I was reading the MLS release today on the roster changes... and I read some fine print. I have a couple thoughts on it. Here is the release... I highlighted the important bit I wanted to talk about.... (unless this turns out to be total crap, the release I mean, not my speculation) What does it mean? It means that SI and YI are not locked into parts of the roster.... points: 1. That all the SI and YI can be on the full roster. i.e.. 11 Americans and 7 Non-green card holding Internationals if you really want. 2. Or they could all be developmental. How you ask? If they are cheap enough they can be on the developmental roster. (O'Brien, Valakari, and Nhleko are not cheap enough, but Nunez is.) 7 foreign player on the developmental roster? ok probably not. 3. If you sign a Youth Int out of college (anyone 24 and under) and you sign him cheap enough he no longer would move up to the full roster when he turns 25. While he would take a SI slot, he can now be an SI on the developmental roster. This would possibly have affected Shavar Thomas.... and a couple guys who may come out of college this year. 4. If you sign a $250K 22 year old foreign player, he no longer eats an SI slot. He will be on the full roster, as he would have been before, but now you can keep him YI. --- Remember when Toni Nhleko came here he was 23, but due to the money he was an SI? Not on the current system, he would have stayed YI and FCD would have had an extra open SI spot. (Toni turns 25 next season and therefore is a SI in 05 anyway) Why do we care you may ask? Because FCD has two allocations. Now they can burn one on a 25+ player and eat the 4th SI spot. AND They can sign a <24 year old player and take one of those YI spots. In other words.... FCD can sign two big time money foreign players AND keep Toni Nhleko, as long as one of them is under 24. Or maybe even THREE foreign players if one is a discovery player. I gotta find someone to verify all this....
I think this is just a poorly worded way of saying TIs can be DEV too, something that was true this year (Stephenson, Dorman, Gilberto, and probably Nunez). It probably implies that the 3 TI's per team means 3 out of 28. Not 3 out of 18 and as many DEV/TIs as you want. Very, very unlikely this means SIs can be DEVs (25+ y/o's on the 23 and under roster???) Even so, they'd have to be on dev pay. Tried thinking of some weird way this would allow Chivas to have more SIs by putting them on the DEV roster. Seriously doubt it. I think it's just poor grammar/logic. It implies some internationals not TIs could be DEV. So it doesn't seem a big jump it's talking about SIs. But putting 25 y/os that aren't GKs on the dev roster is redefining "dev". Why would MLS want to push development of internationals more than of domestic players? It sounds like something is up, but I think they're restating the current rules and TRYING (poorly) to clarify that the TI spots are limited to include those on the dev roster.
well the language of the rules there are no more TIs. Both TIs (which were on the main roster) and YI (which was a guy like Nunez) are the same thing now... a YI.... which is anyone 24 or less in age. SI is now anything 25 and up. Of couse. I didn't say it did. You could put 7 Int on the Dev roster if you want to. Fairly dang unlikely but you could. It will be one or less per team I am guessing. Of course. But I will give you an example. There is a 30 something (31? 36?) year old striker in town here that used to play for Sal Palo I believe, I can look his name up if it is important. He is a servicible player. He is a guy you could sign on the cheap for your reserve team if you had an open spot and an open SI. Someone who could spot fill in on the main team in case of many injuries. He would be an SI and dev, provide some protection, perhaps have things to pass to youngsters, and contribute to the team here and there. agree, but that was not my point. Chivas already traded for a YI spot, and they get two more than anyone else anyway. So they are up to 6 YI and 4 SI. I think you are right on that. IT's just an attempt to put YI like Nunez on Dev. But it will effect a couple picks this year. But the far more important part is the elimination of salary in determining where a player falls in SI or YI. That means that you could sign a big time player who is 24 and under and have him be a YI. In the past he would be forced to SI. Just for an example Christian Ronaldo could be signed as a YI. In the case of FCD with two allocaitons and three discoveries (O'Brien and Valakari were discoveries) they can now go out and get three outstanding players and fit them into the roster. Four if they want to dump Toni. That is a big, big change.
I don't think that's true. Gilberto Flores was a YI and DEV last year. I think you could have done this in the past. It used to be that expensive players that were 24 and under still counted as SIs, but that was when there was only 12 spots league wide and teams didn't want a cap runaround. Since then, every international under 25 (the last year or two) has been a TI. If signed to ~$850/mo, then DEV too. If not, they counted against the cap. I don't think this is changing. I see absolutely no change in this rule here. About TI and YI, MLS has been using the terms interchangeably the last couple of years. In 2000, TI was 23 or 24 y/o on the senior roster. JI was a 23 and under player not counting against the cap. Both were YI. But about 2002, JI was done away with though the term was used again once with Nunez. I'd take anything saying TI or YI the last year or two as meaning the same. In practice, the system is entirely the same IMO except the per team limit instead of the per league limit. The only potential difference is the implied SI on DEV roster argument and I think that's not happening. I don't think that's waht this statement intends. If you can't put a 24 and older domestic player on a dev contract, why would MLS allow this special protection for internationals? I suppose it means one more senior roster space for a domestic player in place of that dev spot. But it still seems a little crazy. Perhaps Chivas could loan Ramon Ramirez to Chivas USA for $850/mo or whatever the salary will be under the new CBA and then get more GC/dual citizens/Latin-Americans on the senior roster and have a competitive advantage. But I don't buy this new rule yet.
It was true the last 2 years. When Toni Nhleko was singed at the tail end of 2003 his contract made him an SI. He was 23 years old at the time he signed. Not only was he young enough for the JI spot, which he didn't get. Contract was the only reason he was a SI. It also know it was true in 2004 becasue I talked to Elliott and Clarke about targets they had, how much they cost, and where they would have to fit on the roster becasue of it. And if the language of this is right, then my speculation is true (which we need to confirm) that any Int player can be signed to any number and not have it effect his SI or YI status. They should not have been used the same. SI was the top level, in theory 25 and up or big money. JI was 24 and down, broken into two catagories. ...i.e. senior vs junior TI was the 23 and 24 year olds... like Joselito Vaca of late YI was the kids like Nunez on the dev roster (and I think Vaca when he was drafted, but that was two rule changes ago.) ... i.e. Transitioning from Youth to Senior.... It may not have been used that way, but it was suppsoed to be. The confusion came becasue the YI had dissapeared we had all thought until Nunez was made one. So TI and JI had come to mean the same thing in talking about it. But it should not have. It admit it's odd. But that is what it says.
I think YI has meant a number of things depending where I've read it. At one point JI+TI+YIs. The league limit of 20 TIs may have been a reason why some guys couldn't get that status, but I agree you're right about Nhlecko. I had wondered why he wasn't TI. There weren't many, if any, other cases like him in MLS the last couple years. I think you guys ony had 2 SIs at the time anyway, so I'm not sure if it really matttered though it may have prevented another signing. I'll agree that any player probably can be signed to any number and be SI or YI next year purely based on age. But a 22 year old international signed to the max, may be a YI next year but I'm pretty sure he'll still have to be on the senior roster and won't be eligible for the developmental roster. And I'm not yet believing a 28 y/o international SI can be signed to a dev contract next year.
Since it looks like cost is still the requirement for developmental you are probably right. What old guy would take that little money, beyond the hypothetical I mentioned. It's the idea of a 22 year old worth the max that you mention fitting into the YI and not SI that has me excited.