2016 Regular Season Player Movement and Rumors

so same money I presume ?

 

I assume he'll get a slight raise but probably nothing to complain about given his performance.

 

Uh, because they made the playoffs. It's the Union version of winning the cup.

 

If X = Edu in this roster algebra, I'm disappointed. If X=Pontius, I'm good with it. If X=Fabi, I'm ok with it but maybe check the internet or something for upgrades.

I was more crushed with how often Earnie said Curtin exceeded expectations. Unless the expectations were "accidentally set fire to the stadium" & "crash the Sugacopter in the river", in which case he performed admirably.

 

I'm not concerned, largely because I don't think it would be super productive to do a repeat of last year and I don't have issues with any of the guys that are returning. I like seeing that they are turning over the bench so we aren't carrying dudes like Restrepo and Missimo who can't even beat Ayuk onto the field. Clear the bench, upgrade the roster, and push current starters to the bench and we probably improve.

 

The thing that concerns me is how satisfied they are with the season. I'm getting this ' here we f'n go again' feeling

 

A little Football Manager spin:
"The supporters were delighted to make the playoffs but were very concerned about the 5-1 thrashing at the hands of the Montreal Impact."

Maybe Ernie Stewart set the season expectation to 'Avoid relegation' before he learned MLS rules

 

http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/post/2016/11/04/philadelphia-union-pick-2017-options-nine-players

Picked up:

1. Andre Blake
2. John McCarthy
3. Fabinho
4. Raymon Gaddis
5. Keegan Rosenberry
6. Ken Tribbett
7. Eric Ayuk,
8. Brian Carroll
9. Chris Pontius.

Declined Options on:

1. Matt Jones
2. Anderson
3. Taylor Washington
4. Cole Missimo
5. Walter Restrepo

I was really hoping Brian Carroll was done. He is so slow, every time he gets burnt by a player, he just reaches out and gets a yellow card. At 35 years old he had a card every 3-4 games. At 36 next year it's going to be either every game, or he will simply be a liability. At $120,000 I think we can do better at this point.

I mean he isn't our biggest concern, but he certainly doesn't seem to be making space for developing our future.

 

My only question here is why keep McCarthy, I get that he is cheap but our backup should at least give us SOME chance of winning.

 

Guess the 9 pickups don't mean much, right? For Blake this is just protecting an investment. If an offer comes in he could still be gone.

 

I wouldn't have a problem with him remaining as veteran leadership and depth, except that his presence on the roster seems like too much of a temptation for Curtin as one of his veteran guys he can rely on when the going gets tough, when he probably should be using the opportunity to give experience to guys like Derek Jones.

 

Local players aren't a dime a dozen.

(Unless you're the Union.)

 

Backup Goalkeepers shouldn't take up a lot of cap space, period. He's young, and has shown some promise. He's certainly not a Zac MacMath or Andre Blake, but then again he doesn't have their price tag either. Plus he's good for BSFC too. He's an asset as a leader for the young players. He has to work harder to keep his spot. With MLS' salary budget and roster constraints, players like McCarthy are very valuable.

I don't get the Carroll hate @Lancaster FC. He was very solid this season. He was asked to play much a greater role in 2016 due to Edu's injury absence. Yes he is getting older, but he still has a role on this team. The contributions of Veteran leaders should never be downplayed. Should he be an every game starter? Probably not, and one would hope that Derrick Jones develops enough this off season to begin to get MLS game experience. One would also hope that Stewart will go out and find an inexpensive DM as well to help platoon while Edu hopefully gets back to full health.

 

Sounds like fans and media got played for fools with the Kevin Kratz situation ( and also with expectations for this past year).

 

Really? They they had a roster spot so they filled it. That didn't sound like "this is the guy" to me. Then that got "something" for him.

 

They were a place holder for one of Atlanta's players, knew this all along, and acted like it was some new addition that will help in the playoff stretch. Reporters covered him like he was a new acquisition that will be a part of the future because presumably that's how he was presented to them. It was dishonest.

 

So did Philly benefit from this scheme?

 

They gained good PR for picking up someone ( that they had no intention of using ). Presumably they are getting something in exchange like expansion draft considerations. Questionable here too though IMO, because who are we so worried about losing ?


My gripe is that if the team (and league for that matter ) want to be treated seriously as an entity this kind of backroom dealing has got to go. You have people like us that pay attention and do take it serious and stuff like this makes a mockery of it all.
At some point I'm going to feel like the fool for giving a shit and that will be that. There are plenty of other leagues to watch (Can you tell that press conference really got under my skin? I was ready to put all this out of mind for the off season until I read that article )

 

I have no problem with "backroom dealing" if it helps the club. remember when the NHL had to create new rules after the Flyers traded Keith Acton and Pete Peeters to Winnipeg, then traded back for them 3 days later? That's just a smart FO making use of the rules.

Now, the question is... did the Union benefit for this Kratz scheme? That's the important question that needs to be answered.

 

Amazingly yes I do. There's two names I haven't heard in 20 years probably

 

Don't we already have that in Creavalle?

 

The Kratz-Atlanta deal does make MLS look like it did back in MLS 1.0 days when rules were made up on the fly. If Atlanta signed him and loaned him to Philly (Atlanta has several players under contract and loaned them out to teams in USL, Trinidad, etc. but no MLS loans). Kratz was announced as a free agent signing by the Union - not a loan deal. Kratz also showed up as a Union player on the MLS salary list not among the handful of Atlanta playersalready on MLS contracts.

The upside is perhaps Atlanta (1) will not use one of its five expansion picks on a Union player - although it does not prevent Minnesota picking a player player or (2) gives the Union some small allocation $ for the hassle of it all. There may be some value related to the Union using a discovery claim on signing him instead of Atlanta using one of its own claims.

Another scenario is that Kratz's agent (Stone Sports Management - same one that represents Alberg and Anderson) tried to help both Atlanta and Philadelphia:

* gave Kratz a chance to work on fitness and acclimate to MLS training after having not played for a while
* gave the Union coverage at DM and CM given Edu's extended injury time. With one of his clients (Anderson) already not being in the Union plans late in the season and beyond, Stone probably offered a Union an opportunity a short-term midfield depth fix since his CB client (Anderson) was a bust who had to be loaned to Bethlehem just to give Kratz a roster spot.

In terms of the recent roster cuts (M. Jones, Anderson, Restrepo, Washington & Missimo), it seems as if the team will likely try to get more HG depth (i.e. Trusty, D. Jones) instead of veterans who can not regularly make the gameday roster like M. Jones, Anderson and Restrepo) or ex-college players who do not have MLS gameday roster potential (i.e. Washington, Missimo - these type of mid-late round SuperDraft players likely have to really impress after a season at Bethlehem to be brought back to the Union).