This generation's Major League Baseball is built on information, on spin rate and spin axis, on launch angle, on pitch counts and anything you can measure in percentages, and all of it is about control. The more you know, the more that teams and players can control the preparation, the adjustments, the outcomes.

But players and staff members have never had less control than under the current circumstances, and hell, you could say that for just about everybody in this country. There's no certainty about when baseball will restart, or even when the players can go back to playing catch and sharing the same clubhouse with teammates without being at a heightened risk for infection with the coronavirus.

All they can do is wait for more concrete information to develop and stay as prepared as they possibly can while enveloped in murk. The calendar typically dictates their work and its pacing. For most players, there is October rest and the first acceleration in November, with the goal to be at full speed near the end of March. But now there are no timelines to work from, no pandemic handbook for players and teams to consult.