The "Thoughts That Don't Require Their Own Thread" Thread XI

Red flag indeed. Donnie played in less games for Rochester in 2016 (1) than in 2014 (8) and is 26....don't see him making it. Jordan played in one game for Rochester in 2016. I would think a 1st round draft pick would be able to get more starts, so I'm assuming he isn't good.

So if the revs are going to spend salary on four "projects," they need to cut the dead weight and get younger guys in. Matt Turner and Zachary I'm fine with. Donnie has got to go....put his salary towards someone else.

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Aren't there guys in the Revs Academy who are going off to play college soccer somewhere, or is it an either/or situation? If they are going to just rot on the bench, what's the difference between having them go to college and play (and get a degree) or go to a USL/NASL club to get minutes?

And they need to find guys minutes, period. There is zero sense in keeping a guy like Turner around if he can go to Richmond or wherever to be the regular GK. When are the Revs going to figure it out that, even if they can't/won't spring for their own reserve team, the very lesat they need to do is cultivate a relationship with more than one USL/NASL club, so they can find a place for the young guys to get minutes.

And welcome, Forzamilano10! Good to see some new people joing in the discussion.

 

Its a both situation. You look for Rev academy grad freshman and sophomores that are maybe top 5%-10% performers in college and sign them. Example, players X goes to Syracuse and starts all games as a freshman, and scouts believe he is special. Maybe player X is a Caldwell or Herivaux and already signed, maybe not.

My assumption is being loaned to a USL or NASL team is better for a players development. This loan out instead of continuing college option would be for a very small percentage of players that have played for the revs academy in the past. You would look for players who are outperforming their college and conference, someone like Chris Arling who scored 15 goals as a sophomore at UNH. So his junion year he can cont killing it at UNH, transfer to a better soccer school, or sign with the revs and either learn from coaches/players in training or gain match exp in the USL/NASL. Again, my assumption is he will develop faster and perhaps increase his ceiling if he plays/trains professionally.

 

There was a recent article where Heaps was quoted as saying this is a "big year" for Donnie Smith. Take it with a grain of salt but in context of this discussion I take it to mean he will see minutes at LB, or maybe even on the wing.

As for McCrary he's been cut already by the revs so we can call that one a loss.

 

Or, to be fair, which father is tighter with the purse strings.

 

Which would be really embarrassing considering he could only get on the field for one USL game. The revs depth is so poor that a 27 year old, who couldn't get on the field for a USL team, gets caps for an MLS team.

Also, wouldn't any other player on that Rochester team, who played 10 or more games, be a better backup than Donnie? How much do Rochester's starters make?

 

I think the Revs players' failings in Rochester is more because the Rhinos couldn't count on them being there the whole season. Didn't want to invest playing time into him if he could be yanked back immediately. Then all of a sudden you're stuck with a LB who hasn't played at all.

 

To be fair, Donnie didn't ride the bench for Rochester. He was loaned to them for one game, then brought back to the Revs. Different from 2014.

 

Or which GM is able to make a better case to convince him to open said purse strings.

 

Really, some fans are okay with that? Somehow I have the feeling you're taking my comments out of context.

I did say that maybe Heaps didn't want to loan some players out because he preferred to have them train with the team. I never said I was okay with that. Did someone else?

It would be nice to know ahead of signing if a player is good enough, but often that's not possible (especially in MLS, which is significantly different than most other leagues, and therefore tougher to predict who will fit in and who won't).

FWIW, I totally agree that it is huge problem that the Revs don't have a reasonable playing option for their young/lesser-used players.

Keeping Donnie Smith isn't investing a lot of money or preventing the Revs from finding/adding someone else. I don't see any reason not to keep him. He's actually looked pretty good in the few opportunities he has gotten to play.

There are plenty of reasons why someone wouldn't play more on a loan - I wouldn't read too much into that. Why wouldn't the coach want to invest his playing time in players he knows belong the club and can't be withdrawn at any time? His own roster is likely to get pretty resentful if they are constantly benched in favor of some other club's players. If those players are significantly better, that's one thing, but if they aren't it just leads to dissension.

In Smith's case, most of his career the issue has been injuries. The Revs must think that he can get past that, otherwise they wouldn't be pushing him as Tierney's backup.

 

Or, maybe it could be a matter of cultivating a relationship with another club where it can actually benefit both parties. But that takes effort and maybe some money.

 

On the Revs new secondary jersey it says "Est. 1996" - weren't they actually established in 1995?

 

10/17/95 to be specific

 

Ok this is a bit of an insomnia-driven pedantic rant but I had to share it. I was out on the roster page on the revs website and noticed some glaring and extremely annoying inconsistencies with how they identified where the players were from.

For example, some American players had their state listed (Wellesley, MA) and others didn't (Park Ridge). Then it's inconsistent even with players that are from Massachusetts - Tierney has his state listed but Herivaux does not (Brookline). Then sometimes they use the postal code abbreviation for a state (MA) and other times they write (Mass). Sloppy and amateur.

Even Woodberry and Nguyen were both born in McKinney, Texas but one has McKinney and the other has McKinney, Texas.

There were also inconsistencies between place of birth vs where they grew up. For example, Femi was born in Benin, Africa but had "Goshen" listed (no state) which is fine since he has lived in the States awhile, until he gets called in to the Benin national team, then people who don't know where he is from may be confused. Same thing with Teal. He was born in Canada but has his Minnesota town listed. Fagundez was born in Uruguay but has Leominster listed. Watson was born in St. Catherine Parish, Jamaica according to his wiki page but they listed "May Pen" (no country) for him. If we want to go with "place he grew up" vs "place of birth" that's fine, just be consistent.

Indeed, Femi wasn't alone; for several other internationals, they didn't bother putting the country the player was from (for Kei they just list Kenema - up to us to figure out he's from Sierra Leone). I guess they assume we are all geography buffs or would see a place like Kouassi's "San-Pedro" without Ivory Coast and go "of course! San-Pedro!"

It's maybe a small thing to some but as a guy who has managed content across many websites and gets paid for accuracy and consistency, I noticed it. Most people would.

The point is, it's important to be consistent and professional rather than sloppy and amateurish. Inconsistencies just scream "I don't care". Then again, when it comes to the revs, lazy, sloppy and amateurish should be expected. Sigh.

 

You get what you pay for. Free Interns...

 

San Pedro? Isn't that the place in the Dominican Republic where half the MLB shortstops come from? Or maybe it's in California. Wait, isnt every town in California is San Something-or-other?

 

San Pedro de Macoris, if I remember correctly.

RKK's home is in Brookline, so maybe he didn't want Revs fans to know where it is.

 

I assume that most have heard the news.

ICYMI, D.C. United has finally been cleared by city to build a stadium https://t.co/GxAHsS3HDP #dcu #mls

— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) February 17, 2017

D.C. United stadium approved, groundbreaking Feb. 27 with @MurielBowser and @thesoccerdon. Full story to come shortly ... #dcu #mls

— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) February 17, 2017

Leicester City wins Premier League.
Cubs win World Series.
D.C. United will build a stadium.

— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) February 17, 2017

Not going anywhere for awhile? D.C. United's 13-year stadium timeline, by the headline https://t.co/4hOHLFetj0 #dcu #mls

— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) February 17, 2017

 

*sigh*

 

But the Krafts are "strongly committed"

 

I found the Revs anthem - start at 3:32

 

So was Hannibal Lector...... a bed of Fava beans for us all the way round.

 

Boston Celtics taking temporary custody of the #StandPat hashtag today on Twitter.

It is funny/sad (but not actually funny) to observe all the angst of Celtics fans today. Now many of them at least are beginning to partially understand what it is like to be a Revs fan as a roster deadline approaches. Every time.

It stinks to be a Celtics fan today, and I am one of those in addition to being a Revs fan.

 

Why have just one Heap'ing dose of misery when you can have two ?