Better yet trade the pick away and stockpile draft picks so there will be plenty of options when the Rifle is fired. Genius!
Ah, don't worry about that. I think we've already got a 7th rounder in 2017 lined up from trading Ayn Garey away.
Yes, absolutely. In the NFL the draft is the pipeline to get new players, especially those who are cheap. In MLS, rookies aren't especially cheap, see Duka and Tchani's deals, and they are usually worse than another team's castoffs. I'd much rather have Gardner than some rookie LB and I don't rate Gardner above a solid backup. KC obviously made the same calculation as they traded a pick for him. The Crew aren't up against the limit on international players and have the homegrowns coming in so trade the draft picks for somebody useful instead of drafting the next Gerstenberger.
You can't judge Duka and Tchani's contracts against a senior coming out, both were GA so neither counted against the cap.
What Kayak said. Also, I think it's a matter of value. Would you rather have someone like Mike Chabala at $75,000 a year who has already hit his ceiling and isn't that great to begin with, or a player of similar ability, maybe a little less, for a similar price (or half the price if we're talking later round picks) with the possibility that he can develop into a better player?
Duka we chose to re-up without negotiating, so apparently we think he's worth it. Tchani for two years. A guy like Findlay has a lower salary than either if them so his cap hit is smaller if we got another GA he wouldn't count until he graduated. Furthermore if we're talking about LB still either of the players are seniors so like Findlay won't be paid as much as either Tchani or Duka if that's your biggest concern.
To be fair Meram lead the Reserve team with assists and and tie Anor his rookie year for goals. His second season had 4 goals. I'm not going to call him a bust at this point.
Yes, but where does he play? So is the general consensus that this is a weak draft class accurate? I am in the camp that we should trade for vets as well instead of spinning the draft roulette wheel
I think unless there's someone we really like available, we'll trade down. We're in need of cheap young guys to fill out the bottom of the roster, and with the HG contracts being negotiated, Trapp, Barson, and Wiet are likely going to be come more expensively than someone we draft in the late part of round 1 or round 2.
Which is easy to say. But if it's that weak of a draft, who's going to be looking to trade away veterans for bad draft picks?
Drafting players has its risks. The scouting of college players for most MLS teams are not very strong compared to other US based leagues. We don't have a Mel Kiper Jr for these drafts and most of these players are better fit to start their soccer careers in the NASL or USL-Pro and see if they can make push to move up to MLS.
That was a top three pick that went to Toronto, they gave up a player at a position that they have depth at (Johnson) and cleared a bunch of cap space (Kocic) allocation money also went to Toronto. Acting like all Toronto got out of the deal was a draft pick is pretty naive.