Monday, November 24, 2008

2008 MLS Expansion Draft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_MLS_Expansion_Draft

I've spent some time updating that page on Wikipedia. Unfortunately, as usual MLS only released the names of the exposed players, and not both. So I had to figure everything out myself.

A few notes:

1) NY has 14 players who aren't listed as exposed, which has to be a mistake. Obviously Terry Boss and Gabriel Cichero aren't going to be protected. The last guy is probably either Conway, Kandji, or Rojas. Still don't know 5 hours later.

2) I list retired players, MLS does not. I think there might also be a few missing players on the MLS lists other than on NY. For example, Scott Bolkan of the Galaxy isn't listed.

3) NE's list has Jose Angulo and Mauricio Matamoros. It turns out the latter player is actually Castro, as someone on Bigsoccer informed me. The former player is the young player Ives has mentioned a few times, but he is not currently on the Revs roster. Unless something happened today, that doesn't make sense. They also list Fernandez whom MLSnet lists as no longer on the roster.


Draft Preview

Don't get excited over guys like Gallardo, Gaven, Klein, Kovalenko, O'Brien, Razov, Ricketts, Ruiz, Victorine, and others with high salaries. Seattle might take one guy with a high salary, but almost all of them will be passed up in favor of cheaper, younger options. Unless they work out a trade.

NE traded Cristman because he was going to be left unprotected otherwise. I thought it was between him and Dube for the final spot, but it turns out that unlike what is listed on MLSnet, Dube is an international player. So Dube was protected as one of the three internationals. If you want the correct information people, you need to check out the game guides and not the roster pages.

Saragosa over Sikora and Robinson over Pappa initially seemed weird to me, but they both make sense. Pappa won't play for any other team based on his loan.

Loans and salaries certainly are an issue when it comes to protecting players, as are expiring contracts. Keep that in mind when evaluating these lists.

The true surprises of the protected players in my mind are:

CHV-Burling (Vaughn)
COL-Peterson (Harvey, Kimura)
CLB-O'Rourke (Evans, Noonan)
HOU-Boswell (Barrett)
KC-Marinelli (Trujillo)
LA-Jazic (Klein)
RSL-Russell (Sturgis)

I thought the guys in parenthesis would be more likely choices. KC had to protect a third international, and Trujillo's been getting more playing time. Boswell is a free agent, so that's interesting. Klein should have a bit of trade value, no? And it kind of shocks me to see O'Rourke there, who was probably the worst starter on the Crew. I guess that's because Marshall's contract is up.

The draft itself is on Wednesday, which sets up a very interesting situation. Houston plays their last CCL group stage match that night, so it's likely one of their players will be playing for them after being selected earlier in the day by Seattle.

Here's my early guess for the 10 selections:

CHI-Prideaux
CHV-Flores
CLB-Evans
COL-Dalby
DAL-Pitchkolan
HOU-Jaqua
KC-A.Thompson
NE-W.Thompson
NY-Parke
RSL-Sturgis

DC, LA, SJ, TOR - none

Comments on "2008 MLS Expansion Draft"

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (9:53 AM, November 25, 2008) : 

Good work.

RSL Fan here. I think Russell has proven a lot towards the end of the season. Played CB, RB, DM and RM. And, Sturgis had been hurt all year. But, I do think Sturgis should have been protected and Rimando should have been exposed. Initial reports said just that, but it was changed. This makes me think Seitz got a late offer, and we may see the end of his limited pitch-time with RSL. Or, maybe it was just a miscue from the reporters.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (1:29 PM, November 25, 2008) : 

I think LA's Jazic was protected only because he's an intenational and Klein's not.

 

Blogger scaryice said ... (3:51 AM, November 26, 2008) : 

Jazic has a green card.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (8:05 AM, November 26, 2008) : 

I'd stay away from Sturgis, if I were in charge at Seattle. Eight games in a year and a half for RSL, otherwise injured. Sturgis seems to be made of glass and he is especially prone to injury on the turf.

 

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