Can DCU trade for a defender?

Can they trade for a defender? Yes.
Should they trade for a defender? Yes.
Will they trade for a defender? Who knows...

The questions that matter are, what is the team willing to give up for a defender and what defenders are they able to get.

Presumably, you'd have to look at teams that seem to have a surplus defenders like the Fire (Curtin, Perez, Whitfield, Gray, Brown plus some rookies), the Burn (Gibbs, Jolley, Talley - love to get him back - Gbandi, Behncke, Salyer, Reyes - love to get him back, too! - and some rookies, including a local P40 in Goodson), the Galaxy, once they get healthy (Califf, Marshall, Albright, Suarez, Broome, Lewis, Bo, Thompson plus some rookies) with whom to make a trade.

Who on those teams A) would help, B) would they be will to part with, C) what would those teams want for said player and D) is United willing to part with that?

 

Trade with Dallas seems most likely given that they don't have a complete and total abundance of "quality" forwards (Nhleko and Rhine are ok, but not quality like LA has). Hence, maybe we can wrap up one of our forwards in a pretty dress with makeup and sell him for more than he's worth...

I'd take Carey Talley back here over Stokes in a heart beat.

Cheers,
Tim

 

Can we call a defender up from the A League?

I remember us calling up players before in the past. Has there been a rule change since then keeping us from getting someone in? I figure the worst A League defender would still be better than Stokes!!!

Curious...

-- N

 

How about Talley and Reyes for say Esky? Reyes hasn't found a place in the Dallas line up and Talley hasn't really established himself either. Both are former DCU players and Reyes is at a much lower number now. Esky would replace the injured Rhine and bring the midfeild and front line together. Currently Dallas has an aging Jason Kreis and two track stars up front. They are deep defensively but lack a scoring punch and neither Talley or Reyes will help them address that need. Just a thought. The trade would help both teams I think.

 

I read the DC board in the past about how bad Stokes was...and I took it with a grain of salt.

However, after being at the United/Fire game this past weekend, I got to see for myself. He does not, yet at least, belong in an 'A' league starting lineup.

I feel for the fans...

 

But the whole reason we traded Reyes to begin with was that we couldn't afford him.

In order to make a trade, United needs to offer up a non-salary cap exempt player (Tino, Cerritos, etc), or get a salary cap exempt player in return (I can't think of any good P-40 defenders off the top of my head).

Tactically, you present a good argument.

 

Re: Can we call a defender up from the A League?

MLS and the A-League put an end to that sort of thing years ago. And even then, as I recall, you could only call someone up because of injuries and that kind of thing.

 

Once that guy from Ghana gets his paperwork in order we'll be maxed out on the cap exempt players category. To get another one we'd have to cut one first.

 

Re: Can we call a defender up from the A League?

Oh...a Stokes injury can be arranged!

Can we trade now? What's the deal w/the new FIFA transfer windows?

Not panicking...just wondering what the options are for the team. Seems like we weren't deep on defense in the first place and when 1 or 2 are hurt/gone -- we don't have any options.

-- N

 

I can.

Chris Wingert, who can't crack Columbus' overstocked defensive lineup, is P-40, and would be worlds better than Stokes. Plus, Columbus already owes us compensation for Barclay. I'm sure DC could find a way to get him (or any other defender) if they tried hard enough.

 

You do realize that Gibbs was a major player allocation for Dallas? I don't understand how you can think they'd give him up for Eski and a future #1 pick - particularly since next year's #1 pick is probably going to the Metros for Moreno.

This is the bottom line: If you want a better defender then you're going to have to be ready to make some seriously painful trades elsewhere.

 

I think if we had more defenders, particularly one like Reyes, the team wouldn't be so locked into having to play a 3-5-2.

Reyes took a paycut when he agreed to join Dallas. Apparently, when DCU waived him, he thought an MLS team would pick him up at his original salary. When that didn't happen, he agreed to go on trial in Dallas and, after much haggling, inked a new deal for less.

Well, DCU doesn't have any allocations OR cap room. Dallas has the Freddy allocation and Columbus also has a couple. They'd be ahead of DCU on the list to get Sanneh. So, a trade would have to be worked out to get Sanneh - who I still think will re-sign in Europe - to DCU. The league just ain't gonna give him (back) to us.

Plus there's the cap room issue and Tony ain't gonna come cheap and you can be assured he remembers that Kevin Payne lowballed him when his contract was up before, thus prompting his move to Germany.

Aside from the caproom issue - Gibbs ain't cheap, either - there is nothing we have that Dallas would take for Gibbs.

LA's Ricky Lewis has moved into the starting lineup of late. He was always rated ahead of Stokes in the youth national team setups and has looked solid, but not spectacular, for the most part in MLS. He won't be a star be he'd be a damn site better than Stokes.

The Crew's Chad Marshall is a P40 defender and the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year, IMO, but there is NO WAY IN HELL that Columbus gives him up. Not even Andrulis is that dumb.

Nelson Akwari is still P40 and he had a nice game against NE yesterday. Like Lewis, he isn't going to become the star once projected of him when he was at Bradenton, but he's a solid, composed player who plays within himself. He is sometimes victimized by his physical limitations - a tad slow for a wide back, a tad short for a center back - but he rarely makes mistakes and is well-suited for a 3-5-2.

Those are the only P40 backs who are playing that I can think of right now.

Not true.

Wingert played four seasons at St. John's and as such is not P40 but rather a full roster player like our four-year college rookies Josh Gros and Kevin Ara. And, as the reigning Hermann Award winner, his rookie deal is likely more than the league minimum so in addition to taking up a roster space he's probably looking at a cap figure around 45K.

 

Well, aren't you getting Nelsen back this week? Is Prideaux injured? How long is Namoff out?

Just curious for the uninformed.

I too feel your pain re Stokes...

 

DC doesnt need another defender. They have one of the best back lines when everybody is healthy. Nelson is one of, if not the best defender in the league. Namhoff has been almost as good this year. Petke has not played well, but once he gets his game back he will return to his above average self. Then you have prideaux who is one of the stupidest players, but he can still play. Stokes, well he shouldnt be on the field. No other teams have been as injurey plagued yet, and once the other teams catch up, we will have one of the best defenses.

 

Re: Can we call a defender up from the A League?

Hey Stokes...say hello to our new Defensive coach!!

~~~Worm~~~

 

Sandon, my understanding was not that Arena and/or Payne lowballed Sanneh. It was that DCU arguing for giving him (Sanneh) what he wanted and the league said "nah--go to Europe--we call your bluff." Arena and Payne knew better as they'd tried to sign him earlier from A-league and he wouldn't go for low money--they had to up the pay before he'd sign.

Otherwise, Sandon is pretty much spot on here folks. DCU is capped out. Let's suppose we found someone who desired Stokes. We could only get a cap-exempt player in return. We can't trade for someone making more money than the person we give up. OR, we have to cut someone else. For instance, suppose we traded Eskandarian (cap exempt) for Carey Talley (who I thought was making $70K). We'd then need to cut someone like Rimando or Olsen (to be able to sign Talley and then an MLS minimum wage player to fill the empty roster spot we can't fill b/c we're at the cap).

The other thought is...remember, you can't cut players who are hurt. So guys like Quaranta, Quintanilla (though he can now play), Martins and even the more recently injured: Moreno, Eskandarian and Namoff all continually count on the cap even if they can't play.

Knave--I would think that if there weren't contract entanglements, we could use a discovery on an A-league player. The issues it I'd think that someone could be interested in that player too and then it could come down to a lottery.

The challenge with DCU is that there a whole bunch of players above MLS minimum that aren't maximum salary players: Kovalenko, Olsen, Convey, Cerritos, Quaranta, Petke, Nelsen, Rimando, and Moreno. (Prideaux and Quintanilla shouldn't count b/c they're very close to league minimum--especially given Prideaux's level of experience, citizenship and versatility). So to add a player means we have to cut someone. But at the same time, cutting a Petke or Kovalenko or Cerritos doesn't create a lot of cap room. It creates some--but not a lot given that anyone other than a minimum salary player would eat up most of that room. So it's got to be a trade of cap for cap.

 

Sure. But the question was whether we could "call up" an a-league player without roster implications like we used to be able to do back when MLS and A-League had an agreement for such things. Then if you were short-handed you could "call up" a player from an A-League affiliate in needed. That's not the case anymore.

I don't know how you can say that. I forget what Petke makes, but it seems to me that cutting Cerritos or Kovalenko would free up quite a bit of cap room. Kovalenko makes something like 175k if I recall correctly. You could fund a couple pretty solid defenders with that kind of money.

 

Knave, I'm not disputing that we can't just call up an A-league player. In fact, the better players are probably locked into contracts that would involve transfer fees I bet. My point was that if we found someone who wasn't locked into the contract, we'd probably have to use a discovery if it was more than just for 1 game.

As for the cutting Cerritos/Kovalenko/Petke, etc.--all 3 players make between 160K-172K. It does free up room--especially if the guy you sign is another Bryan Namoff. But let's suppose we traded for Jolley. He makes 150K I thought. That doesn't free up a lot of cap room ($10K).

So the argument would be we'd have to get someone who was (a) very good and (b) very cheap or at least making less than $70K. Otherwise, we get rid of a good player and get a good player but probably still aren't able to add more than an MLS minimum player. And frankly, I'd bet that if we managed to create cap room, the first thing we should do is elevate Perkins to a full roster spot so he's more than a developmental player making $850 a month.

 

All of these proposals sound good in theory; the likelihood of any trades taking place, questionable. Peter has stated before that he plans to stick with what he was given.
Could someone just please wave a magic wand and give us back Ali Curtis (what DID ever happen to him anyway?) who was at something like $28,500 /year, send Cerritos ($160,000) back to Dallas, and than Reyes would never have had to be cut. Than we would have another decent defender AND a forward with some size and power. And yes, I do remember his lack of scoring; The fact that he didn't finish well is a bonus - he'd fit in quite well with the rest of our team right now

Sorry for the sour grapes, I'm still a little bitter about Saturday.....

 

We can't even call them up for one game anymore though. Those days are gone as I understand it.

I don't expect to trade for a Jolly-type player. The question is whether there's a cheap and available defender who's better than Stokes? Isn't that what it really boils down to?

Basically. As far I know we're the highest salaried team currently in MLS. (At least we were at the start of the season.) That doesn't leave much wiggle room, and it doesn't make it very easy to make player moves mid-season. If we want to make a move then we're going to have to make painful cuts elsewhere. That's just the way it is. Plug one hole, maybe open another.

The real problem - to be frank - is that this team hasn't been run well salary-wise in many years. We're paying the price and probably will be for at least the rest of this season.

 

We need to just chop some players..with the salaries we are paying we should be competing step for step w/ the Fire and the Metros shouldn't be a problem

 

You know, it is really tempting to suggest that we chop a player or two, but I question whether this is even possible for a lot of our high-salaried player. It is my understanding that the majority of our expensive players have guaranteed contracts. Basically, if they make it into a certain point of the season their salary is guaranteed by the league. Hence, if you cut them they're still counting on your cap.

It is really, in my view, about perceived trade value. We need to find a guy that is viewed by his team as having little "value" to them...such as a reserve defender with a moderate salary. You then attempt to trade for this moderate salary with an equal salary player or combination of players. A hypothetical scenario that I like for us would be Talley at $60-$70 for Cerritos at $160 minus salary considerations (ie, we offer to pay a major portion of the difference between Cerritos' and Talley's salary).

As for Stokes. He's not costing us anything off the field, except a roster exempt spot. Therefore, I think we can stand having him around as a practice dummy for most of the year and send him to the A-league as much as possible.

I agree with the sentiment that Eski is pretty much not a trade option at this point, as his roster protection status is not something you want to trade away. Gotta get money off the cap. Even for even money is all we can expect and should be willing to offer gap $ to make up the difference.

Cheers,
Tim

P.S. I've been arguing since way back in pre-season that Cerritos needed to go. The minute we learned he had $160K and we were cutting away $110K Reyes, I thought that was a major mistake and said as much.