Portland in the finals at home. Torture me. It was set up for a Rapids championship. It will take me until next season to get over it.
So... Will throw this out there... You all know that Barrios was signed to a 1-year deal, with a club option after that. But what struck me the most was the "1". Are 1-year contracts for already-proven players of the Barrios caliber common? Made me wonder: 1. Did Barrios ask for big $$ and multi-year deal that the club didn't want to pay. But they also didn't want to lose him, so they're paying him nicely at his ask for one year, and will consider a longer deal later at that level if he continues to produce? (ie, the club chose to limit it to one year) 2. Is the RFO/KSE nickel-and-diming Barrios and refusing to pay him nearly what he's worth, but Barrios likes the team enough to stay a bit longer but will only commit to one more season as a result of the low pay? (Barrios chose to limit it to one year) 3. None of the above. And of course, as a Rapids fan, I must then ask... If it's something related to #2 above, is this a harbinger for what's to come with our hopes of signing a big money DP #9? (RFO/KSE refusing to open the wallet... yet again)
Barrios will be 31 early in 2022 season. I think this was a smart move by Rapids, locking up his age 31 and 32 season.
This right here. We've seen Smith be hesitant (rightfully IMO) to get into long-term deals with field players past 30. I can't think of any who had more than 2 year deals of some sort. I also think that we, as Rapids fans, need to get beyond the immediate impact of trying to find the "how is the FO/KSE screwing up" in every announced decision. Certainly in past years it was justified and its understandable we're still in that mindset. But the current FO leadership (Smith and Fraser) have proven that they know what they're doing and are making smart decisions. That doesn't mean they'll always be right with their choices, but for the first time (ever?) I feel like the decisions are being driven solely by how best to compete on the field given what we have to work with.
First, to be clear, my inquiry about the Barrios contract was just that, an inquiry... to get thoughts on why it was only a 1-year deal. The responses above make sense. Thanks. But also, the commentary on it being a possible harbinger for any other off-season signings was not at all a claim or inference that the the Barrios deal might be a "screw up" by PS or Fraser. Not at all. It was a question whether this might relate to the age-old issue of the KSE purse strings being tight for PS to have much room to work (which is an objective reality and a standard constraint of our situation each year... especially as MLS 3.0 approaches with other clubs going big, and bigger, and now MUCH bigger than KSE).
I think the answer to your question will be provided with how they handle the CF/ striker position. Will we see bargain basement options or try to find a real solid scorer that will not be cheap. I think the other solid CB I would like to see added, will provide no answer to if the "spend" spigot is even on/ turned all the way to high.
Yea, essentially this gets at the speculative question I raised... Is the cost-limited 1-year deal with Barrios a possible indicator that the RFO/KSE will also be conservative and cost-limited on the much needed and overdue pursuit of a quality striker. In other words, if they're very conservative on throwing $$/contract at their fan favorite 2021 game-changing MVP, will they take the same conservative approach with filling the biggest gap on the roster. Based on the responses above, sure, it's possible that the 1-year Barrios deal has no correlation to this and might strictly be an age-related commitment thing. But, given how "tight" KSE has historically been, I still wonder if the Barrios deal might be a precursor to what we might see in the striker pursuit (ie, the opposite of going big).
Is there a minimum requirement for a DP? Right now, we have none. So, I am expecting at least 1 DP. Would hope for 2. Even if there isn't a hard requirement for one, I would think the league would pressure us to have at least one.
There's no league minimum req'mt for DPs, to my knowledge. But who knows if there's league pressure for all clubs to pursue. Regardless, given the above-mentioned KSE $$ constraints, I wouldn't be surprised if the club's DP hype this winter evolves into acquiring one or two "Young Designated Players"... a la the ill-fated Juan Ramirez a few years ago. But to me, Young DP's are only DP's in name, but certainly not in status, value, etc. relative to the DP's across the league in MLS 3.0. They young and good, but not necessarily game-changers.
My heads already spinning trying to anticipate what's going to come next from the Rapids this off-season. Every time I am about to post there's new info to digest. Here are two news times from today that grabbed my attention: Continuing to develop the next generation of young talent.Rapids 2 will be one of the 21 clubs to compete in the inaugural season of @MLSNEXTPRO.— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) December 6, 2021 and According to Brazilian outlets, #Rapids96 reportedly have reached an agreement with all parties to sign Brazilian midfielder Max for a club record fee. More to come… (unconfirmed reports as of writing)https://t.co/hL4VAVQOXy— Inside Rapids (@insiderapids) December 6, 2021 With MLS Next Pro, my first question is about the level of competition versus what players have been experiencing in the USL Championship? With Max apparently coming to the Rapids, I am assuming they are signing him as an attacking midfield option with Namli being released and Bassett likely to transferred.
New details coming soon for the new TV deal, but sounds like it will include EVERY game: One live tweet: Garber says that the new TV deal will include "every MLS game." Tonnage play, as expected.Says he thinks the league will announce a new deal in the first quarter of 2022.— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) December 7, 2021
I posted this local sports media tweet early last week, but since it's germane to the MLS TV deal matter, I'll repost in case it got lost in the post-Thanksgiving and roster update flurry. Sounds like Altitude's case is on very thin ice (as many have noted for 2+ years). If you're an optimist, you might start expecting a massive MLS TV deal to hit just as the Altitude/Comcast blackout finally ends this winter/spring. Will the Rapids viewing pendulum finally swing in our favor?!?! Altitude's flimsy case against Comcast is perhaps nearing an end, as both sides have a court date looming | by @dantjacobslaw https://t.co/33gevGac64— Denver Sports (@DenverSportsCom) November 24, 2021
As others have stated, there is no requirement in MLS to have a certain number of DPs on the roster. Sometime pre-COVID I chatted with Padraig about DPs. He said he wanted to avoid bringing in DPs with salary demands significantly higher from the rest of the team to avoid locker room problems. He emphasized that the FO sees the DP slots as just another mechanism in the MLS rule book, and that they'll use it primarily in situations where they can't buy down a player's cap impact with TAM. Think players where the most significant portion of their budget charge is the transfer fee, but otherwise have a TAM-able salary. Namli (obviously) is the perfect example of the type of DP's they'll go after: his salary and the loan fee put his cap impact above the TAM-able threshold, but he otherwise earns pretty close to what Acosta makes (who is on a TAM contract). Basically, Colorado isn't “looking for DPs” in the traditional sense. Rather, they'll just use the mechanism when needed for players that fit their acquisition model: distressed assets who can't be bought down with allocation money. This allows the club to potentially transition a DP to a TAM deal in the long term after the player's acquisition cost no longer counts to their impact on the salary cap. Remember that a DP will always take up $612,500 in cap space (the current “max” budget charge, which increases each year), whereas a TAM contract can theoretically be “bought down” to 0 if needed. In addition to the supposed locker room benefits, having a DP that earns 1.5m or less offers a lot more flexibility for the club in the long run than a player earning over 2m in terms of roster construction. Point is, we shouldn't be expecting any “big money” DPs like a lot of MLS clubs (Chicharito/6m, Higuain/5.7m, Vela/6.3m). From Colorado's perspective, there isn't any pressure to “use the DP slots” — they'll only do so when necessary to bring in a player that they already want.
I needed a good laugh today and this provided the kinda laugh i was needing, Enjoy! ❗ Real Madrid are ready to put in a offer for Colorado Rapids midfielder Kellyn Acosta. The fee is set to be around 89€ million, making him the most expensive American footballer ever. Source: @FabrizioRomano 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/tZwZSyLTJY— vath 🇬🇷 (@Worvath) December 6, 2021
The new national @MLS media deal will not have local blackouts, per @thesoccerdon “Our package will have every game, including our local games, in the package."— Club and Country (@ClubCountryUSA) December 7, 2021 Only one more season of blackouts!
I heard Colorado Rapids homegrown winger Dantouma Toure, 17, is doing offseason training with a bunch of European teams. Was recently at Rangers, now training with Arsenal. Born in Guinea, Toure has played for USYNT's in the past— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) December 7, 2021
So the the Rapids will still have to go through the 2022 season without being n local TV. Hopefully they'll get on more national TV more than zero times during the regular season. But more importantly, how does the lack of air time effect the Rapids ability to attract a jersey sponsor? Will they do another season without one. Does this impinge on Pádraig's ability to spend on transfer fees and salaries? Or does it matter at all?
With Namli out and perhaps Bassett soon to be transferred, it appears that Max will be brought in as an attacking central midfielder. Looks like the Rapids have been attempting to keep ahead of all the departures. I remember thinking when Vines was sold what the plan at left back was. Well, they clearly had Esteves in their sights. And in the interim Trusty did a solid job as an out side back on the left. Should Acosta transfer to Europe I wonder who they have targeted to come in?
Concur... with the only qualifier being that we could get a good/decent player under the "DP is essentially a TAM for the sake of equity" approach that PS apparently employs. In other words, he'll likely be better than "no damn good". ;-) But, what really matters... is he good enough for us to compete with (and keep up with year after year) our primary competitors... SEA, PDX, LAFC, SKC. etc. How would the Rapids be with a leader and game-changer like Sebastien Blanco (PDX's DP with about a $3 mill. salary)? If PS finds someone like that on the lower dime payment plan, then he's our hero. But time and time again, it just never seems to get there. I have a hard time believing that this is about locker room equity that PS described, as noted in an earlier post by Jspsam (other teams seem to manage OK with disparity). Sounds to me that PS might have to cover and rationalize the same old Achilles... KSE purse strings. But who knows. PS and Robin almost pulled it off this year. But given the competition, it just seems we need to do more than that.
Per the above posted news, the judge's take, and the upcoming court date next week, I'm considering going to Vegas to drop about $85 of my $100 on Comcast/Altitude sorting things out in the coming handful of months (before or in early MLS season) due to Altitude's apparently-weak case. So maybe we won't need to wait till 2023. Just a hunch based on the updates. But I reserve my remaining $15 to buy 3 cheap pints in rapid succession when I realize the whole season will be blacked out again.
Having similar conversations with Padraig I can tell you its a solid belief of his. He's told me about a recent big name/money player (no names but I share his initial) who was regularly talking about money in the locker room and causing some of that disturbance. Also if you followed any of the Beckham stuff like Wahl's book it was a common thing then too, especially comparing Old Spice to what Alan Gordon was making at that time.
Fair point. Tho, yea, while I don't need/want a $35 million disparity in the locker room (like Beckham), I'd sure as hell go for a $2-3 million disparity for the production of a Blanco with or without locker room challenges. Likewise, while I can agree that locker room $$ disparities can be a legit problem, I'd still say that your club not being able to compete with the quickly-advancing (and better paying) competition year after year is a much much bigger problem than hurt feelings in the bunch. But I must also give PS credit for his awareness of and concern for team morale and chemistry. I get it and appreciate it. I just don't know if it's ever gonna get us through the playoff hurdles to the promised land. How many seasons have we been crying for a quality finisher, a proven striker, and true #9 (who most often demands some big bucks) and end up repeatedly seeing our guys drop key games because they can't finish in the final third?