Re: 2009-2010 Offseason Any thoughts to whether Doug DeMartin will be looked at? He was picked at basically the same superdraft pick as Zusi but had an injury that kept him out of the picture for this season. This indicated that Onalfo was interested in him in the future, at least. He is a forward, at least. I don't know if anyone here got to see him work with the team, but I'm guessing that we'll at least see him vying for a spot.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason He trained with the team during the early part of the summer after he'd recovered from his injury, when I saw him out at practice, he didn't impress me that much. I doubt he'll be brought back in.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason I think the first step is to find a coach. Without knowing who the coach is going to be, it is hard to rebuild a team not knowing what strategy they are going to use. I would hope that if PV never intended on taking over permanently that they have been searching since they day after Onalfo was let go.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason That and with the CBA being up, I don't think we're going to be doing any rebuilding until a new CBA is signed, if I was a player that was out of contract, I wouldn't be re-signing until a new CBA is in place.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason BTW, Heineman said in the Vermes article over the weekend that he wants the coach in place by the expansion draft. http://www.kansascity.com/sports/wizards/story/1527863.html
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason Which implies that he wants the coach at least involved in, if not determining, those picks. I wonder if Onalfo had real input into those decisions, or if this is a change in philosophy.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason From the first time I interviewed Vermes last year up until after Onalfo was dismissed, Vermes always said that the players were decided on as a staff. He said he brought in players that the Coach wanted on the team. Thoughts on Vermes staying as coach: Each time Vermes is asked if he wants to remain as coach, he seems more open to it. When he was first named the interim coach, he said it is only interim, there will be another coach. When I said I had to get used to calling him coach, he said I did not need to because it would not be long. At the press conference 2 weeks ago, I asked him if he was enjoying coaching and he answered yes. When asked if he was more open to remaining as coach he said yes. I think he likes the hands on, daily coaching more than he thought he would.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/1534240.html I really interesting article from the Star about the upcoming offseason and the changes ahead. We have 3 other players out of contract along with Kamara. There's also some interesting quotes about the team this season and how they played together. And Vermes hopes to have the coaching decision finialized in the next 2 weeks.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason Those are from the season ending press meeting yesterday. I will have the audio up this morning so everyone can hear the whole thing. Kevin Hartman was emotional during his interview. It obviously pained him to not be in the playoffs. Vermes already had 8 players in camp yesterday to lookout and has more scheduled over the next two weeks. They are practicing 2 weeks after their season ended. I even asked Vermes if Technical Director Vermes provided Coach Vermes with the players he needed. Interesting interview with Vermes overall. Wolff and Besler were interviewed as well.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason I did not get a good look at any of them. When I asked who they were, PV said nobody of any note. But he also said that there were college players, USL and maybe even some foreign players.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason Catching up on all the great interviews, I was watching Jimmy's - Is that scar above his left eye a new one from the Gold Cup? I don't remember seeing it, and it's huge.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason Not sure which one you were looking at but it is probably the one from his collision with Harrington. Jimmy actually went straight to the hospital to get stitched up and Harrington finished practice and the got stitches.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason Okay, I'll speculate on the housecleaning. I don't know anything about locker room issues, though, so mine's all on play... F - Adam Cristman --if he's not going to be healthy, dump F - Zoltan Hercegfalvi --keep F - Kei Kamara --keep F - Claudio Lopez -- I guess, keep? With the reduced salary, he's more palatable now F - Josh Wolff-- trade bait? Probably we keep one of Wolff/Lopez M/F - Herculez Gomez --keep M/F - Michael Kraus --who? Upgrade if possible (and it very well should be) M/F - Graham Zusi -- keep around one more year to oversee his development M - Davy Arnaud --definitely keep M - Roger Espinoza -- Worth another shot since he's still a GA. M - Santiago Hirsig -- keep, I guess. M - Jack Jewsbury -- his versatility is invaluable. Underrated player. Keep M - Kurt Morsink -- Dump M - Kevin Souter --Dump, can you believe he's an SI? D/M - Michael Harrington --Keep. He played better under Vermes, tons of potential D/M - Chance Myers --GA, so keep. May the wizards never pick 1st again D - Matt Besler -- one of the bright spots of the season. Keep D - Jimmy Conrad --the face of the wizards. I couldn't root for them if there was no Jimmy. Keep D - Aaron Holhbein --serviceable as a backup if nothing else. Learning from Jimmy-Keep D - Jonathan Leathers -- See Holbein, Aaron D - Matt Marquess -- Who? Upgrade D - Rauwshan McKenzie --Who? Upgrade D - Lance Watson -- Upgrade is needed here GK - Kevin Hartman -- Fine. Without him this year, we're the red bulls. Keep GK - Eric Kronberg -- We will eventually need a better backup keeper GK - Boris Pardo -- see Kronber SPECIAL STATUS GA - Roger Espinoza GA - Chance Myers SI - Zoltan Hercegfalvi SI - Santiago Hirsig SI - Claudio Lopez SI - Kevin Souter
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason I agree with just about everything, though I've actually been impressed with Watson this year and wouldn't mind him staying around. And Hirsig was great. Seems like he turned in a solid performance every game.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason The only problem with your analaysis is that you want to get rid of all of the backups and keep all of the players that played any meaningful minutes. I mean yeah its nice to have someone better than Kraus, but what does it matter who the 6th forward is on the team? If we want to upgrade this team, you have to break up the core of Davy, Jack, Jimmy, and Josh. It's simply not good enough in this league anymore. I say you make any player other than Jimmy, Besler, Espinosa and Myers available for trade and see what you can get. I think you have to move one of Josh or Davy to really upgrade this team. Both should have decent trade value and could bring something of value back.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason So, if we go with what I suggested previously, this would be our returning roster for next year: F Zoltan Kamara Lopez/Wolff MID Gomez Zusi Arnaud Espinoza Hirsig Jewsbury DEF Harrington Myers Besler Conrad Holbein Leathers Watson GK Hartman You can always do what I did with FIFA 10: Sign CM Makoto Hasebe from Wolfsburg, F Stefano Okaka from Brescia, RB Adrian Gonzalez from Sao Paolo, and CB Legrottaglie from Juventus This is my lineup on there: ----------Lopez----------Okaka harrington-------------------------Arnaud -----------Hasebe--------Jewsbury Besler---------Conrad------Legrottaglie-----Gonzalez We won like 12 of the last 13 (got drawn on a controversial late CLB goal). Lopez has like 27 goals through 28 games or so. When I play a team the game favors *cough* Galaxy *cough*, I switch to a 3-5-2, replacing Besler with Hirsig and play him on the right and slide Davy in the middle. Unstoppable. MAKE. THIS. HAPPEN.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason I have no problem moving Josh. Davy should stay--younger and more consistently performs better.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason Mt. Mike - a few comments on your analysis. Zusi - I believe he is a GA and if that is the case I would give him the full four years. Every video of his college play shows that he has a lot of potential. Hirsig - he is definitely a keeper. Even though he faded away in parts of the season, he has abilities that not many players in this league has. Gomez - what exactly did he do that made you want to keep him? I think Gomez as by far the most disappointing player on the team this year. He did very little and was a complete bust. I think he definitely needs to be traded. Jewsbury - I love Jack as most Wizards faithful due but he had a very disappointing season and I think if the offer is right, you let him go. Hohlbein - I believe he is much more than servicable as a backup. I believe he was our best defender this last season and could take over as the leader of this defense when Jimmy hangs it up. Other than that, I pretty much agree with your analysis.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason Gotta be El Lobo. The man will be 33 next season and he just had a career campaign in goal output. You don't often see a more obvious chance to "sell high".
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason I'd agree with that. Josh probably has a reasonable good trade value right now and I think you put him out there and see what you get offered.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason I know Josh is the older of the two, but Davy faded really badly in the season, especially after the Gold Cup. I know we all love his work ethic, but I do think we need to entertain options. Zusi isn't GA. He definitely faded and you have to wonder about the fact that he went down to Argentina while the season was still going on. I wouldn't call him a complete bust, yeah he's not been the offensive force we were hoping, but he's not been a complete bust. Definitely.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason I rarely find myself in a position to confidently disagree with you, but I'm not sure about cutting someone loose because they're in a slump. Davy has always had his lucky and unlucky nights, it just hasn't dragged out as long as it did this season. Plus, he's in the exact opposite of Josh's situation--his trade value has never ebbed so low as it would be right now. I'd expect to have the old warrior back to himself in March.
Re: 2009-2010 Offseason +1 Davy is simply in a slump and I doubt it has anything to do with his talent level dropping. Even in his slump he made a few nice plays here and there. There are few other guys in the entire league who would pressure some of the situations Davy does. If anything else, maybe an offseason is exactly what his slump needs. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if come March 2010 Arnaud is our Man of the Month. He is just that kind of a player for us.