Semi-Official 2020 San Jose Earthquakes Roster Thread.

This has been such a vitally important thread this off-season. Thanks, @Seismothusiast for keeping up with all the changes!!


No disrespect to the Mighty Seismothusiast. I'm just being a sarcastic twit and expressing my annoyance with the lack of new signings. And I wanted to bump the thread.

Go Quakes!!
Fisher OUT!!

- Mark

 

There’s not really roster slots for such signings at this point. Maybe you wouldn’t have cleaned house more early. But Almeyda valued continuity for a multi-year plan. But now senior slots are filled unless they buy out Tarbell or some team got desperate for a keeper and they could move him.

 

There were a ton of MLS teams signing GKs this year. It doesn’t seem like those teams are beating down Fioranellis door to get Tarbell.

 

Even with he signing of Oswaldo Alanís (Who is he again ?) , I'm still not excited about this roster as of yet...

 

I have to agree. I'm super excited for the start of the season, but somethings missing.
Getting new players is like buying a pack of collectible cards. The anticipation of opening the pack of cards to see if you got any rare card that exceeds the value of a normal card.
Getting a handful of new players is exciting because maybe one or two of them could make a big difference and push the team up a notch. Or maybe you got a dud that gets sent back the next season.

This year we're supposed to be excited about the players we brought in last year to see if they improved in Cancun or if we need to find a way to offload them.

Fans are going to turn sour quick if Toronto and MN beat us by multiple goals. That seems like a real possibility.

I think a normal coach in this situation would have us park the bus just to ensure the fans don't jump ship. I'm thankful MA is not a normal coach. He's going all out and that's what I want - and probably the only thing I'm excited about this year.

 

I share your concerns. I mean, we could unload a player or three if we had to, but we should have dumped several guys as soon as the season ended. And with lots of teams shopping for GK's this off-season, we could have and should have dumped Tarbell then. Even if we had to eat a chunk of his salary, getting him off the roster would have been a really good idea.

Guys we could move easily:

Jacob - Full season loan to Reno. (It's not like he's going to play for the first team.)
Magnus - Trade, cut, promote to scout. We need a serious upgrade at his spot.
Luis Felipe - Surplus to needs? Clearly MA doesn't rate him, so why should he eat a roster spot? (I think he's OK, but maybe not for Almeyda's system. Lack of pace.)
Siad - I hope he plays for us this season, but depending on his development, we could loan him to Reno for the full season.
Kashia - Trade him, cut him, whatever. He's not good enough.
Lima - Trade. I like Lima, I want him to stay, but clearly Almeyda doesn't rate him.
Emi Ochoa stays with the youth sides.
Vako - If he gets upset that we've dump Kashia, he goes too. Otherwise, he stays.
Tarbell - Trade.

See? Lots of space on the roster if we want it.

We decided to "stand pat" with a roster that missed the playoffs. Not the wisest of moves.

Note that "stand pat" is a registered trademark of @JazzyJ.

Go Quakes!!
Fisher OUT!!

- Mark

 

Not only Reno loans, but if some of these kids can crack first team minutes I’ll be happy to see that. Walls seems most likely the first team next in the pipeline but u want to see Fuentes and maybe cowell too

 

No, because of many reasons. Only senior slots really matter. Doing something with a off budget roster slots gains you nothing except for someone else whose off budget. I didn’t read the CBA, but less things are completely different loaning a player like Haji, gains you nothing. Adding players to the off budget roster will not be able to change the starting line up much if at all.

Unless it’s changed recently, you can only buy out one contract.

Transfer windows are still open in a few places, but to move a player like Lima, you have to have a team in league with an open transfer window that wants to pay a transfer fee.

I think finding a trading partner for any of these senior roster players is a bit of a longshot. You have to find some one who wants to give you something of value. Draft picks aren’t worth much. A higher place on the allocation list is only valuable if you want a player on the allocation list that’s likely coming to MLS. Trading for a player, you’d really have to think said player is way undervalued with their club now and live with diminishing preseason acclimation time.

I think you’re probably wrong about Almeyda and Luis Felipe. He’d have to play Yueill’s slot when he’s gone...or did you have someone else in mind?

 

OK, I see what you're getting at, but my list includes Magnus, Vako, Kashia, Tarbell, and Lima. All use senior roster spots. Magnus got interest from an overseas team a few weeks back. We could have moved him -- if we had any ambition. I bet we could trade either of Tarbell or Lima to another MLS club. Maybe we wouldn't get much, but we'd open a roster spot and get all or most of their salary cap space back. I doubt any other MLS team would take any of Magnus, Vako, or Kashia off our hands. Those are guys we need to ditch in the transfer window.

BUT ... my point was that we could clear a roster spot or three if we really had too. That's all I was getting at.

Were I calling the shots, we'd have ditched a few more players than we did precisely to bring in new guys to improve our squad. Sticking with the same guys we had last season is not going to get the job done.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

Just curious if anyone else happen to notice that even though the Quakes didn’t bring in a lot of players, they shored up a major weakness.

The Quakes only had one natural left footer on the roster, Marcos Lopez (maybe Vega is left footed?)

They added Emi Ochoa, Casey Walls, Tanner Beason and Oswaldo Alanis.

 

Oops! Forgot Magnus

 

I think there was one season in the past we tried to monopolize the left footed player market and we could fill almost the entire line up with left footed player, minus the keeper. The AA, Corrales time?

 

The Arturo Alvarez era?

 

I think it’s important to have left-footed players (I’m left-footed). But we have also used inverted wings a lot over the years. Also, I discount the GK’s as left-footed. Sure, some of them are, but it’s field players where that’s really important. Like your left back and left mid spots.

Of course, good players are good with both feet.

Go Quakes!!
Fisher OUT!!

- Mark

 

Ask Arjen Robben about that.

 

Preki agrees with this!

 

Hugo Perez was asked what he did with his right foot and he replied, "I use it to get on the bus"

 

In development, if you are a riighty, there is a lot of time spent on getting your left foot into the action but if you are lefty, the coaches just leave you alone.

 

I’m left footed, as I’ve said many times. In practice, I worked hard to improve my skill and touch with my right foot. I can’t imagine thinking that I could be really dominantly one-footed and work on improving the other. Sure, many of you have cited several prominent examples, but let’s all remember how we howled and complained that Alvarez couldn’t use his right foot.

Go Quakes!!
Fisher OUT!!

- Mark

 

Still not too excited about the roster...

 

Anybody who is actually excited about our roster must live a life of extreme boredom. While I'm hopeful, that hope is tempered by the knowledge that the team we will field this year is largely the same as the teams we fielded over the past two disappointing seasons. I am hopeful, but prepared to be let down hard.

 

I really hope the continuation of the roster is what MA needs for his system to work. At this point, any new player would not be able to contribute in a meaningful way to 2020.