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Looking toward baseball

In case you didn’t know, the Super Bowl is Sunday, to which I say “Who cares?”

Pitchers and catchers report in a little more than a week.

So let the brothers Harbaugh fight over who gets to play with the Lombardi Trophy for a year.

Let Ray Lewis cry. Let Colin Kaepernick get a tattoo during the Beyonce’s 30-minute halftime show. Let Joe Flacco put his foot in his mouth and let Randy Moss be, well, Randy Moss.

There are bigger issues on the horizon when it comes to America’s Pastime:

• The story that won’t go away. Don’t look now, but our good friend PED has dropped by the Major League Baseball neighborhood to say hello once again.

A Miami newspaper dropped a bombshell that Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz and Gio Gonzalez (allegedly) purchased performance-enhancing drugs from a Miami anti-aging clinic.

And at this point, when I say “bombshell” I really mean a revelation as shocking as pitchers using rosin bags and hitters using pine tar.

MLB is investigating —and who knows what that means. A-Rod is already out for most of the season with a hip injury, but it will be interesting to see what becomes of the other players caught up in this latest PED controversy.

• Young stars to watch. Mike Trout nearly won the American League MVP at age 20. Bryce Harper was a teenage for most of the season and still hit .270 with 22 home runs while adding about a billion more points of excitement.

There are still more young stars poised to make an impact this season, like Sterling Marte for the Pirates.

It will be interesting to see Marte for a full seasons, provided he doesn’t start so poorly that he gets jettisoned to triple-A.

Garrit Cole could also wiggle his way into the Bucco rotation at some point this season.

But it’s Texas shortstop Jurickson Profar who could be the next great hitter in the game and is worth keeping an eye on this season.

• Bounce-back year candidates.

There were plenty of players who downright under-performed last season and history has shown a handful of them rebound the following season.

It would be hard for Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester to be any worse than he was in 2012.

But Lester is reunited with John Farrell, who served as the BoSox pitching coach during Lester’s best seasons. Add in a much-needed change in atmosphere in the Sox clubhouse and Lester could revert to his old form.

Hanley Ramirez is another player primed for a comeback season. One of the plethora of high-priced toys for the Dodgers, he can’t really play any position well. That was OK when he was hitting of .332 with power and speed.

He needs to get back to that level.

• A winning season for the Pirates? It’s the last day of January. Sure. Why not?

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