2016 Roster Thread

I have made the command decision that we should have a separate 2016 roster thread. Orlando Rays may disagree with me and take it down.

I plan to update this post or add another post with my guesses on who will stay or go. We still have a couple of weeks to go in the season, but things will start to happen fast and furious as soon as the season is over. Preseason starts in only four months!

2015 Ending Roster
Ashe D $180,000
Avila M $72,000
Bedell F $60,000
Boden D $75,000
Carrasco M $80,750
Cascio M $78,529
Ceren M $66,000
Collin D $500,000
Conor D $80,000
Edwards GK $50,000
Ford GK $60,000
Hall GK $215,000
Heath M $60,000
Higuita M $60,000
Hines D $108,576
Kaka M $6,660,000
Lameira M $50,000 (Estrela)
Larin F $125,000
Mateos D $300,000
Molino M $100,000
Mwanga F $75,000
Neal M $112,500
Ramos D $50,000
Redding D $85,000
Ribeiro M $60,000
Rivas M $60,000
Rivera F $50,000
Rochez F $200,000
Shea M-D $475,000
Turner D $60,000
Winter M $180,000

I went with salary vs total compensation. I'm not really sure which counts towards the cap, nor have I calculated how close we are to the cap, but I suspect it is close.

 

I believe this thread can involve all manner of roster discussion, including reasonably possible signings. I'll leave that to your interpretation.

 

LOL

 

I'm not so sure, if only because I could easily see him retiring. Clearly the gaffer sees coaching potential there. I'm somewhat surprised Neal didn't get one of the coaching gigs handed out recently. Whenever it happens I expect Neal to retire a Lion and likely move into the organization somewhere.

And if he is on the roster, I really hope sanity prevails by next season. If Winter sticks around and Molino returns better than ever, there should not be room to put Neal regularly into the starting XI. Personally, I think even Avila brings more to the table than Neal at this point in their respective careers.

On a side note, I'm bummed I no longer have the inside connection with the club I had a couple of years ago.

 

Let's just say it was a mutual parting of the ways. I used to get a few very interesting tidbits from time to time, but probably nothing I should share on here.

For different reasons I could see both Avila and Ribeiro coming back.

Ribeiro is still a young guy, and I actually think he shows some promise in Kaka's spot. In the case of both players, though, you have to consider the depth of the roster and their role. The roster size sits at 28 players. We currently have something close to that number of players. What I expect to see happen next year is some of those players sent down to the USL team. We will add some draft picks, but most of those would be candidates for USL duty also.

I could easily see the team adding two or three veterans and still have room somewhere on the 28 man roster for Avila and Ribeiro, probably more Ribeiro because of his relative youth. You need guys that can come in a play a role. What you hope is that your top 16 or 18 are quality players without much dropoff from the Starting XI and you don't have to reach much deeper than that. But if Ribeiro is the 21st or 22nd guy on your roster, then you are doing ok.

 

All kinds of ways to attack this. The tight salary cap presents all sorts of issues that other US sports don't have.

Overall Impressions: With two games to go the team is playing it's best soccer of the season. Overall the team is just barely outside the playoff run, having consolidated a bunch of players that had never played together and never played in the MLS. All this, with the team suffering perhaps the most games lost due to injury and international play in the entire league. We should be able to assume that with a more "normal" course of injuries the team is easily a playoff team. Factor in that this is amongst the youngest teams in the league, if not the youngest, and an overall theme of "stay the course" seems to emerge. That said, there are always plenty of opportunities to improve the roster, and the summer transfer window saw a few changes already.

The first group of players to look at, I think, are those that are almost locks to stay. By position, it goes something like this:

GK - Hall, Edwards.

This is a slam dunk. I would almost put the inexpensive Josh Ford in this group, but the team could find another keeper in the draft, or find a cheap veteran to act as #2 and send Edwards for USL duty to get more playing time. Obviously the team loves both keepers, and Edwards being cheap means there are no decisions to make.

DEFENSE

Ramos, Collin, Mateos, Shea, Boden, *Donovan

More interesting. I believe that the team is looking for one more year out of Collin even though he is very expensive. Paying Mateos the high salary they are, it is almost a no brainer he is a keeper. The downside is that a lot of salary it two players, but Mateos has played very well after a rough start the first couple of games and he and Collin already seem on the same page. Ramos is young, cheap and effective. It will be necessary to ensure there is at least one other player on the roster that can play RB given his uneven nature and the fact that Turner isn't there yet and Avila proved that wasn't such a good idea either. That guy could be Shea, or it could be Ashe. I put Shea here because I don't think Boden is a guy that should start 30 games at LB, and I believe the team will ensure there are plenty of options up top next year. Don't despair Boden fans, I expect he will stick around. He gives the team a legit replacement if Shea is out, and also lets Shea move to RB or up top if needed.

CDM - Ceren, Higuita, Carrasco

In Heath's system, it is critical to have two of these guys with a specific skill set. I still have no idea why Okugo did not work out, but Carrasco has surprisingly proven he can be the third wheel here very effectively. This is important because by the nature of the position and by the way they play, Ceren and Higuita will miss games here and there even when not on national team duty.

To Be Continued...

 

I don't know that Heath will be doing too much of the scouting anymore. The coaching demands at the MLS level are much higher. But it seems from comments made throughout the year that the team intends to try and continue to sign young South American talent. It fits the culture in Orlando, and they consider those to be value signings.

 

Really I should have said Central and South America. Ceren and Rivas come to mind immediately. They have some good players in some of those countries but the leagues don't pay that well. The MLS has been largely ignoring those countries, and I hope they continue to do so. Brazil, Mexico and to a lesser extent Columbia are the primary league competitive with the MLS on salary. Easier to win those battles than the battles for European players.

 

There will certainly be some changes, and the USL team will absorb a few youngsters and open a couple of spots. Redding has already been announced as going to OCB.

 

I see no need to give the youngsters time. We've learned what we needed to already.

We are Orlando. We play to win. It's who we are.

 

Continuing my roster thoughts after life intruded for a few days.

Forward - Larin, Rochez

I went here next because it is pretty simple. Larin and Rochez stay, Larin probably starts. Mwanga is gone, Ribeiro either sticks as cheap depth or he could be gone also kind of ability. The biggest need here is a veteran, someone like Arrietta that Orlando drafted and then traded away because the team thought it had an abundance of players at the position. It is possible the team could bring in a DP here and let Larin/Rochez learn behind him. But I think the likely scenario is a veteran to back up Larin and give Rochez some games at the USL level when all three are healthy. I wouldn't be surprised to see Ribeiro stick around to be the fifth guy behind those three and then Rivas as number three or four. Ribeiro doesn't look like a starter, but he is smart enough and works hard enough to be have a small impact over the course of a season even in limited minutes. You gotta have a few guys like that to have good depth.