Okay now that we have all had the time to rightfully b!tch and moan about the Crew's absolute playoff flameout, I think it is time to look forward. The next step is the expansion draft. I have posted the rules from MLSnet regarding the draft. Expansion Draft The League will conduct an Expansion Draft prior to the regularly scheduled postseason Waiver Draft (likely in late November) The 2005 Expansion draft will be 10 rounds Each MLS team shall be allowed to protect 12 Senior Roster players Each MLS team may leave unprotected only one Senior International An MLS team may lose no more than three (3) players during the Expansion Draft After a player has been selected from an existing team, such team shall have the right to protect an additional player So who do we protect and who do we expose? Busch Buddle Martino Akwari Fraser Elliot Wingert Marshall Hejduk Oughton Cunnigham Herdsman In all honesty I thought it was going to be much more difficult to pick twelve. In the end I added Herdsman only because we haven't seen much from him because of injuries. I included Marshall because even though he is currently P-40 and protected, I thought that P-40's graduated to Senior level based on playing time and such. If not I would add Paule in his place. Mais will hopefully for his sake retire and the rest of them we could do fine without.
We can only leave one unprotected if we want. A few weeks back everyone was saying Oughton could be the odd man out, but based on his play especially in the last game St. Duncan needs to be apart of this team. We will still need to resign him after the draft though.
Elliott got his GC midseason so he's not an SI now. Now as I understand the rules, it says teams can only NOT protect 1 SI, since the Crew only has one SI, I imagine they won't HAVE to protect Oughton. He certainly made a case for himself over the last few games, but I just don't think either RSL or Chivas USA would pick him up. I also think if they do leave him unprotected either of those teams might select someone else first meaning the Crew can come around and re-protect him. I'm going to stick with my earlier list: Protect: Busch Hejduk Marshall Akwari(if he doesn't graduate from P-40 then put Oughton in) Fraser Wingert Elliott Paule Martino Cunningham Buddle Testo(on talent and potential as a LM) P-40/dev protected: Szetela Sutton Barclay unprotected Oughton Washington Herdsman Scott Lagos Jordan Sanneh Mais(retire) Denton Ritch I don't know maybe a possible trade somewhere before the Ex. draft would be good. Maybe some package deal involving Cunny for a early to mid 1st rounder +. I really want the Crew to get a chance at Ryan Pore if he comes out, but it's looking to me like the Hermann is his to lose and he'd be a P-40 if he comes out, so that would look really good to the top 3(Chivas USA, RSL, and Sh!tcago). Although Pore has always had the reputation that he's a "big fish in a small pond", so it's possible he'd be passed over again; depends on what type of combine he has.
If Oughton has not been resigned by the league before the draft leave him unprotected, it's that simple in my mind.
My original list (assuming worst case scenario on P40/Dev status changes) Cannot be picked Danny Szetela Jamal Sutton Protected 12 Robin Fraser Chad Marshall Jon Busch Kyle Martino Simon Elliott Edson Buddle Chris Wingert Jeff Cunningham Duncan Oughton Frankie Hejduk Tony Sanneh Nelson Akwari Short list Ross Paule Dante Washington Matt Jordan Manny Lagos Stephen Herdsman Erick Scott Open list Brian Maisonneuve Eric Denton David Testo Michael Ritch Devin Barclay The Short list is the list of players, in order, where if a Crew player is drafted we get to protect another player (i.e. if Jordan is picked, Paule would be protected) That list does not take into account Oughton might sign elsewhere if MLS does not adequately compensate him, nor the fact that Cunningham is probably to the point where he'd rather cut off a testicle with a plastic butter knife than spend another season under GA (speculation of course, no facts to back up either claim). Using late season and playoff performances *cough* as an indicator I might also consider reworking the list to unprotect Sanneh and Hejduk; although I'm flipping a coin as to whom to protect in their place - Scott? Washington? Herdsman? Does anybody have some early draft considerations or potential allocations to consider? Any youngsters that might alter the list above slightly? Is Stern John still a distant factor?
Seriously... How many "veterans" do we need on this team to balance out the youth? Do we still need Lagos, Sanneh and Hejduk?
Fraser will be 38, certainly he should left unprotected. I don't believe Sanneh will be left unprotected. Hejduk has a high salary ($176k) and hasn't earned it; it's possible that he is left unprotected but unlikely, simply because he is a national team player and an Andrulis/Arena fave. Elliott is not an SI. Due to his stellar play this year, Oughton should definitely be protected. Cunningham has a high salary (190k), I suspect a choice will have to be made between protecting Cunningham or protecting Washington. If Marshall doesn't have to be protected, then you might protect both Cunningham and Washington or protect just one of them and keep Akwari. However, it's possible if unlikely that Hejduk is unprotected instead. Matt Jordan should probably be left unprotected, since there will be a plethora of available keepers, and Jordan only got into one game, and thus is a bit of an unknown quantity. However, didn't he used to be considered a franchise player for Dallas? Anyway, there should be enough goalkeeping coaches on the Crew to make a sound decision regarding Jordan. Herdsman might be a question mark due to the length of his injury and his general injury-proneness and potential attitude issues. My list of Protected players (alphabetical order): Edson Buddle Jon Busch Simon Elliott Stephen Herdsman Kyle Martino Duncan Oughton Ross Paule Tony Sanneh Chris Wingert Chad Marshall (if necessary) Danny Szetela (if necessary--highly doubtful) Bubble players (in order of preference to keep): Jeff Cunningham Frankie Hejduk Dante Washington Nelson Akwari Matt Jordan Unprotected players (in order of preference to keep): Eric Denton David Testo Robin Fraser Manny Lagos Erick Scott Brian Maisonneuve Michael Ritch (if necessary) Devin Barclay (if necessary) Jamal Sutton (if necessary)
This has been touched upon in here, but I wanted to make sure everyone is crystal on this point. The rule states that a team can expose 0 or 1 senior internationals. Teams are not allowed to expose more than 1 senior international. Therefore, if a team has 3 SI's, then they can choose to protect all three if they wish. But, if they have 3 SI's they must protect at least two of them. If the team has 2 SI's they must protect at least one of them. If the team has 1 SI, they can treat him just like any other senior roster player for the expansion draft. The Crew currently have one SI: Oughton. The rules do not require that he be protected or exposed.
Fraser could very well be Defender of the Year, there is no way you can't protect the man. He was the main reason our defense was so good, who cares about his age because he should still be able to perform next year.
I don't think it will be necessary to protect Fraser. It's very doubtful that an expansion team will take a 38 year old, but if they do, we have enough defenders to play up to the same level as Fraser. I would love to have him here in 05, but it won't be a disaster if he's not. I think we talked about this before- there's no way in hell Cunningham is left unprotected. Even Andrulis isn't that stupid.
Cunningham has a big salary by MLS standards. He was the highest paid player before Sanneh joined the team - he made $190,700 this year accoridng to Soccer America. Supposedly, that big salary got in the way of efforts to trade him last year in the offseason. The Crew might leave him unprotected on the thinking that teams won't want to absorb his salary, and if they did, it would free up a lot of cap room on the Crew anyway to find a replacement.
His salary or his suposed attitude wasn't a factor in his not being traded in the offseason. This is what a little birdie told me. He was shopped to one team, LA, and the clubs were ready to make the trade, but the McBride to Blackburn talks started up and the Crew pulled him off the table. Then the Crew just went along made the trade to get Elliott who would have been in the package anyway. As for leaving him unprotected, it just wouldn't be a good idea. Even if the Crew can only get a 2nd or 3rd rounder for him, presuming the Crew wants to trade him, it's a lot more then they would get when he is the 1st or 2nd player taken in the expansion draft. And you better believe he would be, there just isn't another player I can think of with that good of stats and 28 years old that will be on anyone's list. Maybe Kries, but he's definatly at the tailend of his career.
Apparently there was some sort of town hall meeting for the Dallas team. Lamar Hunt even showed up. http://www.3rddegree.net/thirdindex.cfm?page=article&show=482 There's a lot of interesting stuff there, so check the link out. It revealed some info about the expansion draft: -Nov 19, 3 PM CT on ESPNEWS -Expansion teams can pick a player then renegotiate contracts or trade them -Rosters freeze for expansion draft on Tuesday after MLS Cup. Monday is the one day to trade. Wednesday protected lists are due. Friday is expansion draft. The article mentioned that FC Dallas might make 2 trades on Monday. I wonder if the Crew will make any moves that day.
I'm going to have to leave work a little early next Friday. If all these live events on ESPNEWS aren't proof of progress, I don't know what is.
How many threads can we have on this subject? Simply put, there are two or three players that are question marks, but by and large it's going to be simple to pick how is protected and who isn't. Furthermore Anclueless has alluded to the fact you can pretty much expect the same roster next season. Barring the 1 allocation that we have left to use, I don't expect much movement at all. Perhaps a fringe player or two, nothing major.