The premise here is simple -- Olsen and Kasper don't exist. They may be back, may not, doesn't matter. Who from the current roster would you keep for next year? Keep: Hamid Willis Jakovic Korb Riley White Shanosky Martin Kemp Thorrington Kitchen Jeffrey DeLeon Pontius Neal Silva Seaton Doyle DeRo Drop: Woolard Iapichino Nyassi Porter Pajoy Saragosa Ruiz Syamsir Townsend I know some will say "they're all crap, dump them all," but that won't work. You can't blow up a roster completely year after year. You must take the young good-uns, like Silva, Doyle, Kitchen, Jeffrey, Martin, Hamid and/or Willis and keep some roster continuity. My list provides 9 open roster slots to fill -- more than enough to obtain starters and roster depth that could enhance the young guys' development as players. The two hardest "keeps" were DeRo and Pontius because they are so expensive. I'm not sure how much of a mentor DeRo is and at 35 or 36, you can't rely on him for 90 minutes game in and game out. Pontius just can't stay healthy. I remember when he was drafted, someone compared him to Pat Noonan -- unfortunately that comparison is quite apt, Noonan also was brittle and out of the league before his time. Pontius essentially commands a DP salary, that's a great deal of money to spend on someone as brittle as glass. You dump DeRo and Pontius and you have about 700K in salary freed up.
Keep: Hamid Willis Dykstra Woolard Korb White Shanosky Martin Kemp Thorrington Kitchen Jeffrey DeLeon Pontius Neal Silva Seaton Doyle Townsend Drop: Jakovic DeRo Riley Iapichino Nyassi Porter Pajoy Saragosa Ruiz Syamsir My list is pretty similar. I swap Jakovic for Woolard because imo you get about the same level of competence for about 200k less. That leaves 19 players, and I'm not married to all of them. Neal, Townsend, Korb, Kemp - these guys really need to be pushed for a roster spot. Dropping DeRo, Jakovic, Pajoy and Ruiz will get a good amount of room under the cap. That money spread around, spent wisely on quality and maybe there's a playoff team. If they decide to zero in on a couple of players and they don't sign for whatever reason, they're screwing themselves again. They need to target several players, many, many players, so that when one doesn't sign, the other may. I think they may scout like: 'this player is good, let's get him', instead of, 'these are the players we like, let's tell them we are interested and take it from there'. I'm sure that's naive, but definitely a digression, so never mind.
Played this game a few weeks ago. I'm adding a third category, where players are brought into camp for a chance to earn a spot. Keep Hamid (moves to "sell", depending on his contract status) Willis Jakovic (preferably at a reduced salary if possible) Korb (keep only if he finishes strong, if he plays like he has he moves to Camp) White Shanosky Martin Kemp Kitchen Jeffrey DeLeon Pontius Silva Seaton Doyle DeRo Some of these very young guys you can't say either way, but under contract, you keep them. They might not end up with the 1st team next year. In camp to earn contract: Thorrington Neal Woolard Iapichino (depending on what he does this season) Porter Saragosa Townsend Drop: Riley Nyassi Pajoy Ruiz Syamsir I also expect to have about 10 roster spots to fill. Probably 3 would come out of the "camp" group, another 3 from draft and waiver wire, by the start of the season. 1 or 2 would be other acquisitions. I expect we'll start the season with at least 3 vacant spots on the roster. Dero, honestly, I can take him or leave him. My guess is we won't find many players better than him, so he's useful to have on the roster. If his salary comes down, no problem. If it stays where it is, and we find a couple players able to fill that gap, I'm happy to trade/waive him. Unless we win the USOC and get extra cap room and roster spots, then I'd have to be more aggressive earlier.
Great thread Griffin ... I'll break it down by position. GK I'd keep all 3 if possible. Obviously if a good transfer offer comes in for Hamid ...sell him. I'm comfortable with Willis and Dykstra being promoted and finding a new 3rd stringer. LB Keep Kemp. Get rid of Iapichino and Woolard. Really need a solid starter here with Kemp as backup CB Keep Jakovic. I'm not super impressed with White and Shanosky but keep them because they don't count against the cap. Obviously we need another starter here RB Keep Riley and Korb. I think between the two of them we should be fine here LM Keep Pontius and Porter. Neal missing an entire season at his age probably should go. CM Keep Kitchen and Jeffrey. I'm not very keen on Thorrington at his age. Saragosa like Neal probably gone ... Obviously would need another solid starter here. RM Keep De Leon. Get rid of Nyassi F Obviously keep Silva and Doyle. I'd welcome De Ro back at a massive paycut. I would think that he should feel like he owes the organization. He got paid over $1 mil over these two years for very little. Ruiz, Pajoy, Townsend and Alam should all definitely go. Maybe you keep Ruiz if you have to as a real cheap wild card. That leaves us with a starting lineup of ---------------------------Hamid Korb-----------Jakovic-----------White-----------Kemp DeLeon--------Kitchen----------Jeffrey-----------Pontius -----------------Doyle-----------Silva bench : Willis, Shanosky, Riley, Porter, DeRosario, Ruiz ... reserves : Ruiz That's only 18 players. We'd need to fill about 10 roster spots. We definitely need a starting LB and CB. A starting level CM would be nice to create competition in that area. A target forward would be nice. A left footed winger who can cross would be nice.
That is a matter of opinion. I think we need at least 4 new starters (at different positions) and as long as we dump at least 9 of the following players- Porter, Pajoy, Korb, Saragosa, Neal, DeRo, Nyassi, Ruiz, Riley, Townsend and Thorrington- we'll be fine.
how i feel Keep: Hamid Willis Dykstra Doyle Silva Seaton Martin Deleon Jeffrey Kitchen Korb White Neal Camp: Shanosky Kemp Thorrington Ruiz Syamsir Porter Woolard Iapichino Riley Drop: Pajoy DeRo Nyassi Saragosa Townsend Paycut: Pontius Jakovic
To me it mostly depends on what we can bring in rather than starting with cuts, except for the obvious ones. If I get 10 cuts, I cut Pajoy 9 times then Porter
GK - Dkstra Willis Hamid (possibly sell if there is an offer) D- Kemp White Korb M- DeRo at a huge paycut Kitchen DeLeon Silva Pontius F - Doyle Seaton That's it.
Keep: Willis Dykstra Korb Shanosky Kemp Martin Jeffrey Silva White Kitchen Thorrington Seaton Sell (yeah right): Hamid Trade: Jakovic Pontius DeLeon Dump: Riley Seaton Doyle DeRo Woolard Iapichino Nyassi Porter Pajoy Saragosa Ruiz Syamsir Townsend I feel bad keeping that many. I wouldn't do anything without a new GM and coach. James
If we're not going to make any changes at GM or coaching we might as well dump everything we have that is valuable and stockpile some draft picks and allocation money for whenever we do decide to hire someone. In the mean time we can just bring in a bunch of Kickers players ... I'm sure they can't do worse than what we've been doing so far.
why cut seaton? he's HG, presumably cheap & young enough to develop we def need veterans/starters ahead of him on the chart but i'd say at least keep him for a year or two more
Here's my knee-jerk-response... Keep Hamid Willis Korb White Shanosky Martin Kemp Kitchen Jeffrey DeLeon Pontius Silva Seaton Doyle DeRo Drop Jakovic Pajoy Saragosa Syamsir Iapichino Nyassi Porter Opportunity Riley Neal Ruiz Townsend Woolard Thorrington
I understand being a minimalist but even the the most cynical should include Silva and Doyle ... and most likely Willis.
We don't really have a choice with Doyle. If he scores like 1-2 more goals, he'll be recalled or given a chance somewhere else (maybe, I feel likely). You can't plan a roster around players on short loans.
We don't know that. I think a fair offer could keep him here. His club in England wasn't playing him so I doubt they're going to try and block anything. To assume that now suddenly all the scouts in Europe are watching this guy just because he scored a couple of goals at DC is a little hopeful. It comes down to the player. Does he like being back stateside and getting minutes? Or does he want to gamble again on a European dream. Honestly his best bet in Europe would be to go down a division in England and there he'll likely get more minutes. I'm not sure though that the 3rd tier in England is necessarily more desirable than MLS
And, IIRC, we have until December 1 to make a decision on exercising an option to buy. What I don't know is if Doyle himself has any input into the decision. As things are today, if we sign him he is assured of a starter's minutes, which must sound good to a guy Derby County wasn't playing. On the other hand, he's stuck with a crap team. So, do you want to be a big fish in a small pond?
In the drop column -- Porter might be worth giving a chance to develop -- very young. Otherwise, I think you've hit these right. The one question mark I have in the keep column is Korb -- a mystery to me this year, after looking so good last year, and looking good in preseason, too. After watching Jakovic the last two games, I'm basically in agreement with this. The opportunity section is interesting. Riley has looked pretty good the last month going forward, anyways. If he took a pay cut, he might be worth a spot. Neal ain't great, but I don't see much chance of finding someone better in his role. Ruiz -- I doubt he wants back, but at his salary? I think I'd rather see him get a chance where he might get to play. Townsend? He's not done anything this year, but I wonder if he might have done better with a real midfield and a strike partner. Thorrington -- I like, but I'm not sure if I like him at his current wage. Woolard -- I'm not such a fan, but maybe he's worth keeping for some veteran experience. He's overpaid, but relatively cheap by international standards.