UPDATE: After picking Chris Seitz in the Re-Entry Draft, Seattle traded Seitz to FC Dallas.
The Philadelphia Union, who had the third pick in the second stage of the Re-Entry Draft, passed on making a selection and thus dropped out of the draft.
Soon after, Chris Seitz was picked by Seattle.
Fred was picked by New England in the second round after both DC United and Chivas USA passed on making another selection. He was the only player picked in the second round.
By selecting a player in the Re-Entry Draft, clubs acquire the rights to that player but must still negotiate a contract with that player or trade him.
DC United opened the second stage of the draft by picking Josh Wolff.
Chivas USA then selected Jimmy Conrad.
After the Union passed, New England selected Ryan Cochrane.
Juan Pablo Angel then went to LA Galaxy. The Galaxy had earlier traded with Houston to get the fifth pick in addition to the 14th pick they already had.
Chicago Fire next picked Cory Gibbs.
Sporting KC then picked Frankie Hejduk.
Chris Seitz was then picked by Seattle.
Columbus Crew next picked Jeff Cunningham.
The Galaxy then selected Luke Sassano.
Colorado closed out the first round by picking Tyrone Marshall.
Two drafts, four players lost for nothing. Someone please explain this Seitz thing. I guess they cleared enough salaries to make some moves, but seems like a roundabout way to do it.
I’m with you Greg. The Union are down to 21 players on a roster which, with the new season, can be as large as 30. If the Mondragon deal goes through that’s one more. They’ll also get some players in the SuperDraft. But where are those veteran game-changing players going to come from? As near as I can figure, the four moves clear up – using the numbers for guaranteed compensation – $615,625 in salary.
The $615,625 number should be taken loosely. The Generation Adidas status of Chris Seitz means that part of his $135,500 in guaranteed compensation was covered by MLS/adidas. I have no idea how that is factored in when it comes to determining a club’s salary expenditures.
I’m having trouble with the Angel thing. How does LA identify a place on their roster for him but Philly does not? I wonder if Bob Bradley called Nowak up and said, “I know Juan Pablo is out there, but don’t do it. You have plenty of scoring. Trust me.” Then he disappeared before He-Man showed up to renew their battle.
The Galaxy are closer to a title. They traded for Hejduk. They picked up vets who can help them win the MLS Cup next year. The Union aren’t that close.
I’m worried all 600k of that is going to Mondragon. Even though he is old and played terrible this season I can’t see him dropping everything in Germany for less than 600k a year. We have got to make some moves this winter rather than just picking up 4-5 rookies through the draft. The other thing that scares me is the fact that the torres/orozco deals have not been confirmed as permanent moves. Maybe I am just being pessimistic or worrying, but I would really like to hear some confirmation on those at some point. This was another stupid move by the Union this fall we had access to a couple of veteran defenders and some legitimate attacking options. Even though Angel was honestly out of our reach price wise why not take on Hejduk, Cunningham, Conrad or even Ngwenya(sp) in the first round. The latest article on Union’s website also has me worried that no or a very limited amount of money has been made available for the transfer window and that is why we needed to clear out players.
$600K a year puts Mondragon well into the DP range, where only $335K (or is it $325k?) counts towards the cap, err budget. The FO would still have plenty of Monopoly money to play with.
Here’s an idea for any Union front office members who read this site. Why the secrecy? You’re still a fledgling franchise trying to build a fan base. This tight lip crap isn’t helping. WE want to know what’s going on with OUR team. Getting through the first season was excellent but its time to prove that all those growing pains will amount to progress and right now we’re neither seeing nor hearing ANYTHING. If guys like myself who follow this closely are getting agitated I can only imagine that the casual fan has completely stopped paying attention. Great way to spend our off-season. Sorry to rant, but this is absurd.