Here's a contest everybody can participate in without much effort. To enter, all you need to do is be a member of Beyond the Box Score with at least one comment and an avatar by Wednesday, March 18th at 5am EDT. We'll randomly pick three names from our member list, and assuming you meet the other two requirements and email us back, you win. Easy, no? It's a way to say thank you to everyone who's been around through the off-season and a little motivation for you lurkers to finally join our community.
The prizes are a copy of John Sickels' 2009 Prospect Book, The Hardball Times Season Preview 2009, and a What If Sports $15 gift certificate, to be assigned randomly.
If you're not a member of any SBNation blog, you just need to create an account by clicking on the Sign Up link in the upper right hand corner of the screen. You can even join with an OpenID or YahooID.
If you're already a member of another SBNation blog, but not BtB, simply log in, click on the join link right below our logo, read the Terms of Service, and click accept.
Don't forget to comment at least once in any open thread, and make sure you have an avatar and valid email address associated with your account. For most of you, you don't need to do anything. Good luck!
More on the Prizes
If you're not familiar with John Sickels' work, he's a prospect junkie and writes a prominent blog about his passion. Each spring he publishes The Baseball Prospect Book, one of the more popular offerings on, yup, prospects.
We've mentioned the Hardball Times Season Preview 2009 before, and it's a great preview of the 2009 season, complete with team write-ups, player projections, and blurbs about every significant player.
What If Sports is site dedicated to cross-era simulation games for all major sports. You can compete against others who pick their own All-Star teams of players from every decade. I hear it's extremely addictive. Oh, and their blog has a nice name.