Union In-Season Player Rumors & Movement 2013/14

I wouldn't be surprised that if at some point the Union grab an overseas striker.

 

Who else would a team give up their top spot for? The only players worth giving up an allocation spot are Amobi, Nogs, and Edu. I won't give any of them up. MacMath is arguable if the team needs a keeper.

 

Al O'Cayshun............... Didn't we give Vancouver a stack to obtain top billing to get Soumare two seasons ago?

 

I'd assume we have given most of it up to keep Nogs from being a DP.

Also, when we traded we had a higher allocation spot. We are either at the end of the line or near it now. The team we trade with probably won't be able to pickup a player this year without trading up themselves.

 

I feel we could trade Williams (or Gaddis) and Casey and get good enough value to sign a solid forward.

 

Williams or Gaddis might work. I just want the defensive depth.

 

Whats Defensive depth? Im not too familiar with that.

 

We swapped from a higher spot.

To put it into context, it's easier to trade up to the top spot from the 5th spot in a draft than it is is from the 25th pick in the draft.

Right now, we are in the back of the line.

 

http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/April 1, 2014 Salary Information - By Club.pdf

Salary/comp info released - highlights in terms of guaranteed comp:

6 Figure Club
Edu $650K
Nogueira $330K
LeToux $263K
Wenger $242K
Okugo $228K
Maidana $199K
Casey $193K
Carroll $185K
Cruz $132K
Williams $131K
MacMath $120K
Blake $113K
Berry $102K
Fabinho $101K


Others
Bone $51K
Fred $65K
Fernandes $49K
Gaddis $52K
Hernandes $74K
Holt $49K
Marquez $37K
McLaughlin $75K
Pfeffer $85K
Ribeiro $37K
Wheeler $49K
White $80K


Alumni
Daniel $91K
McInerney $294K
Valdes $295K

 

Doesn't that confirm Edu is our only DP then?

 

Hope Leo gets his contract renegotiated soon. Definitely should not be making the same salary as the 3rd string keeper.

 

No - Maidana had a $400K or so transfer fee for his 2 year contract so it gets added to his comp to likely just cross over into DP land. The team likely bought down Nogueira's transfer fee via allocation $ to keep his total $ under DP level since a 3rd DP spot would have been some out of pocket $ for the FO just to get the spot.

 

This isn't Cruz hate, but going by that list, I would say he is over valued at this point. His money jumps out compared to some others on the team. I also agree with @Tyr, that some of the younger guys need to start seeing some minutes or whats the point.

 

A few comments about the $:

* the McInerney - Wenger $ have flipped in terms of who is te bigger salary budget hit - Wenger comp is $242K, McInerney comp is $299K with the 2015 option putting him just under DP $. Based on his recent annual comp going from $190K in 2013 to $294K in 2014 - he likely woud be making $390K or so in 2015.

* with HGs making $20K - $50K more than recent college grads like Gaddis, Fernandes, Ribeiro and Marquez - haev to wonder if the team will not rush to sign another McLaughlin or Hernandez.

* Cruz and Lahoud are pricey veteran depth - Berry's $102K pushed him out of the door in Chicago as he was going to be a reserve CB for them.

* LeToux is making some big $ - Sak is still paying the price for letting Nowak ship him out of town

* Nogueira really wanted to come to the USA - his salary is below market

* MacMath is making less comp ($120K) this year than last year ($155K)

* Fernandes and Gaddis are likely calling their agents right now

 

I didn't realize Valdes was still on the books. That's a big hit.

 

San Lorenzo is likely paying all of his salary but there are instances like the Union/Edu and Union/Kleberson deals in which the Union pays part of of contract's wages and the other team picks up the rest of the salary per the player's contract with Stoke/Bahia.

No - allocation can go towards buying down salary budget hits for a player but if the allocation $ went directly towards the a player - they would be as useful as:

 

4) Cut back on the shrimp order.

 

Do you mean that some of the transfer fee going to the player? Possible, I suppose, but wouldn't make a big difference in his being underpaid.

Wasn't he asking for even more before being traded and then being mediocre? While I agree he is overpaid for his quality, I was under the impression that part of why he was traded was due to his salary demands coming off good years in Philly.

 

If we're talking about overvalued, Hernandes, Pfeffer, and McLaughlin are all making about $25K more than your starting whichever-back, Raymon Gaddis. Which is absolutely criminal for any number of reasons.

 

Gaddis is underpaid, for sure. It's great to get value out of a guy under $60k, but as a consistent starter over the last couple of seasons, you'd hope he gets a bump. There's a lot of overvalued guys on the bench at other positions so that really jumps out.

 

I hate to sound, I dunno, mean or tight fisted, but whenever these reports come out there is a rush to look at the outliers and deem them vastly overpaid/underpaid. SHip out the overpaid cause they're bums! And, to my ear sounds even odder, give that guy a raise. If we raise all the underpaid guys just cause we're feeling sorry, it destroys the whole "we've got a steal in ____" argument. Let's say you paid Gaddis $100k, then what? His on the wrong foot and inability to accurately cross looks worse vs he's the plucky underpaid but tenacious defender in a bowtie narrative we have now. It would also push the team towards the cap we're always hearing so much whinging about. Cruz was overpaid relative to his performance last year when he saw the pitch for 2500 minutes. I'm just as happy to pay him that and not let him in the IIXX (why isn't that the way to say 18?). He's now overpaid vs when he was the plucky underpaid but hard trier at $70/90k. I still remember one of the talking heads like Twellman drop something like "can't understand how a talent like Cruz is on his 3rd team in 3 years". Just watch him a bit TT, and you'll wonder why he hasn't moved onto his 4th in 4. Now he's too pricey, but someone will think they're shrewd and get the U to pick up half and take him as value depth and we'll complain how we're still paying for that stiff.

That's the lifecycle of an MLS player right there. Due to injury or trade, some kid gets a shot, holds onto it and everyone thinks he's a tremendous value. After a year he gets a bump, everyone's figured out how to play against him and he gets moved onto the next team with the former subsidizing the move. Two years later they're on the local broadcast team...

 

I think any MLS player who starts or subs regularly should be making a minimum of $75-$85K - it's a very moderate, non-capbusting number. Any starter like Ray who's making significantly less than that is underpaid, regardless of whether or not there are flaws in their game.