We haven't done one of these in a while, and I figured this would be a good opportunity.

As you know if you've followed baseball for more than about 3 minutes, every year before the season, approximately 862 players will at some point declare that they are in the best shape of their lives. It's usually pretty funny, especially as the players age. So, the first person to come up with one wins a kettle corn at the ballpark, in the form of Paypal from me.

Here are the rules:
- It must be reported after this post is made. I did a cursory search before making this post and found nothing yet, but it's certainly possible I missed something.
- You must predict it, in a post in this thread, before the publication date of the article/tweet/etc. in which it appears. Once it has been published, you must come back to this thread and post a link to it.
- It must be a player with at least 1 year of major-league service time, because it's not as funny when a prospect says it.
- It must be appear in an article in a reputable online publication that I can verify with a URL that you will supply in a post.
- I will count Twitter posts if they are made by the player, about himself, with a verified account, and they use the phrase "best shape of my life." I suppose blog posts could count too, if they can be verified as belonging to the player, but I don't know a ton of players that blog regularly.
- It does not have to be a direct quote from the player, if the player's quote gives the same gist and the author uses the phrase "best shape of [his] life" while quoting the player, not referring to another article which quotes the player but doesn't use the phrase (e.g. a link post that paraphrases in order to use the phrase, like you might see on here and LSB).

For example, if Rosenthal writes about Berkman and quotes him saying the phrase, that counts. If Berkman basically says the same thing but doesn't use the exact words, and Rosenthal uses the phrase exactly, that counts. If neither Berkman nor Rosenthal uses the phrase, and a link post on here or LSB uses the phrase referring to Rosenthal's article, that doesn't count. If Berkman tweets from his verified account using the phrase, that counts.

That's it so far. If I think of more rules I'll post them here. Go nuts.

adam kennedy

There should be a long shot bonus prize if you select a Berkman-like player who is obviously well past the best of any kind of shape. Maybe a BMI factor.

I take it the contest is limited to one nominee per participant?

Michael Young

Josh Hamilton.

Josh Hamilton

shit you beat me to it

I will go with Carl Crawford

Joakim Soria

Aj pierzynski

Heath Bell

Terrell Owens!

Brian Wilson

Jacoby Ellsbury.

Brandon McCarthy

Kyle Lohse

barry bonds

Carlos Zambrano

Derek Jeter

Javier Vasquez

Josh Johnson

The Tigers infield. Interviewed while filling an SUV with treats from the drive-through window at In-N-Out Burger. (Okay, to pick just one, Jhonny Peralta.) To which Pablo Sandoval will reply, "It would ruin my career to get in shape. Didn't those guys learn anything last October?"

I'm gonna go with Pablo Sandoval.

CJ Wilson. I'm going with the dude who talks about himself constantly.

Johan Santana