The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has already claimed the lives of more than 230,000 Americans, the population of a mid-sized U.S. city. As we look ahead to winter and the coming flu season, the question weighing on the minds of most folks is: Can we pull together to contain the spread of this virus and limit its growing death toll? Colorado Rockies Face Masks

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Right now, it’s estimated that about half of Americans always wear a mask in public. According to the new study, published in Nature Medicine, if this incomplete rate of mask-wearing continues and social distancing guidelines are not adhered to, the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States could soar to more than 1 million by the end of February. Cincinnati Reds Face Masks

They can fail, for whatever reason -- bad trades, bad drafts, bad development -- to improve the farm system. But the Phillies improved the farm system a ton. Their system was ranked 29th out of 30 organizations in 2012 (and 20th in 2015) and was a top-five system in 2016, 2017 and 2018. In 2018, when the club was on the brink of competing for the NL East, Philly probably had the second-best farm system in baseball, plus young major leaguers Rhys Hoskins and Aaron Nola, who had both recently graduated from that system.

Passan: At the 2015 meetings, my colleague at the time, Tim Brown, got a tip: Cincinnati closer Aroldis Chapman, who was on the verge of being traded by the Reds, had gotten into trouble off the field. He didn't have any firm details. Texas Rangers Face Masks

Tim Kurkjian: The biggest trade I ever covered at the winter meetings came on Dec. 5, 1990, at the meetings outside of Chicago. The Toronto Blue Jays sent first baseman Fred McGriff and shortstop Tony Fernandez to the San Diego Padres for second baseman Roberto Alomar and outfielder Joe Carter. McGriff had hit 105 home runs in his previous three seasons combined; someday he might be a Hall of Famer. Fernandez had made the All-Star team in three of his previous four seasons, an excellent player in his prime. Carter had averaged nearly 30 homers a year for the previous four seasons; he, of course, hit the walk-off home run to win the 1993 World Series for the Blue Jays. Alomar was the best player on two World Series championship teams (1992 and 1993) in Toronto and would be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. The day of the trade, some in the media called it the Fred McGriff trade, the Joe Carter trade, the Tony Fernandez trade. Blue Jays general manager Pat Gillick whispered to me late that night, "This will always be known as the Roberto Alomar trade.'' Los Angeles Angels Face Masks

* Ashwill said the Seamheads.com database was compiled from the ground up, starting at the game level with published box scores, newspaper stories, scoresheets, and scorebooks. So far he said it contains about 73% of the roughly 12,500 league games played from 1920-1948. Can the missing games be found and the stats assimilated to those that exist?

* From 1920 through 1948, the period of Black baseball that MLB is recognizing, official league stats, for the most part, were not published, said Ashville. When they were published, they were not complete. But there are exceptions, especially in the late 1940s, when season-end statistics were published for some years. Will MLB use the published official stats, or the stats drawn from box scores, or some combination of them (since the official stats did not cover all categories or all players, and also did not cover interleague games)?

LSU's football program is charged with a Level III violation involving Beckham, a former Tigers star, who gave $2,000 in cash to four Tigers football players on the field after the team's 42-25 victory over Clemson in the College Football Playoff National Championship game on Jan. 13.