Effectively Wild Episode 2145: Opening Daze and the 2024 Team Fun Draft

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Opening Day naps, a Bryce Harper pandering update, Nelson Cruz’s Mariners retirement and the one-day-contract tradition, and Yusei Kikuchi’s latest intriguing revelation, then (21:16) share some highlights and lowlights of Opening Day action, report the results of listener voting on the preseason predictions game, analyze Will Smith’s extension, marvel at this season’s compressed projections, and (1:05:27) conduct the fourth annual Team Fun Draft, in which they draft all 30 teams in order of how fun they are to follow in 2024.

Audio intro: Alex Glossman and Ali Breneman, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Liz Panella, “Effectively Wild Theme (Horny)”

Link to FG staff predictions
Link to Ringer staff predictions
Link to Ramírez Opening Day quote
Link to Harper jacket
Link to Cruz Mariners tweet
Link to Levine on one-day contracts
Link to one-day-contracts thread
Link to Kikuchi on sleeping
Link to Kikuchi on reading
Link to Soto throw
Link to Ichiro throw
Link to Cespedes throw
Link to Mays catch
Link to Mariners salmon run
Link to salmon run video
Link to preseason predictions pod
Link to listener voting results
Link to MLBTR on Lewin Díaz
Link to MLBTR on Smith
Link to Jaffe on Smith
Link to FG playoff odds
Link to Paine on net WAR
Link to load management info
Link to Ben on Arraez
Link to ballpark meetup forms
Link to meetup organizer form