There isn't really any firm information out there, but I'm making the following assumptions: 1. Free agents -- those players whose contracts just ended -- can not be protected (or drafted). They are free to sign with any team. 2. Most national team players signed 2-year contracts when the league started, and most former Athletica players signed contracts with their new teams that expired at the end of this season. Thus, I will assume that Barnhart, Buehler, and Boxx are free agents. 3. In the previous draft, teams were able to protect 9 players. Seems like a reasonable number to start with here. Ok, so which 9 do we protect? Remember the assumption is that Barnhart, Buehler, and Boxx cannot be protected. (Grouped below by position, not priority.) 1. Marta 2. Sinclair 3. O'Hara 4. Milbrett 5. Edwards 6. Dew 7. Riley 8. Wilson 9. Chapman This would leave the following players available: Bosio Graczyk Cameron Cross Yokers Guthrie Tantillo I'd say 7 of the 9 are pretty non-controversial, but the other 2 (Milbrett and Dew) were harder to decide. For Milbrett, it almost seems crazy to waste a slot on a 38 year-old, but she seems to really be in a groove right now, playing excellent soccer. She works well with our other strikers, she makes the right runs, and her finishing is very sharp. And she has a big name and history of playing in NY, so I could see her being plucked in the draft if she were available. The choice between Dew and Bosio was a tough one, but with Boxx (by assumption) a free agent it seemed more important to hold onto a d-mid like Dew. If it starts to seem like Boxx will sign, then maybe go for Bosio over Dew. Either way we lose a solid player, but not someone who we can't live without. I would also not be surprised if Graczyk was the one taken, since she has ties to Connecticut. Finally, I am optimistic that, if the owners want to, they should be able to bring back all three free agents (Barnhart, Buehler, Boxx). We should have a little cap wiggle room after jettisoning the contracts of Gulbrandsen and Abily, so there ought to be enough money to make people reasonable offers. And why would people want to give up the chance to continue to play for an amazing team like this? Would it really be worth going from a great team to a mediocre team for (say) an extra $5k per year? No one (other than Marta) is going to get rich playing in WPS, so why not grab the opportunity to stay where it makes you happy instead of grabbing for every dollar? Life is so much better when you win.
A great assessment. I think you are spot on. It's a shame Milly doesn't get as much "old lady" love as Lilly does. And you can't discount the veteran leadership she brings to the table. I'm going with Dew over Bosio. She has a less frenetic energy that appeals to me. I'd hate to see Graczyk go. She has been an excellent 5th defender for us. The owners and front office did an outstanding job putting together a champion team. I know the attendance has been less than good, but I hope they continue their efforts and keep the team intact.
The thing about Milbrett is that she doesn't PLAY like a 38 year old. Like you said, she's getting it done on the field and she brings a lot of leadership and experience. It would be hard to say that a slot given to a player like that is going to waste.
I agree on Milbrett. I am not sure age should matter when the results are there. As for the free agents, are they part of the draft? Or (and I asked this in the general expansion thread) if the player and the team agree on terms, can't they re-sign the players before the expansion draft so that they are not free agents? I can't see why not. But then they would take additional "protected" slots. Assume that the team can protect the 11 starters from yesterday (subbing O'Hara in for Abily), then who do they protect???? In no particular order . . . 1. Marta 2. Sinclair 3. O'Hara 4. Milbrett 5. Boxx 6. Buehler 7. Barnhart 8. Riley 9. Wilson which leaves Chapman and Edwards unprotected. I am torn on this one, since both Chapman and Edwards contibuted much to the team.
Free agents are not part of the draft. (This has been confirmed by the Breakers GM in the expansion thread in the Breakers forum.) They cannot be protected, and they cannot be drafted. They are free to negotiate with any team. Teams are free to sign free agents before the expansion draft is they so choose, but if FCGP "knows" a free agent is going to re-sign with the team, it would of course be in their best interest to wait until after the draft to do the signing. The downside is that until you have something in writing, there's always the risk that the player will change her mind. But still, on balance, it's probably better to wait until after the draft so you can protect more players. Of course, none of us really knows who the FCGP free agents are. My speculation is that Barnhart, Buehler, and Boxx are, but I don't have any inside information. It's actually not always completely trivial to decide who is a free agent, since in many cases the club holds the option on a player. If the club decides to exercise the option for next season, the player does not become a free agent; but if the club declines the option, the player is a free agent. Some players (like Tarpley in Boston) are unambiguously free agents -- there are no club options in play. Hopefully the FCGP GM will, after deciding which options to pick up, provide us with information about which FCGP players are free agents.
Aren't developmental players "always" free agents in the sense that at any time except after the frozen roster date another WPS team can offer them a full roster spot w/o owing the other WPS team any compensation? I think Edwards might be the most under appreciated rookie this WPS season. I'd definitely protect her -- particularly given the fact that Abily is gone and Boxx will miss (knock on wood that the USA has a good WWC) a huge chunk of time.
I think Camille is not coming back. She will leave for Lyon in preparation for Women's WC. I think the Pride should sign Miyama to replace her.
Miyama has signed a contract w/ her former team in Japan. As has been stated Abily is definitely no longer a free agent as she has signed with OL. I do hope no one is freaking out over the international players leaving WPS. They will always be temporary players here. And international players should (imo) generally be icing on the cake with teams focused on building strong domestic foundations.
From the WPS transaction page: Sept. 29, 2010: FC Gold Pride mutually terminated its contract with Camille Abily.
It's too early to talk about who is a free agent, which options we are picking up and who we are or not. But we have to leave 3 players unprotected. And can protect up to 10. By Oct 20th when the EDL is due, Free agents stay outside the EDL. And yes Dev players are considered free agents
It is never too early for fans to talk about such thing Thanks for the info on how many must be left available and how many can be protected. Much appreciated.
Ok, let's try this again with the new information. There are, so far as we know, 17 players in the picture. FCGP finished the season with 20 players, 2 of which (Guthrie and Tantillo) were on the dev roster and are therefore now free agents. Additionally, Camille Abily's release is now official. So the 17 remaining players are: Marta Sinclair O'Hara Milbrett Boxx Edwards Riley Wilson Chapman Buehler Barnhart Dew Bosio Graczyk Cameron Cross Yokers The first 11 listed are the projected starters now that Abily's gone. Since we can only protect 10, we're in danger of losing a really good player. If it came down to it, which starter should we leave unprotected? Milbrett, as has been pointed out, has been playing as well as anyone, but she'll be 38 in a couple of weeks and is not getting any younger. Boxx is our only other player over 30. I'd hate to lose Edwards, but in Carrie Dew we'd have a ready-made replacement. Wilson might be the weakest of our starting defenders, but it would tough to cut her loose after her performance in the final. Maybe we could leave Barnhart unprotected on the theory that, if she got taken, we could try to sign Hope Solo as a free agent? There's really no good answer However you slice it, there's going to be some real pain involved. The one possible escape is if it turns out some of our key players are free agents who intend to re-sign with the club after the expansion draft.
I'm guessing that Milbret has zero intentions of playing for a different team and that everyone involved in making picks would know that, too. It would be (imo) foolhardy for a team to pick her in an expansion draft were she to be available. Of the top 11 you listed, I'd leave Chapman unprotected. It would suck for her to be on her 3rd team in 3 years but I think that central defensive position will be "easier" to replace were she to be picked. And you never know, the Flash might pick one of the others (Dew or Bosio or Cross) instead of her. Now, if Edwards really wanted to go back to the east coast and if the Flash (or Philly) really wanted her, you very well could make an excellent trade. I don't think FCGP would want to trade her, of course. I think her contributions to FCGP are under appreciated by many and she should have gotten serious consideration for rookie of the year.
I could actually see them leaving Chapman unprotected, now that you mention it. Foreign players, no matter how good they are, are always just a little less valuable than they would be if they were Americans, due to the foreigner limit. And in Carrie Dew the Pride have someone who could step in and, if not maintain the same level, at least not be a total disaster. BTW, I actually expect FCGP to lose at least 2 players in the draft, possibly 3. They'll lose one "starter" (i.e. one from my top 11 list in my previous post). Then (if I understand the rules correctly), they'll be able to protect 2 more players. The next rung of talent, IMHO, includes 3 players: Dew, Bosio, and Graczyk. Depending on which starter is lost, FCGP will then protect 2 of those 3, with the idea that they want to avoid losing two similar players. For example, if Chapman is taken, they'll protect Dew and Graczyk, leaving Bosio available. But if, say, Milbrett, is taken, they'll protecte Bosio and Dew, exposing Graczyk. I'm not too worried about Cameron, Yokers, or Cross. It's not that any of them are bad players, it's just that it seems like there are plenty of players out there at about that level, so losing them wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
I can't see any team losing three players. If they go by the same rules as last time, WNY has to pick one player from each team before taking a second player from any team, then similarly for second to third. So they'd have to pick 14 players before any team lost a third player, and I doubt the league would allow the draft to go on any longer than that - last year's expansion draft was 18 players for two teams, and it ended after 13 picks.
I agree with you - at most WNY is likely going to get 5-6 players from the expansion draft. From looking at last year's W-League roster, we had 7 international players, and with 2 gone, that leaves only 1 international slot open if any of the remaining ladies come back to play. I also have questions about WNY's rights to their players from last year - I'm assuming that they'll be free agents, and not property of the team going forward. I think that will make a big difference in how they approach the draft. If the player rights are retained and/or given right of first refusal, then WNY might focus more on middies and forwards. Otherwise, it will be wide-open. Either way it goes, I think that goalkeeper will be one of the draft options, either in the expansion draft or the college draft (even though I'd love to stick with Tajonar as a starter).
Regarding the 5 English girls that were with the Flash only one was a full international so I assume some better international players could be picked up than those? And I spoke to oneof those recently and she hasn't heard from the Flash yet about next season.
For what it's worth, this article implies that Cross is a free agent. Not surprising, given that she only signed for the last few weeks of the season, but it's still helpful to have confirmation. Her departure means FCGP is now down to 16 players. Hopefully we'll start to hear more about who is and isn't under contract once option decisions are made. Remaining FCGP roster (as far as we know) Marta Sinclair O'Hara Milbrett Boxx Edwards Riley Wilson Chapman Buehler Barnhart Dew Bosio Graczyk Cameron Yokers
The expansion draft deadline -- Tuesday night at 9pm Pacific time -- is now less than 32 hours away. I haven't heard so much as a hint of a rumor coming out the FCGP camp. Carrie Dew posted a happy-sounding tweet today. Does that mean she got offered a contract? Or does it mean she's now a free agent and able to sign with a team where she'll get more playing time? Or is it completely unrelated to her contract status. (Yes, this is level I've sunk to: analyzing player tweets for hints about FCGP options being picked up.) Based on Kessler's earlier comments, I expect that FCGP will not pick up the options on all their potential free agents. I'm trying not to panic about this, at least until December when teams will be able to start negotiating with their own players again, but it's still going to be a painful couple of months for FCGP fans to endure. My preference would be that they simply bring back the entire team from last season. Yes, Abily and Gulbrandsen are gone. And, yes, the other teams will undoubtedly improve. But FCGP's margin of victory last season was so overwhelming that it's hard to imagine the same group of players wouldn't have a great shot at repeating. I can see the argument that we'll be missing a lot of players for the World Cup, but even if we lose most of those games with our second string, we should still make the playoffs. And once we're in the playoffs, who is going to be favored to beat us? Also, I'm not so sure our second string would be entirely horrible. We wouldn't dominate the league, but we could certainly be at least average. If we could win even 1/3 of our games during the WWC we'd probably still finish in first place. If we brought back our entire team from last season, but took away everyone who is likely to play in the WWC, we'd still have some solid players: Milbrett and O'Hara up front, Bosio and Edwards in midfield, Graczyk, Dew, and Wilson on defense, Cameron in goal. Add (say) Cross, Yokers, and Tantillo into the starting lineup and the team might hold their own, especially since the other teams will be missing their top players as well.
Wow, stunning news. I hope FCGP is playing 11-dimensional chess here. Only 8 players protected: Kiki Bosio (FC Gold Pride) Carrie Dew (FC Gold Pride) Becky Edwards (FC Gold Pride) Kristen Graczyk (FC Gold Pride) Marta (FC Gold Pride) Tiffeny Milbrett (FC Gold Pride) Ali Riley (FC Gold Pride) Kandace Wilson (FC Gold Pride) 3 players available in the expansion draft: Brittany Cameron (FC Gold Pride) Rosie Tantillo (FC Gold Pride) Kim Yokers (FC Gold Pride) Some big names are now free agents. Wow.
Protected: Kiki Bosio (FC Gold Pride) Carrie Dew (FC Gold Pride) Becky Edwards (FC Gold Pride) Kristen Graczyk (FC Gold Pride) Marta (FC Gold Pride) Tiffeny Milbrett (FC Gold Pride) Ali Riley (FC Gold Pride) Kandace Wilson (FC Gold Pride) Unprotected: Brittany Cameron (FC Gold Pride) Rosie Tantillo (FC Gold Pride) Kim Yokers (FC Gold Pride) Free Agents - Fans, Don't Panic: Camille Abily Nicole Barnhart Shannon Boxx Rachel Buehler Candace Chapman Niki Cross Solveig Gulbrandsen Erin Guthrie Kelley O'Hara Christine Sinclair