The Official Marvin Chávez thread

anybody have an idea of how much we payed?

 

That's not how MLS works - you NEVER find out how much allocation money is involved in a trade. The league is very protective of that information; they believe it would be a disadvantage for foreign teams and players/agents to know how much allocation money teams get, as then they would know enough to hold out for more money on contracts.

The best I've found out over the years from various blogs is that the smallest amount of allocation money that can be traded seems to be $75k, and most normal trades involve that much or perhaps twice that much. Given how cheap Chavez's salary is, I can't imagine Dallas giving him up for only $75k, so I have to believe the Quakes gave up $150k (or two chunks of allocation money, if you will). That would be enough to make it worthwhile for Dallas, as they really want to sign a forward and are supposedly up against the cap.

I've also read (not confirmed, but from a good source who seems to know how the league works) that the teams not in the playoffs typically get a total of $400-500k of allocation money. So even if the Quakes traded $150k to Dallas for Chavez, and $75k to Vancouver for Salinas, they should still have $200K or more left in allocation money.

That's why I have posted on other threads how I don't understand why Yallop is saying the team is running out of money to sign anyone after the few moves they've made. Even if the team has to pay $200-$400k for Dawkins (salary and transfer/loan fee), the should still have additional money left to sign one or two impact players. (See my post in the roster thread on this)

Anyway, if the Quakes gave up $75-150k of allocation money for Chavez, that's still a good trade for the Quakes (IMO). They get someone who has played in MLS and adapted to it well, and only have to pay him $50k or so in salary. So for a total "cost" of $125-200k (depending on the allocation amount) they get a very good right mid, which is a good deal.

Of course, the Quakes could have thrown more than $150k in allocation money at Dallas, but from things I've read over the years, it doesn't seem that anyone trades that much allocation $$ in one trade....

 

To get an idea of the market value of this stuff, in February 2009, Seattle reportedly traded 100k of allocation money for 34 year old defender Tyrone Marshall who was making 160k at the time. Marvin Chavez is in his prime and makes only 50k, so my guess is he cost much more than 100k of allocation money.

 

Well, he hasn't screwed up....yet.

 

http://www.portlandtimbers.com/news/2012/01/climbing-ladder-looking-back-optas-insight

 

This has apparently been the knock on Chavez among FCD fans. I don't make too much of it. Finishing can be streaky, and the sample size is very small. If he had made a couple of those, he'd be close to the average.

 

Like Mark, I've been rewatching some of the 2011 Quakes games I have recorded. I watched the Quakes 2-0 win at Dallas earlier today, and focused on Chavez. He played right mid but switched over to left mid quite a bit. He looked very comfortable with both feet, in fact he took some corner kicks with his left foot. Ferreira took most of the CKs, but Chavez took a few and they looked pretty good, so maybe he will be someone who takes corners this year.

He was very active, tracked back quite a bit and played pretty good defense, and I thought he was one of the best Dallas players on the field (remember, Break Shea did not play in that game). He tended to pinch in and roam from the outside mid position, kind of like Bobby Convey did (or Wondo, when he played outside mid), but he also worked the sideline on occasion and used his speed to get by defenders wide. He served in several nice crosses, and had one bad shot where he hit it wide from the left side of the goal, and one good shot on goal that was saved.

With his comfort using both feet, it would seem to me that he could easily play left mid as well as right mid, so that gives the team some flexibility.

 

I think Chavez really is the "son of the wind". Some of those plays against Seattle where he "blew in" from 20-30 yards to take ball off of a guy's foot were jaw-dropping.

Only question for me is, if his dad is the wind, then who is his mom .

 

Of course, and why we assume that "the wind" is male anyway? Let's just say that his parents are Mr. & Mrs. Wind and leave it at that.

 

Because the Spanish word for "the wind" is masculine - "el viento."

 

OK, but still we should probably assume that Mr. Wind, Senior Viento, is married to a female wind. Otherwise, it would be a cross-element-of-nature marriage, which would be very liberal if not actually illegal.

 

Chávez was freaking great against shittle!

We were high up in the stands and singing and dancing a lot, so I missed some of his killer great plays. Was nice to see how great he was on my DVR last night. He's got a ton of skill to go with that blazing speed. Wow!

GOOOOO QUAAAAAAKES!!!!!

- Mark
3-1-0 so far ...

 

"They call the wind Mariah..."

 

Someone has been listening to his vinyl folk song records again ! ;^)

 

Old guys rule!!!!