Game
• Not Dead Yet (bullpens)
• Trending (meh)
• Tools of the Trade (“The best 23 (!) hitting, pitching and fielding disciplines”)
• The Closer (Rob Neyer’s suggestion that Bill James belongs in the Hall of Fame)

Street & Smith’s Baseball (“America’s Baseball Bible” $8.99)

My childhood go-to. I still have pretty much every issue going back to 1968. My favorite part remains the list of targets. I love to see how close some players are to major milestones. For example Albert Pujols will most likely move past Willie Mays’ 660 home runs and may even reach 700, as unlikely as that probably is; Miguel Cabrera is only 23 away from what used to be the greatest feat: 500 homers.

Features include:

• Team of the Decade
• Whither the Baseball? (another juiced story)
• How do you spell relief? (another bullpen story. Come on there are just a handful of these magazines. Can’t they come up with some different ideas?)
• The new normal (the impact of some of the baseball rules that are supposed to be put in to effect in 2020)
• Braves’ new world (pretty specific for a single-issue magazine)

Note that the covers shown here are for my area. Nowadays each market gets its own stars smiling up at you from the shelves. Also showing my age: I remember when S&S was fifty cents.

Okay, boomer.