2008 Other Team's News, Thread IV [R]

I know he's already come out and said MLS wasn't really an option but Stephen Appiah is trying to impress at Spurs: Guardian. A step down?

 

http://thelagalaxy.blogspot.com/2009/01/galaxy-acquire-additional-third-round.html
Bruce trades a guy that is not even on the team! love it

 

Got it covered:

 

I saw that and, while I'd like to know stuff like that too, I can't see how it's good for them to be putting it out there (other than feeding the fans).

 

You talk as if there's no value in keeping the hardcore fans happy, interested, and engaged.

 

yeah fans are a waste of time. teams make tons of money without them. professional sports would be so much better off without fans.

 

Keeps the fans interested and talking, I certainly don't see how it's bad for the team. Except of course they're breaking the code of absolute secrecy you never know what might happen then.

 

Goff's blog also stated that Bundesliga 2 club Frankfurt were in NY meeting with an MLS forward (at MLS HQ, not with the Red Bulls). It seems Taylor fits the bill, but there could have been quite a few players they were looking at.

 

San Jose have signed Montreal Impact's Antiguan forward Peter Byers, and the Impact have already sold 10,000 tickets (went on sale yesterday) for their quarterfinal vs. Santos at the Olympic Stadium.

 

They're playing at that dump? Oh God.

 

Thing is, the article in Germany which made reference to this also said that the player's contract was up at the end of the season, and only pulled out when the League and/or his club decided to exercise the option year on his contract. Twellman has one more year to go before his option year comes up in 2010, so I don't think it was Twellman.

 

Cooper?

 

Hard to believe Buzz wouldn't have sniffed something out if that was the case, plus anyone paying even a little bit of attention to Cooper's situation would have to know that he wasn't gonna be available on a free.

 

Dema Kovalenko to LA:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2009/01/kovalenko_to_galaxy.html

 

Armas leaves Fire:
http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/soccer_redcard/2009/01/armas-leaves-fire.html

 

By that logic, DC can't be questioned on anything. Signing those Gonzalos was a great move, because, after all, they have all those trophies.

When you raise fans expectations of acquiring a particular player, that puts pressure on the team to get a deal done - and that gets used as leverage by the teams/agents that they negotiate with.

DC may wish to tell their fans what they are working on, but that is, by far, a very rare approach among teams in all sports. Do Danny Ainge, Bill Belichick/Pioli/Casserio, Theo Epstein or Pete Chiarelli talk about who they are trying to sign? Sure there's a benefit to keeping the fans informed, but I don't think it outweighs the impact on negotiating position - and I don't think the vast majority of coaches and GMs in all sports/leagues do either.

 

In the cases of the American sports leagues, there are specific rules which prevent GM's or team officials from comenting on players employed by other teams. The NBA and NFL have the strictest rules which prohibit this sort of "tapping up." In fact two years ago Danny Ainge was fined twice for talking about other players. Once he was fined for talking about Garnett before they acquired him, and the other for talking to Kevin Durants mother at a game (who wasn't even employed by the NBA at the time).

Theo Epstein has talked about other players in the past, and expressed interest in players like Renteria, Drew, Lugo, Schilling and Foulke, all before the players were employed by the Red Sox. In a few of those cases it may have driven the prices up in free agency, but they still acquired the players none-the-less. Being quiet on the situations didn't help them in the A-Rod or Teixeira cases. In both situations it was widely publisized that the team was interested, but nothing was ever said out of the Red Sox camp. Then both situations blew up in their faces. So keeping quiet doesn't necessarily curb fan expectations at all. In the case of Schilling and Foulke, they both admitted that part of the reason they came was because of the public interest shown by the Red Sox. It showed them that the Red Sox really wanted them.

The NFL is incomparable, because their penalties for publicly talking about players is very strict. Sometimes beyond fines. They have taken away draft picks from GM's in the past for talking about players who are not on their current teams.

Trying to compare American franchise leagues to transfers in the world of football/soccer is ridiculous. Often times in the world of football/soccer getting the interest into the public is the best way to force the hand of the other team to deal a player. Since players can essentially demand exits, they can hold a team hostage if they are unwilling to deal them. Sure soemtimes it may drive the price up, but that may also often be offset by the other teams need to sell the player, and the players desire to leave. It isn't as though you are dealing with a single entity franchise structure where all teams and leagues are held under the same standard of talking about opposing players. There are some law against tapping up, but short of sending them duffelbags of cash, they are almost never enforced.

EDIT: Chiareli said his first order of business was to sign a big free agent defender from the eastern conference. That was in may. Hrrmmmmm I wonder who he was talking about then...Look at who was signed on Canada Day, just over a month later. OH yeah, the only big defensemen on the market.

 

They don't have to. The fans can find out who they're going after anyway because you see Chris Mortensen and Peter Gammons and Sal Palontonio all over ESPN reporting on who the team is trying to sign.

Anyway. I don't think people really expect the names of the players the Revs are trying to sign, but maybe something like, "We have a few people that we're looking at; a forward playing in Costa Rica, a US defender playing in Europe and a talented Costa Rican that we feel slipped through the cracks." Something like that. It wouldn't give away any negotiating leverage and it would the give the die-hards something.

 

Exactly. Of all the things in that "interview" the part about singing the specific player was probably the least interesting. There were a dozen other points on the table.

 

Colorado acquires rights to Matt Pickens:
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2009/01/colorado-acquires-rights-to-matt-pickens.html

 

No Gomez for FCD:
http://www.3rddegree.net/2009/01/no-gomez-for-fcd/