Jake

The pick is from the Sacramento Kings and is top 10 protected for the next two seasons

Some cool stuff at CES: Pebble is releasing Pebble Steel, a new, much-less-dorky-looking version of their pretty great smartwatch. They also announced Pebble 2.0, a major update to its operating system that includes its own appstore. Their most notable new partner is ESPN, so checking scores on your watch will be pretty easy. Each watch will come with a leather and metal band. Samsung announced another line of tablet updates, finally making their Tab line non-s***ty while releasing a much larger Galaxy Note 12.2. I just bought a Note 8.0 and would have liked an update to that, though I really am fond of what I have...most of my beef is with the plasticky, rounded build of the whole thing. ASUS had a quite well-received presentation, rolling out all kinds of new s***. I'm intrigued by their Vivotab Note 8 (did I mention I like the 8 inch size for tablets and really want an active stylus?), which has the much-improved Bay Trail Atom processor, runs full W8.1, has a Wacom active digitizer, and also comes with a free full copy (not a trial) of Office. $299, awesome Their new ZenFones look very interesting as well. They have Zen 4, 5, and 6 models which correspond to size. 4 looks like it will be great in the budget part of the market. The ZenFone 6 has one particularly interesting feature - "PenTouch," a feature which they say allows you to use a pencil, pen, or anything like that on your screen as if it were a stylus. Sounds awesome if implemented well, but who knows. I'm still waiting for active stylus/things like this to be implemented in non-enormous phones. And finally, they announced the Transformer Duet -- a 13 inch convertible (detachable screen to become a large tablet) that runs full versions of Windows 8.1 and Android. No virtualization. You press one key to switch over, which they say takes 4 seconds. I think Android needs some work to take on this size and functionality, but the option to dual-boot may get enough people to jump on board that they get the development needed to make it work. TBH, I think W8.1 is a big enough step that it may squash some of this competition, particularly from the mobile OS side. Intel confirmed that they will be making a line of chips meant to support dual OS, which suggests this will be a thing the industry tries to implement further.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 6, 2014 -> 07:46 PM) Apparently the Mini sounds better than the regular, so I'll pass on that! I thought I was crazy when I felt that way at an in-store demo.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jan 6, 2014 -> 06:20 PM) Right. We aren't even seeing the picture that she took, because there is a no way a camera phone can get that close of a shot, unless maybe she had that ridiculous Nokia Lumia with the 41 MP. So really what happened was a NY Post reporter took a picture of a girl and there was a potential jumper in the background? Why was he taking this picture? The whole "story" just sounds so stupid and pointless. And, of course, even the Lumia doesn't have all that power in its front facing camera.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 6, 2014 -> 05:39 PM) I feel like a key to bringing Mirotic over is starting him. He's on the best team in Spain getting paid very well, a star in his home country. Oh yay let me leave to play with Kirk Hinrich. He hasn't been in his Spanish team's starting lineup until this season and really doesn't get great minutes even now. When he was drafted by us, he hardly played at all.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 6, 2014 -> 05:39 PM) One thing from your numbers to note though is winning the cy young twice. That means that there was a 6 year-ish stretch where Glavine was one of the top 6 pitchers and 2 years where he sat at the very top. Neither of the other guys were described by you as having won the CY award. That's a big deal. So it's not just the longevity, he's got 2 things going for him...an incredible peak combined with a degree of longevity equal to the other guys, if not in some sense greater (more AS appearances, for example). That's true, for sure -- I suppose I only give limited credence to that award since it constantly has too much of a "popularity contest" influence that is the exact thing sullying the HOF process. Nonetheless, it is one of the best things he has going for him given how almost all advanced statistics find him to be a worse pitcher than the other two despite pitching much longer to accumulate more WAR

One thing I believe to be true is that the Bulls are not interested in exposing their plan to the media before they put it into action. The best way for us to extract value for Deng is to act like we really want him to be a Bull in the long term and are totally willing to ride things out after the deadline. I also don't believe the NYDN knows a damn thing about what Derrick Rose or Tom Thibodeau are thinking. I sure wouldn't want to run Thibs out of town because I sincerely believe he is the most valuable person to this franchise in the post-Rose's knees era. He is a rare breed of coach that adds value to the on-floor talent. With that said, I don't think we are automatically a tanking team if we trade Deng and amnesty Boozer. As others have said, this should be a team that at least makes the playoffs and in the East may be a top 2-3 seed immediately: PG - Rose SG - Butler SF - Dunleavy PF - Gibson C - Noah BN - Snell BN - Mirotic BN - 2014 CHI 1st round pick BN - 2014 CHA 1st round pick Might flip-flop Snell and Dunleavy. I don't think Mirotic will do much starting in the early going of his first NBA season, though I do expect him to be an important part of the team. There also could be other good pieces involved in trading Deng (Waiters? 1st round pick? "rotational player"?) as well as possibly brought in with the limited cap space that may exist with the losses of Deng and Boozer. There's some real room for growth. In an NBA where you're usually focused on getting a single, super-talented player, that's a pretty deep and young squad under contract for a while. They could all suck, sure, and Rose could be a fringey player for years, but it's not all that bleak in comparison to most other franchises.

Mike Piazza - career 63.6 WAR Curt Schilling - career 83.2 WAR and yes, WAR is position-adjusted. Neither of those players are HOFers. Piazza played before advanced stats were used for catchers, so he actually got that WAR on the strength of positive career value for defense, which most won't agree with. I also don't think Glavine is worthy of first ballot (64.3 WAR), especially when there are others on the ballot that are similar or better and totally out of consideration: Schilling (83.2 WAR), Mike Mussina (82.5) To get outside of simply using WAR to evaluate, we can look at things this way. Mussina - 9 times in the top 6 of Cy Young voting, 6 times in the top 5, 7 gold gloves, 270 career W, never started fewer than 24 games in a season following his rookie year, 5x All-Star, 3.42 ERA/1.10 WHIP in 130 postseason IP, 3.00 ERA in 18 World Series IP Schilling - 6x All-Star, 4x Cy Young Top 5, 2x Cy Young Top 2, 2x MVP Top 10, 4x MVP Top 15, 3x MLB wins leader, 4x MLB CG winner, 3x 300 strikeout seasons, 3x World Series champion, 2.23 postseason ERA over 133 IP, 2.06 WS ERA in 48 IP, bloody sock Glavine - 2x Cy Young winner, 6x Cy Young Top 5, 1 MVP Top 10, 3x MVP Top 15, 10x All-Star, 305 career W, 5x 20 W seasons (led league each time), 1x MLB CG leader, started at least 32 G 21 out of 22 seasons (does not include rookie and final seasons, other season was 29 starts), 1x WS champion, career 3.3 ERA in 218 postseason IP, 2.16 in 58 WS IP Lots of great stuff for Glavine, obviously -- his greatest accomplishments IMO are related to his longevity. Was he definitely better than both of those other guys? I'm not so sure. I don't mean to say that these things I listed are all great ways to measure success, but these can be used as other things with which to weigh for and against HOF status. Signs of dominance, if you will, since an unspoken part of being an HOFer seems to be that you must be one of the very best in the game at some point in time

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jan 6, 2014 -> 02:13 AM) Currently in a state of emergency. No pedestrians are supposed to drive on any major roads. Tomorrow is supposed to be -16 with a windchill of -48. I'm no marine biologist, but I am pretty sure if I go outside my blood will instantly freeze. If a pedestrian is driving anywhere, they are confused

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 6, 2014 -> 09:27 AM) I'm pretty sure that Jason Castro is worth more than Quintana. There's certainly no way we'd ever get both him and Altuve for Quintana and Sanchez. I'd say QUintana and Sanchez sounds about right for Castro alone. I agree. The question isn't who else to ask for from them, it is what else will they want from us? And they will be right to ask. A catcher under team control with the talent and ability he has is worth a lot. Catcher is such an unbelievably thin position around the league. If you can get a Jason Castro, you do it. The question, of course, is whether we can eventually replace Q? Perhaps not this year. However, I feel more comfortable that we can do something about the rotation that I do that we can get a catcher as good as Castro at any price.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 5, 2014 -> 07:52 PM) Are you saying going forward? Because Melo played on some pretty good nuggets teams Good wasn't the right word -- I question whether a team with Melo on it can win championships.

I'm not convinced that a team with Carmelo on it can be good. But, unlike the tanker crew, I'll certainly consider doing something that would almost certainly make the team a perennial playoff team if management avoids Knicks-like idiocy. Why in the world would Melo want to play for Thibs, though?

I don't think it's the "only" excitement of the postseason for Bears fans -- it certainly is guaranteed to be a game(s) in which pretty much all Bears fans will have the same rooting interest, though

I probably watch a lot more summer olympics, but I care about no Olympic result more than hockey

I would trade Quintana for Jason Castro without hesitation

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jan 4, 2014 -> 03:21 AM) Society is in pristine shape. Impeccably pristine shape. Somehow I looked at that and decided her phone had an amazing camera ...but the phone is in the picture

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 4, 2014 -> 11:39 PM) Can an ESPN Insider copy and paste this for us? http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove13/...team-winter-mlb Soxtalk's administrators don't like for us to do this, as it can ultimately get this site in trouble. If anyone wants to share, do it via a few select snippets and paraphrasing

Those crazy Canucks might just put Sharp/Toews on the same line at Sochi

I think Wootton is a s***ty DE and adequate DT. However, he is an ideal 3-4 DE

My dad is terrified of Facebook. He says he might try it if he can find a way to block his entire extended family.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 3, 2014 -> 03:53 PM) I like the idea, but MLB has very much been against selling their own players, because then it simply becomes a bidding war. Instead of doing that, why not trade him for another blue chip prospect for a team that has a glut of those? Or trade him for a couple good, strong B-B+ prospects? Then you can maximize your assets while appeasing MLB. FWIW, I don't think we are far away from seeing a mega deal like the Sox were talking about needing for Chris Sale this past winter. I doubt it's going to be the Sox, but I don't think it's far off. You really don't see blue-chip for blue-chip deals very often. Teams always overvalue the talent and undervalue the money. I'm guessing, at least at first, you'd consistently get better money by selling than by trading (unless you're a clever scout, which is not the same as doing better in the market)

Tyler Flowers

In his last prospect year, Baseball America had this to say: Baseball Prospectus gave him a 1.9 FRAA (fielding runs above average), which is not great but is indeed above average. FanGraphs had him as -1.1 runs above average. His -2.4 UZR/150 (not "awful" in itself) is almost completely dragged down by his 16 errors, which at times appeared rather flukey and, at worst, correctable. Even if not, there are no metrics calling what he did last year bad. His worst statistic is the not-all-that-well-regarded Defensive Runs Saved, from which he got a -4, which is between what Bill James calls average and below average. They use the word "awful" to describe a player that gets -15, FWIW

I highly recommend this article from FanGraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/masahiro-ta...pect-valuation/ The gist of it is that baseball today really, really values prospects and Tanaka is proof-positive of that. Teams are not happy with the whole "pay for past success and hope for some present" system and therefore go balls out when they can throw money at anticipated production rather than past-prime production. My favorite part was when he brings up the idea of what other prospects would get on the open market. How much is Xander Bogaerts worth? He's younger, less injury risk as a position player, and just as highly regarded in prospect rankings. That got me thinking...instead of a struggling team trading prospects, why not sell them? If a small-market team had a prospect that, for whatever reason, didn't fit, why not sell? If the A's had Xander Bogaerts but also great, cheap players blocking him, why not just send a notice to the other 29 teams asking for bids? A small-market team could benefit immensely from selling a player for $100 million.

To call Conor Gillaspie's glove "awful" is quite a stretch. I'd say "solid" or "adequate" or "a tick above Keppinger." He was having an excellent year until a weird, De Aza-esque run of errors late in the season