Lol that free agent list could have it's own team. I seriously wish you luck in getting all those back, some major parts to your team their but I don't think you'll have many problems getting the majority of them back.
So the 6 big names left unprotected are Barnhart Buehler Boxx O'Hara Sinclair Chapman Really stunning. Oddly, the one that surprises me the most is O'Hara. I thought for sure they would have locked her up to a multi-year deal after she was drafted. The other two that seem the most irreplaceable are Buehler and Sinclair. Not sure why they wouldn't have been signed and protected, especially since we had 2 protected slots we didn't even use. OTOH, sucks to be WNY in the expansion draft. Not a lot of big names from FCGP on the table for that one. Maybe they'll take Tantillo back.
I'm okay with this. The 3 unprotected are expendable. As far as the free agents go, ownership seems committed to maintaining the team. The front office a great job pulling it together last season and they have 2 giant carrots to dangle - defending champs and playing with the world's best. I see the value in locking someone up early. But if a deal is on the way, going to happen, why wouldn't Washington leave Abby a free agent until tomorrow? I must be missing a rule or something.
Yeah, I believe the missing rule is that free agents cannot start to negotiate with their previous teams until December. Presumably that rule was adopted to prevent just the scenario (re: Wambach) you mention. With the rule in place, other teams have a real chance to talk to free agents from other teams, and those free agents will be free to sign. No matter what kind of non-binding verbal agreement you have with a player, if you give another team 6 weeks to talk to them, make promises, and double their salary, there is always a risk that they'll take the money and run. So this is kind of a wait-and-see situation. If FCGP is able to re-sign all their key players in December, then Kessler is a soccer genius, because she managed to keep the entire team together without losing anyone in the expansion draft. But if something goes wrong and one of the key players -- Sinclair, say -- is lured away by a vastly improved contract offer, then FCGP comes out behind. If that happened, we'll WISH we had not played games with the expansion draft; we'll wish we had signed all the stars and risked losing solid-but-not-irreplaceable people like Dew or Graczyk in the expansion draft. So basically it all boils down to, how loyal are our free agents going to be? Will they want to stick around and win another title with Marta? Or will they be lured away by potentially bigger money elsewhere? The answer to that question will determine whether the FCGP front office is filled with geniuses or idiots.
That's really interesting information, thanks! Looking forward to reading more and seeing how this all plays out. It's also at least somewhat comforting to see that FCGP does not seem to be the only team that let core players become free agents. That suggests that all the secret info we fans don't know tends to support such a policy as rational. I'd be more worried if every other team locked up their 10 best players and FCGP was the only team that went down the free agency path.
Here is the story on the Pride's website: http://www.womensprosoccer.com/Home/bayarea/news/general/101020-expansion-draft2.aspx
I think you need to keep in mind that the money situation makes the FA route somewhat comfortable for teams. Meaning, the cap and contracts are small, FA's aren't going to get their contracts doubled or even significantly financially improved by other teams that may want them. So unless the player was for some reason unhappy at their current team, they probably won't move on unless some other teams GM is able to come up with some other form of magic. Some may be looking for greener pastures, but the very reason many of these contracts may not have been signed is because there wasn't enough time and these women are too busy to work out the details.
I am thinking that FCGP may ask some of the free agents to take a pay cut to re-sign with FCGP... For example, Sinclair...I have no idea what her salary is...She may not have made more than Barnhart or Boxx...But, she probably made more than O'Hara or Riley. Of course, Marta is the highest paid player in the team...Would Sinclair come back to the team after agreeing to a pay cut? I am not sure if Sinclair will get a higher salary next year or not...But, she could certainly find some team which would pay her the same salary as 2010 season?
Good point. If I'm going to leave a winning team in California and move to, say, an expansion team in Buffalo, I'm going to want really significant financial compensation. An extra $5k is not going to cut it. Overall, while it was a real shock to see the important FCGP players that were allowed to became free agents, I'm not going to panic. After a slow start in 2009 the FCGP organization has been nothing but first-rate, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for at least the next couple of months until we see how the free agent situation plays out.
I do think that were there a 2nd team in Cali, FCGP might have a little less bargaining power in that respect.
How many games? Can someone tell me how many games the USWNT players will be able to play in the WPS next season. If Pia wants to hold several long camps in the build-up to the World Cup and then the players spend 5 weekends in Germany, FCGP will have to do without these players for much of the season. No easy to negotiate a contract with such uncertainty. I wonder how the other teams did it?
If Milbrett is staying, you can probably bet that Sinclair will return. There's no point protecting pending free agents, or even picking up their options, because you'll have to protect them in the draft. Might as well negotiate with them later, so you can protect other assets. Or course you run the risk of losing them. Whatevs....