We have a few burning baseball questions, and we're sure you do, too. Drop us a quick one or two and, if we like 'em enough, we'll try to answer them here every week during the season. CNNSI.com's John Donovan takes a poke at these three this week ...

1	How big are the next couple of weeks for the world champion Diamondbacks?

Curt Schilling is expected to pitch the opener of the D'backs' three-game series with the Dodgers starting Friday. AP Oh, they're big, all right. The D'backs have played some darn fine ball so far this season. As of Wednesday, they're in first place in the National League West. But they haven't played the Giants or Dodgers, the two teams directly on their tail. At least until now. For the next 12 games, starting with Tuesday night's 9-4 victory over the Giants, the Diamondbacks get nothing but San Francisco and L.A. It's too early to talk make or break, but the next couple of weeks will definitely show everyone just how good the Diamondbacks are. Or aren't. The D'backs are getting some help for this important run. Erubiel Durazo is back, replacing Mark Grace at first. In his second game of the season on Friday, Durazo had four hits, including three home runs, and drove in nine runs against the Phillies. He had another homer Tuesday night against the Giants. Former closer Matt Mantei is expected to return next week to act as the right-handed setup guy for sure-thing closer Byung-Hyun Kim. Mantei missed the championship season last year while recovering from elbow surgery. The Diamondbacks will need all the help they can get, considering neither the Giants nor the Dodgers look like they're conceding. The Dodgers have a pitching staff, bolstered by rookie Kazuhisa Ishii, with the best ERA in the National League (2.99). The Giants have a fine pitching staff, too, and an always dangerous offense anchored by Barry Bonds. Last season, Arizona was 10-9 against both the Dodgers and Giants. The Diamondbacks spent the offseason trying to get younger, and one of the guys they lost was right fielder Reggie Sanders, who is hitting just .227 with five homers this season in San Francisco. His replacement, Danny Bautista, is batting .338 with six homers. That's one example of how the Diamondbacks may be even better this season than last. And that's scary news for the Giants and Dodgers.

2	Why so much effort wasted on Mike Piazza's sexual preferences?

Piazza: "I can't control what people think. I date women." AP We know, we know. We hardly want to bring it up. But duty calls … The fact is, when any professional sport, especially any major professional team sport, has its macho image threatened by rumors of homosexuality, it's news. Maybe it shouldn't be. We'd all like to think that we've come far enough, that we're all enlightened enough, to realize that a person's sexual orientation is of no consequence. But, the fact is, it's rare to find a gay man who has played a major professional sport. Openly gay athletes in a major sport who are still active are non-existent. Dave Kopay, who played for 10 years in the NFL, spoke out about his homosexuality. But that was after he retired. Billy Bean, who played for six years in the major leagues in the late 1980s into the mid '90s, did the same. After he retired No one, as far as we can tell, has done it publicly while still playing. The subject is brought up from time to time. Last season, an editor of OUT magazine wrote in a letter of his homosexual relationship with a Major League Baseball player, whom he declined to identify. That started some rumors. Earlier this week, The New York Post opined that Mets manager Bobby Valentine's remarks in an upcoming magazine article might be a way to ease the way for one of his players to declare his homosexuality. The rumors started about Piazza, so Tuesday he addressed them, telling reporters that he is not gay. The All-Star catcher said he agreed with Valentine that baseball players are ready to accept a gay teammate. When will it all stop? Maybe never. Or, perhaps, not until some brave man playing a professional team sport steps forward, says he's gay and shows us how stupid the whole subject was in the first place.

3	Should we care about baseball right now? Won't it all be moot soon enough?

Some fans don't want to see the season end in a strike. AP We don't want to spit a sunflower seed in anybody's BenGay here but … let's just say that if the local team starts trying to sell playoff tickets, don't buy just yet. Last week's disclosure that the players' union is talking about discussing a strike date came as a kick in the head to a lot of fans. You should see some of the e-mails we got. But the news probably shouldn't haven stunned anyone. It's all part of the never-ending shuffling that the two sides do to try to come to a collective bargaining agreement. Unfortunately, work stoppages also are a part of that stupid shuffle. In the last 30 years, the national pastime has been stopped eight times because of labor problems. And we all remember 1994, when Bud Selig canceled the World Series after the players walked out. Five times baseball has had a work stoppage without losing any games. Those have lasted anywhere from two to 32 days. But the other three times, a ton of games have been left unplayed. More than 900 in '94 and '95. More than 700 back in '81. Here's the $3.5 billion question (we picked that because that's about how much money baseball brought in last season): Will it happen this season? We have no crystal ball here at the BQs. But if history is any indication, we won't bet on a strike not happening. And we definitely won't be buying any playoff tickets just yet.