One thing that always bugged me about the Nicol era was the lack of player trades. There were a few over the years, but not many compared to the rest of the league. To me, the inability to make a trade suggests that you overvalue your players. I thought that would be one of the differences marking the Heaps era, but so far, not. I keep track of MLS transactions (sorry, I'm insane), and looking back discovered the following: Since the season began in March, there have been 17 trades involving players, with 13 different MLS teams participating. Going back to the end of last season (when Heaps took over), and there have been 39 trades within MLS (again, leaving out the ones that didn't involve players). That brought the number of teams taking part in trades up to 17, all but two: Columbus and New England. Code: MLS Trades in 2011-2012 July 1. Quincy Amarikwa, NRB -> TOR 2. Eric Hassli, VAN -> TOR 3. Tyson Wahl, MON -> COL 4. Dane Richards, NRB -> VAN Sebastien LeToux, VAN -> NRB 5. Bill Gaudette, LAG -> NRB 6. Andrew Wiedeman, DAL -> TOR Julian De Guzman, TOR -> DAL 7. Justin Braun, MON -> RSL 8. Bobby Burling, MON -> CDC 9. Kosuke Kimura, COL -> POR June 10. Long Tan, VAN -> DCU 11. Kwame Watson-Siriboe, CHI -> RSL 12. Danny Mwanga, PHI -> POR Jorge Perlaza, POR -> PHI May 13. Michael Lahoud, CDC -> PHI Danny Califf, PHI -> CDC 14. Heath Pearce, CDC -> NRB Juan Agudelo, NRB -> CDC April 15. Mike Fucito, POR -> MON 16. Chris Estridge, VAN -> RSL 17. Paolo Cardozo, LAG -> CDC David Junior Lopes, CDC -> LAG Feb 18. Eddie Johnson, MON -> SEA Mike Fucito, SEA -> MON Lamar Neagle, SEA -> MON 19. Brian Ching, MON -> HOU 20. Mac Kandji, COL -> HOU 21. Kyle Nakazawa, PHI -> LAG Jan 22. Sebastien Le Toux, PHI -> VAN 23. Wilman Conde, CHI -> NRB 24. Danny Cruz, HOU -> DCU 25. Kenny Cooper, POR -> NRB Dec 26. Nathan Sturgis, TOR -> HOU 27. Marvin Chavez, DAL -> SJE 28. Jay Nolly, VAN -> CHI 29. Bobby Convey, SJE -> SKC 30. Jean Alexandre, RSL -> SJE Nov. 31. Shea Salinas, VAN -> SJE 32. Jeremy Hall, DAL -> TOR 33. Robbie Russell, RSL -> DCU 34. Donovan Ricketts, LAG -> MON 35. Seth Sinovic, MON -> SKC Davy Arnaud, SKC -> MON 36. Paulo Nagamura, CDC -> SKC 37. Justin Braun, CDC -> MON Gerson Mayen, CDC -> MON James Riley, MON -> CDC 38. Tyson Wahl, SEA -> MON 39. Ryan Smith, SKC -> CDC
It could also mean nobody's interested in players they could realistically trade for (I doubt we would trade Benny, Diego, Rowe/Nguyen/Sene/Cardenas are all in their first year and playing at least reasonably reasonably well, Soares, and probably Shalrie unfortunately). From those who are left, who the hell would want to trade for them? Simms has played well but the fact the entire rest of the league passed on him at the beginning of this year means he's undervalued by others, our defenders are all shaky and some are downright bad, and nobody in their right mind would trade for Nyassi/Boggs/everyone left except Polak, who I don't know if just needs time to adjust to pro's or isn't as good as people thought.
Valid, but I'm pretty sure that most MLS trades are centered around draft picks, allocation money, allocation spots, etc. (I have no statistical evidence of this, but I'm sure that NFLPatriot does). I personally have always thought that the MLS trade market was a place where teams could get great value and really exploit other teams. There are a lot of decent players (depth/role players mainly) on that list who were had for nothing more than mid level draft picks and allocation money. Unfortunately the only trade in recent memory was an absolute bust for the Revs, getting absolutely hosed by Colorado.
Also a good point, hopefully a Nat/ex-Nat will return soon so we either get him or finally make a trade and get some of the things you mentioned.
Well, if you look at the list I posted above, only 9 of the 39 trades had players going in both directions, which I think supports your assertion.
As opposed to having imagined slights about imagined slights? See the little winky face on my post ... it was a joke.
The thing about trading within the league is to identify the kinds of players you think would do well in your own "system" even if they are not at their full potential where they are. This could be for a number of reasons such as a top player in the same position limiting their minutes, wrong kind of role for that player's skillset, or anything else. Some teams are good at scouting within the league. Sometimes we gnash our teeth about the Revs scouting in foregin locales, but it is just as important to have a full-time person who does nothing more than closely follow the leauge. Not only for potential trade purposes, but also the advance scout of opponents in the next few weeks to get a sense of who is playing where, how they are playing, and how we could match up with them and find a way to beat them. Now I have no real idea of what the Revs do in this area, since it is a bit of a "behind the scenes" task, but if they don't put a lot of emphasis on scouting within the league, I can see why they might not have certain "hidden gems" in mind that they could pry away from another team for next to nothing.