We had an idea for this week’s mailbag, but some of the questions took our theme and in a slightly unexpected direction, which forced us to actually break some news in this edition.Initially, we asked for your favorite “what if” about this season. What if the Boston Red Sox had re-signed Alex Bregman? What if the St. Louis Cardinals hadn’t traded everyone? What if the Toronto Blue Jays were healthy? What if the Washington Nationals had some pitching?That was the concept: hypotheticals that might have shifted the tone of these past two months. Some of our readers stayed in that lane. It also became clear from the questions that a different sort of uncertainty is inescapable at the moment: the collective bargaining agreement that expires this winter. The CBA has been in the news lately, and it’s clearly on your minds.So, this week’s mailbag keeps the what-if theme, but it ranges from granular roster moves to much broader questions about the state of the industry. We’ll start with one of those broader questions, and we’ll get some outside help to answer it.What if the team owners opened their books? Would small-market fans still think that capping big-market teams is the right thing to do? — Al U.Good timing!Last week at the bargaining table with the owners, the Major League Baseball Players Association actually proposed partially opening the books to the public — cracking them open just a few pages, if you will.“Owners who complain about their supposed inability to compete should be willing to open their books for the fans,” interim union head Bruce Meyer said in a statement.The union homed in on three areas it wants the league to agree that the public should have access to: