Craig may be an important baseball pundit now, but he's also a Jays fan, and will continue to honour us with his presence.

Coach, you've gone too far. Quit saying stuff like that or I'm going to start calling you "Kenny".

So Craig, now that you're an insider, is it "primmer" or "prymer"?

You neatly dodged the question with your reply on the nominated thread to someone who avoids saying it out loud:

Me : (LOL)
She : What's so funny?
Me : F**kin' Primer again.

Repeat ad nauseam. At work they probably just think I'm weird.

Kent, many thanks ... I'll admit I'm a little chuffed about the whole thing. It's a pleasant shock to see Beer Guy get a nomination (though as a joke, I'm sure), and my hijack of the "Google Is" thread too. But I don't think I'm really a contender in any of those categories. In the Best Post, for instance, Tolaxor's bizarre rant had me stifling howls of laughter just now when I reread it, and those Tomas Perez anagrams are absolutely inspired.

I'm not sure how to take the Primeys -- they're right on that line between good community fun and painful self-referential shark-jumping. But if I win anything, then of course I'm all for them. Go Primeys!

Oh, and Craig, congrats on your joining the Primer staff! Well done, sir.

The Tomas Perez anagrams, totally out of the blue and totally brilliant, made me laugh harder than anything else I've ever seen on Primer. Not just the anagrams, but making them tell a little story.

Yours, though, was terrific... spotting "uff oh ah oo ow off" is one of the greatest examples of found art I've ever seen, and I love the dry tagline.

Other Primey highlights are the "Name Is..." thread that Gideon mentioned, Sean Smith's brilliant hidden gem in the "Rangers Chemistry" thread (post #13), and Dzop's "Mark Quinn at the Bat".

I say "Primer" with a long i, not "primmer". I know it's wrong, but I can't shake the pronunciation.

Congrats to Craig and Jordan both, for Primeys and punditry. Not being able to do the lunch thing with my co-bloggers almost makes me wish I was living in Toronto...almost. -)

Of course, the sun is shining here in Vancouver and the only snow I encounter is when I'm skiing at Whistler on the weekends, so I'll survive. :)

I'm with Craig. The regulars are Primates, the awards are Primeys, and the site is Prime.

Jordan, do you mean to tell us that Gideon and Beer Guy are the same person as Chorus of Disgruntled Fans? (Another of my faves.) Too bad there isn't a "best hijack" award for your Google game. Since my name is a place, and a band, I got some good ones:

-Kent is the main Gateway between the UK and mainland Europe
-Kent is a stronghold for the grass snake
-Kent is already an expert slicer and forger
-Kent is a Certified Fraud Examiner
-Kent is ordered to be placed in the stocks
-Kent is rock-and-roll, Kent is pop, Kent is from Sweden
-Kent is a late season variety with large highly coloured fruit

And of course,

-Kent is Superman

On a tangent to the above tangential tangent ...

Kent is also a state university in Ohio where the mascot is something called a Golden Flash. Having attended a midwesters USA school in the same athletic conference, we had many great whoops of fun regarding just what a "golden flash" might constitute, though many of them would have likely led to prison time.

I didn't post this to that thread, but I did a search to see what I could come up with. Some of my favourites searching for Ryan:

Ryan is a distinguished American academic, whose teaching is consistently very highly rated at top US business schools
Ryan is an IDIOT
Ryan is described as being in a coma
Ryan is studying bugs, flowers, birds and dirt.
Ryan is out of step with the mainstream values of Illinois.
Ryan is STILL AN IDIOT
Ryan is an eager young cop who knows she has been promoted primarily because she is a black woman and therefore a double minority.
Ryan is either an angel or a juvenile delinquent.

And searching for Ryan Adams (with most hits connected to the singer):

Ryan Adams is so prolific that it can be downright frustrating
Ryan Adams is NOT the best thing since sliced-bread, but he ain't bad.
Ryan Adams is putting his reputation as a substance-abusing time bomb behind him
Ryan Adams is like a crap shoot. You pay ten bucks to watch him be miserably drunk onstage or watch him completely blow your mind. Your choice.
Ryan Adams is the Junior High Pastor
Ryan Adams is fourth with his 3.24 ERA and five victories.
Ryan Adams is a prodigy and a phenomenon.
Ryan Adams is inexcusably terrible
Ryan Adams is finding out it sucks to have a name similar to '80s rocker Bryan Adams. \(This one I can definitely relate to.)\

Having attended a midwestern USA school in the same athletic conference

BGSU? I have a friend who went there for Cultural Studies.

we had many great whoops of fun regarding just what a "golden flash" might constitute

1/3 Oz. Sambuca
1/3 Oz. Triple Sec
1/3 Oz. Amaretto

Layer in a shot glass.

Disgusting, if you ask me...

Yeah, Craig, good ol' Bowling Green. I was there 1984-1988 and taught there 1992-1994. I was in the English department, so knew a lot of people in Cultural Studies. They all thought we were in English because we weren't politically astute enough to be in Cultural Studies and we all assumed they were in Cultural Studies because they couldn't write goodlier enough to be in English. In many ways it was like high-minded literary Crips and Bloods -- or, as our colleagues in the Popular Culture Department, favored major of football players, would insist, Jets and Sharks.

For anyone who cares, I heard that BP (Baseball Prospectus) will be swithching to a premium pay service this coming year. I think it will cost 34.95 (US) for a year's subscription.

By that I was refering to the BP website.

If it's true, I wish them the best of luck. I'm sure they will be able to make some good coin; they seem to have a lot of fans, and I myself use their statistical reports very often, am starting to use the Player Cards once in a while, and always enjoy reading Transaction Analysis. Of course, that will no longer be the case if it's subscriber-only content; I hope I will find a source for reports similar to the EqA reports.

$55 a year Canadian is far too steep for their written content in my view (which isn't really as good as what you get in other places, though it's cleaner editorially), but if I find I am starved for reliable statistical analysis updated daily, I may wind up subscribing.

My info comes from Joe Sheehan's newsletter which he says is becoming part of the BP pay service.

"The cost of an annual subscription will be $39.95, and winter
newsletter subscribers will get the service for $34.95 a year. That's close to a 50% reduction, and for your money you will receive the newsletter, Will Carroll's Under the Knife, access to Nate Silver's PECOTA projection cards, and assorted other content from BP's staff." - JS

Too bad, especially for those of us on a tight budget. I would already be a Baseball America subscriber if they were more affordable, either in print or online, where their subscription price is also steep.

Batter's Box will always be free, and I'm proud to say, worth every penny. However, we may soon need our own domain and a bigger server, as right now we're here courtesy of one of my clients, so sponsorship (NO pop-up ads!) and/or donations would be acceptable.