Baker & Howey head home - 11.27 Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/articles/2004/11/27/baker_howey_head_home/
I don't know if I would've let Baker and Howey go. Definately not Baker, because he was a good crosser, and good outside midfielders are a rarity in this league. I think that if Ralston wasn't ahead of him he would've had a much better season. Howey on the other hand, looked okay in the games I saw him play. Plus it's that often that a MLS team gets their hands on a former English international (has there been any since Ian Bishop in 2001?). I would've given him a second chance considering the Revs having no leader in their backline, but also I don't know his salary.
But Baker probably wanted to go home. With Cancela/Joseph/Dempsey/Ralston/Dorman all clearly ahead of him for playing time and Leonard, Franchino, etc on the left (I think he's right footed), he realized he's not going to be an all-star here anytime soon like he might have hoped. MLS wasn't going to force him to stay. I don't think Howey could take the US summer conditions. Vuk Rasovic retired before the expansion draft. http://kc.wizards.mlsnet.com/MLS/ne...ent_id=19333&vkey=news_kcw&fext=.jsp&team=kcw
Adin Brown may have been out of contract. That or was transferred by a free transfer (NE didn't mind his salary going off the books for cap reasons) or there was an unreported, unlikely transfer fee (i'm investigating that now). Only 6 players for Dallas are reported to be under contract (rest had options declined, may re-sign?) Only Mastroeni and Cannon have guaranteed contracts for next year in Colorado. But I'm guessing most of the others haven't been cut yet and are still under contract with a team option to end it. I'll post an updated list with some other info over in the "Player Movement" thread.
They wouldn't say. Though on the Dallas forum you can find some guesses. Gibbs, O'Brien, and Eddie Johnson are surely of the 6. Valarki is confirmed too. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3725101&postcount=17 I'd suspect Cassar was picked up. I'm not sure if that # includes the p40/rookies/dev since they are unlikely to be re-signed for less (Maurin & roster protected Nunez, Goodson, Wagenfuhr). Note that these players aren't free to sign with other MLS teams, but the ones not picked up for next year can probably sign outside of MLS. Unlikely to be picked up are Gbandi, Jolley. Unkown to me are Davis, Reyes, Nhlecko, Pareja, Quill, Salyer, Talley, and Garlick. So from what I've read, Gibbs, O'Brien, and Valakari are among the 6. Eddie Johnson surely is too. My guess for the other 2 are Cassar and Salyer. But that's a wild guess. Doing another search, I ending up picking the same #5&6 as 3rddegree (top FC Dallas expert/insider here on BS IMO) https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3720362&postcount=7 and I agree with his 7-9 as they were my next 3 guesses (excluding rookies and Rhine/Davis more likely over Reyes). I'd figure Goodson staying p40 would be a likely pick up but who knows what's going on there since he got almost no minutes.