News and Notes: It’s Opening Day, Cleveland

News and Notes for Thursday, March 28th, 2024

The day has finally arrived. The Cleveland Guardians and Oakland Athletics will open the MLB season at 10:07 EST in Oakland, California tonight, with Shane Bieber starting for the Guardians and Alex Wood starting for the Athletics.

MLB.com’s Mandy Bell has an Opening Day F.A.Q. for you, and also offers some season predictions. The Athletic’s Zack Meisel has three stories to illustrate new manager Stephen Vogt’s storybook life. If your preference is pessimism about the season, Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes has you covered. He also wrote about Stephen Vogt’s return to Oakland. Cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto completed their coverage of the pessimism beat by writing about what should worry Guardians fans the most entering the season and predicting the team to go 72-90.

ZiPS final team projections for 2024 came out yesterday and the Guardians are projected for 85 wins with a 38% chance of winning the division, a 55.1% chance of making the postseason and a 3.9% chance of winning the World Series.

Shohei Ohtani made a full statement about the situation with Ippei Mizuhara and allegations that Ohtani himself was involved either with gambling or with paying off gambling debts.

The forecast in Oakland tonight is 55 degrees and cloudy with a 2% chance of rain. Let’s play ball! Go Guardians!