Spot on. It looks like Burns and Heaps have really developed a solid core for the future. It's a little too early to jump to conclusions and say they've been successful in rebuilding this team, but it certainly looks like they've got a good core for the foreseeable future. I think we're still considerably under the cap; I'd love for us to go out and add a DP CAM or striker.
I thought about Alston but decided not to include him. He'll definitely play a lot of minutes this year, but I don't think he's going to be a continuing "core" contributor long-term. Despite still being young, he's a 5-year MLS vet now, a known quantity that I think even the Revs now realize is too lacking in elements of his game to be a major part of the plans. His quality 1-on-1 defending has always been mitigated by the fact he can't actually *kick the ball* to save his life - he's a poor passer and even worse shooter (1 goal in all appearances, which is subpar even for a defender), and Heaps' "system" (at least the ideal version of it) requires attacking contribution from the fullbacks to be truly effective. His defending has also regressed - the mental lapses have gotten more frequent and watching the games last year, I felt he was responsible for a lot of the goals blamed on Soares/McCarthy. Farrell was drafted and Hunter Freeman's rights were acquired because the Revs know Alston isn't the answer for his spot on the field. Nyassi wasn't listed by me for reasons that are obvious, and Polak wasn't listed because we haven't really seen him play and plenty of GAs end up amounting to nothing (like, for example, Nico Colaluca, who saw 0 minutes of playing time in 2010 for maybe the least-talented Revs team of all time).
For all the grief we get about the MLSPA salary figures not being accurate, this chart is pretty telling. The Revs are, by far, the lowest payroll in the league. Under $2.3 M, while the next four lowest are all around $2.9M. Sad.
Kevin Alston is definitely good enough to play outside back on an MLS Cup contending team. He is limited, but is the type of player that plays better when surrounded by better players. His best year was probably 2009, or maybe this past year, where he had better players around him. I'm not going to say Kevin Alston is an all-star, but he is definitely good enough to play in this system, and for a team worthy of competing in MLS Cup. In a 4-3-3 system (4-2-3-1 or whatever you want to maintain a freeflowing system), the outside back doesn't need to be able to shoot, or cross. He is a better passer of the ball than you give him credit for. His short range passing is adequate. In this system he only needs to be able to stretch out a defense with his speed, and contribute to building up the ball along the sideline. He will be relatively cheap for a while, and he is still young, the Revs should hopefully keep him as a part of their core for a few more seasons.
Soccer Doc and rkupp will find a way to argue against these statistics. Something like, "look at SKC and SJ, they're not spending that much more than us..."
Not sure this discussion belongs in this thread, but since it was posted here... I found this to be pretty interesting. And I'm not really sure what it tells us. In all seriousness, isn't the FO's job to win. So LA wins the Cup .. and they're in the bottom half on front office efficiency? And I won't even get into the payroll because I'm sick of the same people continuing to say that "we're spending as much as others!"
I'm not sure what Doc will say, but rkupp will definitely try to tell us that 2.3 isn't that much lower than 2.8. When, in fact, it is a significant difference.
I agree, points only have value in that they get you into the playoffs (and a shot at the Cup). There should be a penalty in the ratings for not getting enough points to qualify for the playoffs, no matter how "efficient" you are with your payroll.
That's what happens when you dump 1/3 of your payroll halfway through the season. We wasted a huge chunk of our budget last season. We essentially had 3 DPs on the books with full max salary hits. Jerry Bengtson didn't do much and was away with Honduras all the time. Shalrie ended up benched and traded. Feilhaber ended up benched. Collectively, those players accounted for 1/3 of the money we could actually spend. They left 2 million dollars in budget to spend on the other 15-17 players on the squad. Of that remaining money, we wasted almost half a million on players we cut. Ultimately, we had $1.5 million to fill out the on-budget roster. That means that the remaining 15-17 players earned an average of around $88,000 to $100,000. We need to do better than that this year.
Or, the could account for the fact that we pissed away our budget paying portions of Shalrie's, Lozano's and Moreno's salaries. We may have only been paying 2.2 million to our rostered players at the end of the season, but we used nearly all of our budget and still only came away with 35 points.
Delete for not being positive (Here's my points to Supporter's Shield Champion... Looks like San Jose won...I think their coaching and FO were pretty efficient and I don't need some mumbo jumbo to tell me so. And considering we were 4th from the bottom and 1-2 spots away from relegation. Any FO efficiency that someone came up with, means diddly squat! Now..let's hope that the Revs foray into the "CHEAP and DRAFT" to gain employees on the field of play works. I'm hoping for a quality Striker to add to Sene and Jerry..but, talking tactics isn't something I like to do while Bob Kraft and Sonny still ignore this team and so does the media. If we have 10 points after 5 games I'll be ecstatic, giddy and all those fuzzy feelings we should be having for a team we Love. I only wish the ownership took the same liking..!!) Wow! Interesting. 4th Highest efficiency! Awesome! Great!
Yes, but someone posted a "positive" that wasn't positive. We don't have an efficient FO or salary budget. That $2.3 million number is a massive red herring. It doesn't include the $.7 million we spent on Shalrie, Lozano, Moreno, White, Bjorn, Mansally, and Boggs.
Amazing case of mind-f**king with numbers mixing apple, oranges and buckshot. Without more breakdown of the data this analysis is FUBAR The only statistic that means anything to me is points per game in relationship to the rest of the league. How the team does that can vary, Some people say spending more money will results in more PPG---see Toronto IMO what matters the most in getting PPG is good players selection and good coaching. The results will tell you if they have done that well----see KC Ho
Nope, but if you look at other teams, they don't waive nearly as many high profile and expensive players. Look at the eastern conference and the players shed by each team mid season (not including transfers outside MLS). Sporting KC - 2 Houston - 0 Chicago - 2 DC United - 0 Montreal - 6 ($230,000 wasted) NY - 5 ($200,000 wasted) Philadelhpia - ($280,000 wasted) Toronto - 4 ($470,000 wasted) Revs - 7 ($700,000 wasted) We managed to waste more of our salary budget than Toronto.
Mansally: $80k * .25 = $20k Runstrom: $80k * .5 = $40k White: $44k * .5 = $15k Lozano: $240k * 1/2 = $120k Shalrie Joseph: $370k * 2/3 = $246k Moreno: $150k Boggs: $44k Total: $644k The $700k included salaries of guys we waived after training camp (like Schilawski). You can correct the $700k number in my post if you'd like.
The problem of course is that not all of those guys actually would have counted against the cap (only 20 players do). Also, as a DP, SJ only cost $350k. But thanks for the response, makes more sense now, even if I still disagree with the basic concept.