Buzz has the news that the MLSPU has released the 2012 salaries. Additionally, if you look up what Marvin Chavez is making, it'll more or less confirm the usual explanation as to why he was traded away.
I'm not sure about Chavez. $150K would put him in our top 5-6 players, but I think he's worth that money. But I agree with Buzz that most of the numbers of our players' numbers seem to fit pretty well so I'm not sure where else to cut. BTW, try looking at our roster numbers with regards to our current situation with injuries, suspensions, etc. In terms of percentage of our salary cap spent that is unavailable to us, we are playing games with peanuts on the field.
Yeah, that's the thing. To get Blas, we were going to have trade or cut somebody or several somebodies. It was going to hurt, no matter what.
I like Marvin, but think that we have pretty much the same player characteristics in Brek and Castillo, (albeit from a lefty profile). If the choice is Jackson vs Chavez, I go with Jackson because of his versatility and durability. But, what I really crave is a midfielder with a cultured foot. Since we lost DVB we have not had money service. And yeah, I know, I know, ..... but I still miss that type of player with that kind of precision on the roster.
I'm not sure I understand why the MLSPU releases this information. Per league policy MLS does not release details of contracts. What is there to be gained by releasing this info? Personally I'm surprised the last CBA didn't prohibit the MLSPU doing this.
From what I remember hearing/reading, the CBA is huge part of the reason the MLSPU releases the "salary" information (base/guaranteed). It is part of their negotiation strategy. Many here are recent enough in their fandom that they may not realize what the good old days had (salary for draftee's less than 15,000, no allowance for development players/reserves, a smaller number of total players on the roster), or how key the negotiations for the CBA have been to bringing the league to where it is today. The contract details beyond the 'salary' info has NOT been released. (for example, MLS' refusal to allow players to keep their part of any transfer fees [FIFA mandates that players receive this money] if the player's contract is sold/transferred to a team in another league).
Chaz (or anyone else), correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe FIFA mandates the players receive a cut, but rather the default rule in the standard paperwork is that they will, and so the clubs (on MLS, in this case) must negotiate it away openly. A subtle difference, but an important one in understanding how MLS would be allowed to do it at all (assuming I'm right and MLS is not simply bullying/bribing/hoping to be ignored by FIFA).