MLS Means of Player Acquisition

More on Discoveries from John Dyson (who covers just about EVERY DCU practice and talks with the players and management extensively, so I take him as a reliable source)...

Ok, so...

2 Discoveries per team per year
No more than 4 on a roster at one time
$100k a year in transfer fees, but can use up to 3 years worth at once

 

Scary

I just posted the question to this answer a few hours ago.

Is MLS employing psychics or BigSoccer posters?

 

Thanks Jim,

There is a big discussion on the DC board about whether Ivanov (if we sign him) would be an allocation or discovery...

John's comments are included in that thread here
https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=27520

 

I was always under the impression that you could trade for allocations, but not for discovery slots.

 

I didn't see any mention of the league's "weighted lotteries", where they gift good young players onto teams without charging them an allocation, discovery slot, or even a draft pick, and don't go through the same "worst teams have the first shot" theme that they use in other instances.

 

Re: Re: Re: MLS Means of Player Acquisition

DJ Countess and Nelson Akwari spring to mind...

 

The lotteries are "weighted" like the NBA lottery where the worst teams have more "balls in the hopper" so to speak (it's computerized from what I remember reading." Teams can turn down being in it, which I would assume they don't want the certain guy for salary/roster slot reasons.

Discovery slots can not be traded, but there have been deals made where Team B wants a guy, but has no discovery slots open. So they make a deal with team B to pick the guy up as a discovery claim, then trade him to Team A for a draft pick or something. Christopher Dawes came to Colorado that way, via the Metros.

http://www.mlsnet.com/content/01/col0420dawes.html

The Rapids acquired Dawes from the MetroStars in exchange for a second round draft pick in the 2002 MLS SuperDraft. The MetroStars signed Dawes with the preliminary condition that upon signing they would trade him to the Rapids for the second round draft pick.

 

It would make little sense to turn down being in a lottery draft though. If you couldn't handle the player on your team, you could always trade them for something (draft picks, beer) to a team that does want them.

Of course, you might be required to get salary and roster compliant <b>before</b> you can participate in the lottery, which would possibly be a disincentive depending on how valuable the player is.

 

Jim and I were speculating last night about just how Vaudreuil got onto the fire.

http://www.mlsnet.com/content/02/mls0518trade.html

We know he was signed in July 2001 as a discovery pick, and we know that there was a trade with Dallas involved when he was re-aquired in May 2002 that had the effect of temporarily increasing our cap, or decreasing his value against the cap.

The current discovery trading system may be an effort to standardize the process of trading for roster relief.

I would speculate that if this situation were happening again right now, then Vaud would be signed by Dallas as a discovery pick, then traded to Chicago for draft picks.

 

Unless there was a player coming down the line that you did want, and didn't want to be left out of his lottery draft because you won the last lotery draft (See Colorado being left out of the Countess draft because they won the Kartes draft for an example)

 

Here's MLS's old explanation:

"Longo becomes the first MLS player allocated using the lottery system approved by the MLS Competition Committee in November of 1999. The mechanism is used to place players signed after the 2000 MLS SuperDraft, and who are not assigned to a MLS team via one of the league's other mechanisms (e.g. discovery option, allocation, or the waiver draft). Participation in the MLS Lottery System is voluntary at the discretion of each team.
In the event that a team participates in the lottery system and is assigned a player, it will not be entitled to participate in any future lottery during that calendar year until all teams have been allocated a player via the lottery system. This applies to all players irrespective of their class (e.g., Project 40, Youth International, Player in the League's player pool). Columbus will not be able to participate in any additional Lottery during 2000 until all teams have been assigned a player via the lottery. Columbus will again be eligible to participate in the Lottery System beginning in January, 2001.
A description of the MLS Lottery Weighting System follows:
A team's lottery ranking shall be based upon the MLS regular season point system and each team's playoff performance.
Because the lottery may take place at any point during the year and is not limited to a single day's event (such as is the case in the NBA), it is necessary to base rankings on a shifting timetable, rather than on concrete dates / timeframes. Therefore, total regular season points shall be determined for each team by taking its points total for its previous 32 regular season games falling before the Lottery, regardless of season dates (the "Prior Year Games"). The 1999 MLS Regular Season Points System (Win = 3 pts., Shootout Win = 1 pt., Loss = 0 pts.) will be used for all games played last season. However, for all regular season games played in 2000, points will be determined according to the new MLS Regular Season Points System (Win = 3 pts., Tie = 1 pt., Loss = 0 pts.) adopted prior to the start of the season.
The previous year's playoff achievement is also relevant. This is achieved by assigning various incremental point values to playoff levels, as follows: fail to qualify for playoffs - 0 pts., eliminated in conference semifinals - 2 pts., eliminated in conference finals - 4 pts., eliminated in finals (runner up) - 6 pts., MLS Cup Champions - 8 pts."


A similar system was used for the Luis Hernandez fiasco. I believe the next time they used it was for Kyle Beckerman and MLS's release about that draft suggest that it's not little balls in a glass box:

"The MetroStars, New England Revolution and Columbus Crew were ineligible for today’s draft, as each had been previously assigned a player via the lottery. Additionally, D.C. United elected not to participate in today’s proceedings. The weighted order of the draft was as follows.
1. Miami Fusion - selected M Kyle Beckerman (U.S. Pro-40)
2. Colorado Rapids
3. San Jose
4. Tampa Bay
5. Kansas City
6. Dallas
7. Chicago
8. Los Angeles "

 

An old article about allocations and discoveries:

4/2001 Soccer America:
"DISCOVERY VS. ALLOCATION. There are no more major and minor allocations, per se, yet coaches and general managers were told months ago that allocations in 2001 had to be acquired for approximately $100,000 apiece. One agent went so far as to call allocations ''glorified discoveries.''
Each team has $75,000 in acquisition costs to use each season on its two discoveries. There is no limit to the salary that can be paid to a discovery player, but the acquisition costs plus the salary are counted against the salary cap.
For allocated players, like most players, only the salary counts against the cap.
The exception is the allocation still due San Jose for the loss of Eddie Lewis. Unofficially, the league has earmarked approximately $300,000. (Danish veteran Ronnie Ekelund comes to the Earthquakes as a discovery.)"

So if this is all true, you can see the major benefit of allocations: acquisition costs don't count towards the cap.

 

Whatever the mechanisms of the weighted lottery, the fact remains that a player (often a good young player with a promising future) is placed on a team with no cost to said team (allocation, discovery, draft pick). In a league with limited means of player acquisitions, this is unfair. According to the mlsnet article, there are only about 4 allocations league-wide this year, and DC holds 2 of them. That means that 7 out of the 10 teams can only add 2 players (through discoveries) to their roster outside of the draft. If the league signs a player from the U-20 team and assigns him free of cost to one of those teams it's a big advantage over the other 6.

If Akwari were in the draft this year, where would he go? First round? Second round? This is the equivalent of the league saying "Congratulations! You've just won a high draft pick" to the Metros. What they should do is find out who wants to give up a first rounder (or a second rounder if no takers on the first rounder), have a weighted lottery among those teams, and let the winner forfeit that pick in the next year's draft.