2018-19 Roster Movement Thread

Discussion in 'Sporting Kansas City' started by vividox, Nov 30, 2018.

  1. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Billy Beane was the long time general manager of the Oakland A's. During the period where the A's were among the poor baseball franchises.

    By using statistics and a fine understanding of MLB's roster rules the A's stayed competitive, regularly beating teams with player payrolls double that of the A's.

    Beane (or someone) wrote a book about it called "Moneyball". The A's were winning the battle of payroll efficiency. It became a best seller, and then a movie - neither of which I've consumed.

    My point being that, it's great to be more efficient and punch above your weight, but the A's never actually won the World Series. In fact, they never made it to the World Series under Beane.

    You can't clip coupons to a championship. You can do it smarter and cheaper, but at some point you have to pay for better players. If we're trying to win MLS Cup with spreadsheets and ledgers, we're doomed. We have to keep up on the field. The first coming of Benny Feilhaber was great, but we end up with a lot more Bobby Convey, Kelyn Rowe, Brad Davis, Justin Mapp type situations.
     
  2. Blando13

    Blando13 Member+

    Dec 4, 2013
    Lee's Summit, MO
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I've read moneyball (worth it if you're a nerd who likes numbers/efficiency evaluation, ... and baseball). The movie was ok. That strategy likely keeps teams from around the world from ever getting too close to relegation (or bankruptcy) but likely never wins leagues and certainly not consistently. IMO ... you have to blend money ball type of moves with big spending. The scary thing is, LAFC are doing both exceptionally well right now. You'll never compete with teams who do the budget moves well AND spend high dollar.
     
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  3. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Right. And it's hard to rig the contest when you tell everyone 1) you're rigging the contest and 2) how you're doing it.

    Buy low, sell high is as old a strategy as there is.

    And the teams that have the money to spend others into submission with regards to players also have the means to spend others into submission with regards to finer and better statistical analysis and bargain hunting. There's a real diminishing return to this sort of strategy unless you keep coming up with new tricks.

    I don't know that there are any new tricks for Sporting to play. We've reached the point where we'll need to spend some money if we want to win something other than the U.S. Open Cup or other short run knockout tournament.
     
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  4. kcfooty

    kcfooty Member

    Feb 16, 2011
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I saw Billy Beane speak at an analytics conference this spring - he's still the GM of the A's. He (obviously) spoke about Moneyball and he alluded to your last point - there are more tricks they are trying to use/innovate to evaluate the value of players relative to wins. That said, the original point @AndyMead made holds. They are generally decent - several times since 2000 they won 97+ games. But the have only won one post-season series in 10 since 2000.
     
  5. Buzz Killington

    Buzz Killington Member+

    Oct 6, 2002
    Lee's Summit
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  6. mschofield

    mschofield Member+

    May 16, 2000
    Berlin
    Club:
    Union Berlin
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    So, huge if this is real, I'm assuming he takes the role Fontas can't really fill?
    I do think this makes sense as PVs vision for the SKC side he wants/demands a dual libero system, and they are the launch pad for everythign we do in attack. It was the fundatmental reason Ike was shipped off, I believe. Vermes knows how he wants this team to play. If Fontas was half (maybe three and half) steps quicker, he could have been a defining force in MLS. Of course, if he had wheels, he'd have stayed in La Liga.
    Someone like Arboleda might make sense, and he is both healthy and 27. Where he doesn't make sense is that he just signed a contract in January, so if transfermarkt has the luck of blind pigs on this one and he is worth $2.5m, then he will cost every penny is not more to get him out of a contract. that runs through 2022.
     
  7. kcscsupporter

    kcscsupporter Member+

    Apr 17, 2002
    D17
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
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  8. aletheist

    aletheist Member+

    Nov 17, 2010
    Olathe, Kansas, USA
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The first shoe dropped with SKC and Croizet mutually agreeing to part ways. If only the same could happen with Fontas ...
     
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