I think we stood pat just the right amount and didn't stand pat also just the right amount. I'm not sure re-signing Ramiro was the right move. And if Yallop wastes a roster/intl. spot on Cato, he's back on my shit-list. But otherwise no complaints. You want to keep and reward the Supporter's Shield winning players as the first priority. They're doing that. The "this core of players that knows each other" seems to be the foundation of good multi-year runs by teams in MLS. And they dumped the excess baggage and have a good mix of MLS vets and new players for development to replace them. If Bostock replaces Dawkins that'll be okay. He might need some time to adapt and not be equally good from day one, but the upside is if both sides are happy, he might stay!
I'm not quite sure what your argument is anymore. Is it that standing pat is good, and therefore the Quake offseason is good? Or is it that the Quakes didn't actually stand pat after all, and so not standing pat is actually good. I could list tons of counterexamples to yours - repeating as champion / best team is relatively rare in most sports. Remember, I'm not talking about being good year after year, like the New England Patriots, I'm talking about being the best year after year (which BTW makes 2011/12 KC irrelevant to the discussion - they were not best in either year). Being good year after year is the easy part. Being the best, so that "nooo--body" passes you by is the hard part. And that is the reason why I think you need to continually be creative and take some chances in order to do it, particularly in today's MLS, which is a lot more competitive than even 5 years ago. In order to evaluate that theory, which at this point it is no more than a hunch, with some very loose theoretical foundation in the behavior of competitive systems, cherry-picking examples or counterexamples is not really that useful. You'd have to look at championship teams over many years, look at the level of significant roster change in the offseason after their championship year, somehow quantify that, and then see if they repeated as champion or not. If the Quakes win Supporter's Shield again this year, then it worked. If not, then someone passed them by, and it did not work. We shall see... :--), though of course it would be a single data point. [Side issue, but the other thing is that frankly I'm a little bored with the roster this year. Every year there have been a few new players I was excited to see. Shoot, in 2009 I was even excited to see Cam Weaver! He was a new player - a projected starter. Last year it was Bernardez, Chavez, and Moreno. Bostock is really the only one, for me anyway, this year, and he just got here and we don't even know if he will be signed.]
My argument is that the Quakes are doing a great job with the roster in the offseason. They kept all but one of the key core players (and that one - Dawkins - was someone they did their best to keep). They brought in veteran players for depth in a few key spots (Gargan, Attakora, Fucito, Harden) that will help during the MLS season and also with Open Cup and CCL games. They brought in quite a few trialists this year, including several from overseas, to fight for the final roster positions. They have a few young guys who they can look to develop (Muller, McGlynn, and probably Delgado). They have a young International player (Bostock) that it looks like they'll sign, who has a good pedigree and could be a very exciting player. And it looks like they are about to sign Wondo to a DP contract, to keep him with the team for the next few years. I don't think they stood pat, but I also don't think they wanted to make big changes and disrupt the comraderie and spirit of the team from last year. I like what they did, and am looking forward to the 2013 season.
OK, we'll have to agree to disagree. That's a reasonable opinion - I just don't happen to agree with it. The "veteran players" are mostly cast-offs from other teams (weren't Gargan and Harden waiver draft guys?), though I do like Attakora. In terms of trialists, I haven't been impressed with what I've seen. Their "overseas trialists" are a couple of guys they picked up off of the streets in Sierra Leone, a guy with a beer gut - de Silva, a couple of Dutch guys who were around long enough for a cup of tea, more MLS cast-offs (Cato), etc. Not very impressive. In the meantime, their "starting" roster has gotten worse, with the loss of Dawkins, unless of course Bostock turns out to be comparable (I doubt it). The other aspect to changing / not standing pat that I haven't mentioned is that you don't want to remain too static because your opponents will catch on to you / learn how to beat you. If you keep changing, you stay one step ahead. W/o Dawkins, unless Bostock turns out to be really good and plays some kind of similar role, the Quakes are going to really, really one-dimensional with their attack down the wings approach.
You seem to be forgetting that this is a salary capped league. We cannot run out and sign three or four "name" player, without cutting some guys we really want to keep. Also, some of the guys we picked up are not so much castoffs (like from an NFL team) but guy who got cut by a team that is facing the same salary cap crunch. These are not bad players that didn't make their previous squads because they weren't good enough. They are guys who got waived so their previous teams could get under the cap. Now these are backup players we're talking about, but backups we need. I think that a lot of your issue is that you wanted us to waive Baca and keep Simon permanently. Frank likes Baca, so he's going to keep starting. We can argue the merits of that, but it is very unlikely that we could have kept Simon under any circumstances, and we aren't going to find a better player than Baca for the same money. And that "for the same money" bit has to figure into the equation, because we live in a salary capped league. (For which, I am thankful, incidentally.) Ah! There it is. You do recognize that most of your arguments come back to Dawkins, yes? I think that Abu Tommy looks pretty darned good. We'll see how (or even if) he works out, but I like bring him in. Also, Fucito, while not a household name, is a good player, and he gives us a dimension that we have not previously had. Again, back to Dawkins. Having Fucito is going to give us options that we did not have previously. He is a speedy player who can run onto through balls, thus making them more likely. Having Shea for the whole season (I hope!) will be an improvement too. Remember, Dawkins could not start in front of Shea until Shea got hurt. I know you aren't impressed, but Shea is a menace to opposing defenses. Also, given that you are clever enough to worry about our one-dimensionality, don't you think that Frank, Ian, and Mark are similarly concerned? I expect to see a bit more possession out of us this season, much like the start of last season. We'll have extra speed, which is always good. We've got better depth at the outside mid spots, which is good. Nana might beat out Jason for the starting spot next to Big Vic. And chemistry is not to be overlooked, as sportsfan-quakes pointed out. We don't want to bring on too many disruptions to the roster. And I've been arguing right along that we did not in fact "stand pat" because we're bringing in seven or so new players, and that we don't really want to ditch any of our starters for someone else either. So, Dawkins is gone, and we'll have to figure out how to deal with that. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
I don't know how much they are under the cap at this point, do you? But in any case, if you have to cut some guys to make some additions that you think could be upgrades that's what you do - this is all part of the "chance-taking" that I believe you need to do in order to stay on top. And again I don't mean "stay good", I mean "stay on top", as in the very best. Huh? Are you confusing me with QuietType? I'm a big Baca proponent, a self-described Bacanalian. And yes I'm also a big Dawkins supporter. No, they come back to change - not standing still, taking some chances. Even if they still had Dawkins, my "change" argument stands. For example, I think they can upgrade the d-mid position. Cronin's a great guy and a pretty good player, would hate to see him go, but I could see a trade for allocation money, and then a signing of a strong d-mid. You could wind up on the losing end on that one, but again, this is all about taking calculated risks. Fucito is OK, I'd say he's an upgrade to Sercan, but ultimately he is a Seattle cast-off, and not completely w/o reason. They are not playing guys on the basis of a straw-drawing. He was beat out by guys like EJ, Estrada, Montero, etc. Again, if the Quakes repeat as Supporter's Shield winner, I will happily concede the argument and the Quakes pulled (or did not pull, as it were) the right strings in the offseason. If they don't, then I claim that there are, in the universe of roster moves, additional moves that could have made them better such that they would have repeated as SS winners. We'll see...
Seattle fans were beside themselves when he was traded. He was a fan favorite b/c of his above average work rate. He's a Frank Yallop guy...to a T. He also has to be the only player on our team who has scored in Central America.
Check it out! I submit that the evil, cheating, scum-sucking, satan-worshipping filth have gotten worse over the layoff. They are missing: SpiceBoy, Buddle, and for a bit, Narcissus. Plus a bunch of bench guys. They have added: D Oscar Sorto (12/11/12 - Homegrown), M Colin Clark (12/14/12 - Re-Entry Draft Stage 2), F Gyasi Zardes (12/20/12 - Homegrown), GK Carlo Cudicini (12/31/12 - free), M Juninho (1/16/13 - transfer from São Paulo). And this is the same Juninho they've had right along, yes? So really, a couple of home grown academy guys, a re-entry dude, and one guy picked up on a free. Used to play for Spurs, but he's 39, so I'm not sure I'm very impressed. Yeah, so a second or third string 'keeper? Sure, he's got EPL experience, but a 28 year old US GK would be less expensive and probably as good or better. Piss poor thinking by the filth on this move. And how well will Whinny Narcissus play for the filth once he finally does show up in camp? Is he working with a personal trainer? Yeah, so he's essentially been sitting on his couch playing x-box and eating doritos. Or maybe he's been visiting the Institute of Higher Colonics. In any case, he's not likely to be on top of his game his first few matches back. Bunch of jerks. Oh, and I bring this up here, because we've been discussing whether or not our QUAKES! stood pat, or made improvements. I'm suggesting that el-lay regressed during this past off-season. Of course, if they do sign Lampard, I might have to change my assessment. GO QUAKES!!! - Mark
When Donovan gets back I think the only significant missing piece is SpiceBoy, and he wasn't all that great by the end anyway. And virtually any keeper is going to be an upgrade to Sanders. He was easily the weak link on that team. If they sign Lampard I think they will be improved over last year. Donovan, Lampard, and Keane would be really tough.
OK, but right now it looks like Chelsea have no intention of letting Lampard go, and SpiceBoy was important to the filth. And let's be clear, you're now saying that Dawkins was more important to us than SpiceBoy was to the filth? OK. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
Huh? Not sure why you're obsessed with how I feel about the Quakes losing Dawkins. That's not really the crux of my argument, as I've said several times already. I haven't even begun to compare LA's offseason to the Quakes. All I said is that they improved at GK, and if they get Lampard, they will be more improved. If I were an LA fan, I would have the same criticism as I have of the Quakes offseason. Not enough change, and as of right now, they've permanently lost a significant player whom they haven't replaced yet. Let's not be foolish though. They're going to make a big splash signing to replace Becks at some point in the season.
My point JJ, is that your big complaint about the Quakes is that we lost Dawkins over the off-season, and that we didn't make any big signings. I'm saying that the same is true for the filth, except that in their case, they lost SpiceBoy forever, and won't have Whinny Narcissus until the end of April (more or less). That's a huge hit to their team. I'll be surprised if their new GK is a significant upgrade over Saunders. Cudicini hasn't been a starter for years. Perhaps he's "tanned and rested," but at 39 he's not going to have the reflexes of a 29 year old. The Busch is 36 and we talk about him getting a bit old to be a starter, the filth are going to start a 39 year old who hasn't started in years. Yeah, I'm not impressed. Wasn't it you that was arguing that the filth, the flounders, and the saltlickers were all going to be improved and we were going to be worse? Or was that someone else? I think that all three of those teams have regressed, and we have stayed pretty much the same, except we've got more and better depth, and it looks like we swapped Dawkins for Bostock, which we cannot evaluate just yet. GO QUAKES!!! - Mark
Sigh...If you read through this thread, I was complaining about lack of significant change in the roster even before we knew we were losing Dawkins. I don't know how many more times I can make this point. It's not about Dawkins. It wouldn't be hard to find a GK upgrade to Saunders, 39 years old or not. But did you read my last post? I said that if I were an LA fan I'd be making the same complaints about lack of change in the roster, even assuming that LD comes back in April or whatever. I would consider Lampard for Becks to be an upgrade, but we don't know if it will happen. I would expect them to make a big splash DP signing before the year is out, but as it stands today I would be disappointed. I may have over-estimated the level of improvement that some teams are making. I don't look at it that closely. I see signings left and right and I get the impression that teams are making significant upgrades, or at least trying, but I don't know all the details. Portland certainly looks better - this DP Valeri guy looks good and they ditched that mostly useless Scottish striker guy. I think Houston has made some good additions. Bostock is still a big question mark - had a few good moments against Portland's scrubs, but looked very poor in the 1st half of the last game. Otherwise, the Quakes have made 0 marquee signings this year.
Jazzy you keep arguing about standing pat and blah blah. There's a salary cap. You can't just upgrade when and where you want. We can upgrade, within the cap.
Right, I've already addressed that. See first paragraph of this post. And the example I gave later in that post was trading Cronin for allocation money, maybe combining that with some other cap space that you might have and maybe signing a solid d-mid. I like Cronin, but I think that's a position that could possibly be upgraded if you make the right move. Again, this is all about risk-taking. No risk, no reward. You need to continually change and be innovative to stay on top, IMO - y'all don't have to agree .
As a d-mid, he's kind of so-so, not very fast and doesn't have much bite. Not a bad player though, sure. The "safe" and obvious play is to keep him. But what I'm suggesting is to not do the safe and obvious, because as Buzz Lightyear would say, "They'll be expecting that". :--) Rex: "Hey, guys, look! It's not the walls, it's the elevator!" Buzz: "Come on, we've got no time to lose. Everyone, grab hold!" Hamm: "Uh, Buzz, why not just take the elevator?" Buzz: "They'll be expecting that!" —Buzz leads the toys through the air vent