Seattle's selects Sturgis , Nate Jaqua & 8 Others... Real Salt Lake: Seattle's selects Sturgis [SIZE=-1]Deseret News, UT Wow SSFC goes for youth. [/SIZE] Here's more.. Major League Soccer Releases Results of 2008 Expansion Draft [SIZE=-1]OurSports Central (press release), WI [/SIZE]
Re: The Expansion Draft Thread Maybe Seattle hopes he goes overseas and they get allocation money for losing him?
Re: Seattle's selects Sturgis and Nate Jaqua & 8 Others... Wow is Seattle lost, they had a chance to get Johann Smith from Toronto, but instead choose Jarrod Smith. Do they plan to keep those butts in the seats after season 1. Choosing Jarrod Smith over Johann Smith is an early sign of : NO.
Re: The Expansion Draft Thread Vagenas has the Sigi connection from the LA days but even still - he is a mediocre at best d-mid with a high price tag - I am sure that LA is happy to have his salary off its books. Jarrod Smith is the real surprise - he probably was not on anybody's mock draft short list and it seemed as if there were lots of better options out there.
Re: The Expansion Draft Thread They only get allocation $ if a transfer fee is paid by the new team - being a free agent, he can sign overseas and Seattle does not get any $.
Re: Seattle's selects Sturgis and Nate Jaqua & 8 Others... I'm surprised they took Pete Vaginas over McManus or DaiRamando from Colorado who are younger, cheaper and have a future in MLS while Pete only has a past.
Re: The Expansion Draft Thread Remember though, that the expansion draft allows teams to renegotiate contracts. I imagine they will be asking Vagenas to take a pay cut.
Re: Seattle's selects Sturgis and Nate Jaqua & 8 Others... McManus is closer in age to Pete (3 years) than DiRaimondo (5 years).
Re: Seattle's selects Sturgis and Nate Jaqua & 8 Others... Any chance that they worked a side deal with LA? LA needed salary cap relief... Perhaps its something like you take Pete and we'll throw in a draft pick (theoretically this could be done in any # of ways). I know that when the NFL draft expanded, some teams cut deals with the expansion teams to select certain players for salary or other reasons...
Re: The Expansion Draft Thread last years salary King- 17,900 (a steel of a deal, young, surprised not to see Prideaux, but with Riley available that saves 50K, I see why now) Evans- 33,000 (at the fraction of the price of Gaven I understand why, though that would have been my splurge) Jaqua- 156,000 (guess it had to happpen, probably worth the $$, as far as starting strikers go he is cheap) Wahl- 33,000 (A starter from a playoff team, young guy has upside, been around and groomed for a while, wasn't until N. Garcia left (or made redundant) did he get his chance alongside Conrad) Vagenas- 144,000 (Don't understand why, I guess he is the veteran on the team, Sigi knows him.) K. Smith- 46,305 (Would have picked Thompson, cheap midfeilder, cheap shot, will miss first game with red card suspension.) Parke- 57,488 (May have to splurge on the renewal, He solidifies a backline.) Sturgis- 75,000 (Injury prone, potential is there maybe, he has been around a lot of sidlines, did he play under Sigi in LA?) Riley- 33,000 (totally overlooked him, a bargain defender, been to some cups with NE) J. Smith- 36,000 (don't really know about him, he is cheap though) Draft Total: $574,205 Keller- (league max???) -415,000 Ljunberg- (league max) -415,000 Letoux- 84,000 Nyassi- 33,000 Total 2008 salary: 1,521,205 Cap 2.1mill??? sounds reasonable. $578,795 left 6 spots left on senior roster + 4 developmental spots (do dev. count against cap?) Thats an average salary of 96,465 left for the 6 senior roster spots. On the bottom line of things it looks like a well managed draft.
Re: Seattle's selects Sturgis and Nate Jaqua & 8 Others... They make the same base salary as well. Weird, but happy weird 'round these parts. He's not the worst player ever, he works hard, but when we could have used him the most due to international call-ups, he was always one of the ones called up for NZ. Jarrod is sure to be in the running for worst haircut on the team though, so enjoy that Seattle.
Ok so I see Seattle took James Riley but in the list posted by MLSNET he is not on the list as taken nor is San Jose listed as one of the teams left untouched. Does this mean a behind the scene deal has gone down? Trade made to another team already?
For the most part, I think that draft is a loser. Though many (7/10) of the picks were on most everyone's radar (Jaqua, Evans, Parke, Wahl, King, Sturgis, K. Smith), it seems there were more talented options available from nearly every team, except for Sturgis and Parke. And one of those is injury prone, and the other a free agent. When I take a look at the roster as a whole, nothing scares me, at any position. Then throw in the inexplicable picks (Vagenas, Jarrod Smith) and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense as a whole, even though individually, most of the picks are pretty solid. I just thought they would take a flier on a couple more big talent players (Flores, Pappa, Gaven, Johann Smith, Ashe), or 1 or 2 trade bait players (Hartman, O'Brien, Cooke). Anyway, here's my breakdown, pick by pick. Per Goff and Clint, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. And the OK. The Good. 1) Nathan Sturgis (RSL). Best upside on RSL's list and a bright young prospect who can play CM or CB. Good anchor for years to come. Only drawback, injuries. 2) Nate Jaqua (HOU). Though I believe he's overrated and benefits from defenses being more worried about the Dynamo's other threats (Ching, DeRo, Davis, Holden) he is still a solid player and good target man. He should start. The Bad. 1) Jeff Parke (NY). Good above average CB, and would be a good pick. IF they can sign him. If the chances of signing him were good, why would NY leave him exposed? Maybe Seattle knows something I don't, I hope for their sakes they do. If he suits up, this pick is a good one. 2) James Riley (SJ). Not that Riley is a bad player, but why dip into the SJ at all, when CHV has three good players available (Vaughn, Rojas, Razov) who are all better? 3) Khano Smith (NE). At least there is some upside here. But is inconsistent and has attitude problems. If I was going to take a flier on a speedy left sided player, I would have went Johann Smith (TFC). Even inside NE, Badilla or Thompson could have been better. Still, maybe BAD is a stretch here. The Ugly 1) Peter Vagenas (LA). Over Franklin? Or why pick from LA at all? Ugh. Plus, if you wanted him that bad, why not take Hartman from KC and trade for him, heck, I bet you could have got Vagenas AND Franklin (EDIT: I mean Randolph!, oops!). Chivas is also in need of a keeper, and Flores and Vaughn sounds good (one or the other). EDIT: (Thanks Trickhog!) I meant to say Randolph, not Franklin) 2) Jarrod Smith (TFC). Not Johann Smith? Still hoping its a typo. As are Seattle fans. Still, Velez and Ricketts both seem to have more upside. And if you wanted to bring in a Sigi favorite, why not Ruiz? 3) EDIT: Nothing form COL or CHV (Cooke, Kimura, Petke, DeRaimondo, Erpen, Burciaga, Flores, Razov, Vaugn) while picking from LA and SJ. The OK. All these guys are OK, but the upside is limited. 1) Brad Evans (CLB). I like Brad, and he improved as the year went on, but as a Crew fan, I'm happy to still have Gaven, Moffat (who was the starter before injury) and Lenhart. 2) Stpehn King (CHI). Again, a decent player, but I think Fire fans are more than happy to still have their starting RB (Prideaux) and Pappa. Not to mention Marmol. 3) Tyson Wahl (KC). Again, a solid player who started at the end of the year, but I think they could have picked Hartman, then dealt with LA or CHV (or KC) and still gotten equal or better value (EDIT: Randolph (not Franklin), Flores, Vaugn). Flame away.
Re: The Expansion Draft Thread If they are paying Keller anywhere near the league max, they are truly insane. Truly.
Yes, on the Galaxy boards we were thinking that if any Galaxy player got picked, it would probably be Mike Randolph.