Revs Offseason News, 2012 (Part 1)

I don't see them making a move here. I would imagine next week is phase two. There they will probably make a move on at least one player

Are these declined options or are these players who were waived? Are they the same? I'm confused. Does this mean that we picked up Benny's option?

This is the waiver draft, not the Re-Entry Draft. Two entirely different things.

Per the MLS website, these players were waived, they didn't have their "options declined."

Seems that imbongo won the battle over BB for big forward that bangs around without scoring

Am I the only one who finds it odd that no other MLS team has added a player this offseason, yet the Revs have added two? Shocked.

I like this signing if he was indeed brought in to be DM. He may be able to play CB in an emergency, but I'd like to see him played in his natural position. Definitely the physical presence we were missing at times last season.

Here's the list of available players in the Waiver Draft.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/11/19/mls-hold-waiver-draft-monday-330-pm-et

There's a lot of junk here and really the best you can hope for is to pick up some cheap, useful depth. Does Carlos Rodriguez come cheap? Luna and Hertzog are projects that may be worthwhile. Solli could be useful depth for someone, although I don't think he fits the Revs' positional needs.

Not much to be excited about, but that's no surprise. It's the Waiver Draft.

Charles Renken is interesting. He's played for every US U-whatever team and is only 18. Not sure what he did this past season. Looks like he didn't play first team at all in Portland.

Hertzog makes $100k. I'd be interested in him, but not at the pricetag.

Charles Renken is an interesting option who doesn't make nearly as much money. If we're going to continue to have empty roster spots we should take a flier on a young, inexpensive reclamation project like Renken.

Renken has had multiple knee injuries and I think he's cooked, unfortunately. He was dropped by Hoffenheim, he never even made the bench for a bad Portland team in 2012, and he hasn't drawn any interest from Tab Ramos at the U-20 level. You can't say for sure unless you've watched him with the reserves (I haven't), but contextually it doesn't look good.

Agreed. I'm not 100% sure how it works, but I think players taken in the Waiver Draft aren't subject to the same salary protections afforded to those in the Re-Entry Draft. I'm assuming that most of these guys are available at essentially the league minimum.

In any case, I'd be surprised if more than a small handful of players were taken today.

Valid points. I haven't seen him at all with Portland, but their fans seemed to want to keep him. I think he'd be a better option to fill out a roster than the usual guy who will never contribute to the first team.

I agree that I'd rather have a long-term project who has upside (and a decent chance of never reaching his potential) than a never-gonna-be like Mike Roach. I'm just not sure that Renken in particular is the best choice for that sort of role.

My guess is that Renken has become Portland's version of Brandon Manzonelli. At one point, he was highly regarded and although the context of the situation doesn't look good, he's been out of sight so no one can say for sure -- and the dream lives on. (Renken was a much better prospect in his day than Manzonelli, but it's the same concept).

Manzonelli was cut and hasn't been heard from since. I hope that Renken can land on his feet and surprise us, but he would be neither the first nor the last player to have a promising future yanked out from under him by the injury bug.

He's a Generation Adidas player, though.

Yeah, I'm not really sure how the contract would work out in his situation. You usually don't see a GA player being cut.

It's New York, they do stupid things all the time. No way he's losing GA, he's barely played any MLS games.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/es/news/article/2012/11/19/webeando-fútbol-¿martínez-los-revs

Revs in talks with Honduran International, El Pery Martinez as aforementioned. He's a free agent right now.

Thanks for the heads up. Is Martinez any good in your estimation?

If it's this 30 y/old guy, who has 3 goals in 29 appearances for his 2nd division Chinese team, color me less than enthused. Although, 12 goals in 40 nat'l team appearances is decent production.

Yea thats him.. isn't a forward tbh.. never was, never will be. He was always a second striker, attacking midfielder. Really fast, experienced and plays similar to Marvin Chavez.

Yeah, I pretty much wouldn't turn my nose up at anyone who plays regularly for Honduras.

I'm not sure if he's played since last World Cup. I don't remember him playing in any qualifiers recently.

nope.. he's been marginalized because he plays all the way in China, but if he does play in the MLS as he has been in China for years now, he'll be back in the fold.