2012 Pre-season Thread I - the Quest for Quality [R's]

I'm not certain of that. I could see Nyassi as the victim of a numbers game.

Reis, Shuttleworth,
Alston, Soares,
Joseph, Feilhaber, McCarthy, Zerka
Lekic, Caraglio, Fagundez (?)

Borderline: Mansally, Nyassi, Barnes, Tierney

Outside looking in: Murray, Loewy, Phelan, Dube, Shilawski, remaining draftees

This gets you close to 11 pretty quickly. Of course there may be some attrition on this list, if some players move on prior to the draft.

 

I agree with you list except Shuttleworth (or Reis). IMO they will only protect one Keeper.

I'm also not sure about the rules in protecting SI's. Can we protect all four above?

 

I see him protected instead of the second keeper.
As to protecting a Keeper(s) they might expose Reis.

 

Doubt it. I don't see them casting him off before Bobby.

 

I don't see whose exposed as a casting off. It's more of a risk vs benefit. We are talking about a promoted team who will have the option of fleeting up players on their current roster and may well ( don't know about their current Impact roster) have a great Keeper they want to keep as their starter. These are all factors the Rev brain trust will need to weigh.

Of course you can make the calculation that an exposed player will likely not be picked and get burned as the Revs were when they exposed "The General" and he was snapped up.

When you are playing risk/reward your gambling--sometimes you win and sometimes you get skunked.

 

The Revs are going to keep Reis until he retires because of how huge of an off the field influence he is as well as his experience. Expect him to be protected.

 

I don't think they'll protect Reis. Nobody is going to take him. While he's been called upon a lot this season and kept the Revs in some games he's definitely on the decline. They'll protect Shuttleworth unless he asks to leave because they don't want another Knighton situation.

 

Not sure I agree the Revs' FO will let Reis walk. He is old but veteran keepers have value in this league and he's leading the league in saves, although that may say more about the leaky defense in front of him. If he's not resigned he'll catch on somewhere. If the current FO stays status quo, I bet he is resigned for a couple more years to finish out his career as a Rev but probably wouldn't be shocked if they let him go (and botched the PR).

 

I could easily see an expansion team wanting an experienced veteran with a big personality marshaling their back 4.

 

True statement. But it's NOT THE ONLY FACTOR in consideration. Who is the Impacts current Keeper? How high do they rate him? What are their priorities in the draft?

Whats important here is that this new addition to MLS isn't starting from scratch. They already have an active roster that has been playing together to pick from as a base on which to build. This make all our conjectures much more tenuous.

 

I know. But unless they sign someone like Perkins or Keller, they'll be looking to the draft to select a keeper. San Jose, Phili, and Vancouver have all done that recently.

 

They have Bill Guadette, Greg Sutton, Evan Bush and Maxime Crepeau listed on their roster. I don't think Keeper is their top priority right now

 

2 guys who never really cut it in MLS and 2 guys who have never gotten to that level. I doubt they'll be looking to any of these guys to start except possibly Gaudette if they feel he has what it takes to give him another MLS shot.

 

This.

Joe Cannon is the same age as Reis, but the Whitecaps took him in last year's expansion draft.

 

I like Gaudette. I think he can play in this league. Had 3 solid years, two as an allstar, with Puerto rico and looked great in the Concacaf champions league a few years ago. Sutton is just a back up as far as I am concerned The other two I know nothing about. Evan Bush was their top keeper, 6'2 185, had a 0.755 gaa allowing 14 goals in 19 games and 9 clean sheets. Team only won 9 games all year, was second best in the league with 27 goals against. They just could not score. If Reis were exposed I would guess they would think long and hard about it but I would bet since they just signed a Serie A veteran CB from Inter, they will be looking for guys that can score. 175k for Reis might be a little too high for them.

 

Like I said there's a chance they might turn to Gaudette, but considering how terrible our roster is I doubt they'll protect players like the gambians and Schilawski over Matt Reis. It's just not worth the risk. Take Phelan, take Schiller, take a gambian, take cochrane, they dont really matter.

Also, I read somewhere Reis' contract is up after this year. Is this actually true, because I think that was posted on here by someone who wasn't totally sure.

 

In that case his value is going to rise, he definitely will make less money on his next contract whichever team he plays for.

 

yep,,,,,,so what would you offer him to re-sign? I think he is around the $175 area now.....two so so years in a row.....150k?

 

Just in case there is still anyone out there who thinks Nicol/Burns can fix this team this winter, here is their scorecard from last winter (Nov-Mar):

Nov 15 - Diego Fagundez, academy (only good move)
Dec 15 - Ryan Cochrane, Re-entry Draft (should be gone)
Dec 15 - Fred, Re-entry Draft (gone)
Jan 11 - Didier Domi (gone)
Feb 11 - Ousmane Dabo (gone)
Feb 17 - Franco Coria
Feb 18 - 2013 2nd round pick for Fred
Mar 4 - Michael Augustine (gone)

The good news: last year, Portland used the number 2 allocation on Jan 17th to sign Kenny Cooper, so we should get one good player this winter.

 

Not sure McCarthy is a great pick,,,,he still has alot of improving to do