Starting Up Again As The Year Ends

After a much needed break from Rapids blogging and a bunch of holiday travel I'm back.  Not surprisingly I haven't missed much.  ;)  Colorado has a long history of not doing much in the offseason until after New Year's and that seems to have continued this year.  The one bit of news that we got recently was the announcement of the home openers, with the further announcement that we'll get the whole schedule a week from today.  We already know the Rapids first three games.

Sunday March 6th, 1pm @ San Jose
Saturday March 12th LA
Saturday March 19th @ DC

Kickoff times for the home opener and game in DC have not been announced yet.

That's a tough opening trio.  LA has started slowly the last couple of seasons so that might help us but trips to SJ and DC are never easy.  At the same time this team can't afford a slow start next season.  They probably need 7 points out of those 3 games to prove things have changed, 5 points might be enough.

I expect thing to start ramping up next week.  Some upcoming dates:

Jan 7th-12th - Combine
Jan 14th - Superdraft
Jan 21st-25th - Based on last season the Rapids should open camp in this time frame
Feb 13th - Preseason match @ Sacremento
Feb 17th-27th - Desert Diamond Cup @ Tucson

Colorado has a lot of work to do in the next 3 weeks before camp opens.

Goodbye Drew And Thanks!

Today the rumors were made official.  Drew Moor is no longer a Rapid.  The last remaining player from the 2010 MLs Cup team has signed with Toronto FC.  Two weeks ago the Rapids declined his option and under the new CBA that made Moor a free agent (28 years old or older with 8 years in MLS).  He had offers from multiple clubs but last week signs started pointing heavily towards him heading north of the border to Toronto and the Reds finalized the deal today.

There's no doubt Moor will be missed.  IMO this is a big mistake by the Rapids to not only let him go but to do so in a way that ensured we'd get nothing for him.

At the same time I'm very happy for Drew.  He'll get a chance to earn more money and continue his career where he's expected to be a cornerstone of the defense and a leader, both roles he seemed to be moved out of in Colorado last year.

I expect Conor Casey to be the next name added to the Gallery of Honor, but only because I expect him to retire before Moor.  As soon as Drew does retire though his name should go up there the next season.  He is a Rapids legend.

Pappa Traded To Colorado

The Rapids made it official today, trading allocation money to Seattle for Marco Pappa.  From the press release its obvious Pappa is expected to play the same role, though hopefully more centrally, that Sanchez did.  He's going to be looked for to be the creator and setup man for Doyle and the other strikers.

This is a solid move by the club but it can't be the highlight of the offseason like Sarvas was last year.  This is piece of the puzzle that is the 2016 roster but its not the final piece.

Current roster:

GK John Berner
GK Clint Irwin
D March Burch
D Joseph Greenspan (when on leave from the U.S. Navy)
D Marlon Hairston
D Axel Sjoberg
D Sean St. Ledger
M Michael Azira
M Sam Cronin
M Marco Pappa
M Dillon Powers
M Dillon Serna
M Juan Ramirez
M Marcelo Sarvas
M Jared Watts
F Dominque Badji
F Caleb Calvert
F Kevin Doyle
F Luis Solignac

With Drew Moor still negotiating (though signs point to him signing with Toronto).

MacMath In, Pappa Likely

Welcome back Zac MacMath.  Today the Front Office announced that MacMath will be returning as a full member of the Rapids as we sent our 2017 2nd round draft pick to Philly today for him.  This isn't that much of a surprise as the language used in the announcement that his loan ended and he returned to Philly made it pretty clear we wanted him back, but not at the cost of the previously negotiated first round pick next year, which is the #2 pick overall.

This is a sold move to pick up a MLS quality keeper for a cheap price.  I'm a little concerned about paying 6 figures for a backup though.  The other possibility is that there's a deal brewing for Irwin and there's some rumors to that extent.  I'd hate to lose Irwin but if the deal's good enough then this move makes a lot of sense.

Late today lots of reports started appearing that Seattle's Marco Pappa removed his name from today's Stage 1 Re-entry Draft (all but two teams failed to make a pick BTW) because Seattle is on the verge of announcing a trade to send him here to Colorado.  This is a really good move to reinforce the midfield, especially if Powers' trail at Reading turns into a move.  Of course the details matter so we'll have to see what the cost is but I'm cautiously optimistic (of course I was optimistic about Sarvas last off-season and that didn't pan out as well as I hoped).

Colorado Adds Two

Today the Rapids added two to the current roster.

First they signed a new deal with Sean St. Ledger.  Good move, he was solid last season and we need the central defense support.

Second they made the only pick in today's waiver draft, picking Michael Azira from Seattle.  Azira appears to be a defensive midfielder but I don't know much about him.  In 2 seasons in Seattle he's played 1333 minutes over 25 games.  There is a rumor that Vancouver was interested in him so this may be a pickup with hopes to trade.

Current roster:

GK John Berner
GK Clint Irwin
D March Burch
D Joseph Greenspan (his primary contract is still with the U.S. Navy though)
D Marlon Hairston
D Axel Sjoberg
D Sean St. Ledger
M Michael Azira
M Sam Cronin
M Dillon Powers
M Dillon Serna
M Juan Ramirez
M Marcelo Sarvas
M Jared Watts
F Dominque Badji
F Caleb Calvert
F Kevin Doyle
F Luis Solignac

With Drew Moor still negotiating.

Rapids Make Roster Moves

This afternoon the Front Office announced who would be returning and who's been cut from the 2015 roster for 2016.

Returning (either under contract or option picked up):
GK John Berner
GK Clint Irwin
D March Burch
D Joseph Greenspan (his primary contract is still with the U.S. Navy though)
D Marlon Hairston
D Axel Sjoberg
M Sam Cronin
M Dillon Powers
M Dillon Serna
M Juan Ramirez
M Marcelo Sarvas
M Jared Watts
F Dominque Badji
F Caleb Calvert
F Kevin Doyle
F Luis Solignac

Negotiating for a new contract:
D Drew Moor
D Sean St. Ledger

Cut (either out of contract or option not picked up):
GK Zak MacMath (loan expired)
D Bobby Burling
D Maynor Figueroa
D Michael Harrington
D James Riley
M Carlos Alvarez
M Nick LaBrocca
M Lucas Pittinari (loan expired)
M Vicente Sanchez
F Charles Eloundou
F Gabriel Torres

Alvarez, Sanchez, and Torres will be in the re-entry drafts over the next couple of weeks.  Moor could also be in the drafts if he doesn't come to an agreement with the club.  I've heard a rumor that he might be wanting to test the waters to see if there's more money out there but the fact that he's listed as negotiating with the club is probably a good sign that he's open to staying in Colorado.

Overall these look like pretty solid moves IF they get Moor back under contract.  Losing him, especially if we get nothing out of it, would be a significant blow.  Other than that I don't see a whole lot of future in the player's were letting go.  If you go back a month to my Roster Review you'll see that I listed 6 players that should be let go, all 6 of them were released today.  I had Eloundou and Figueroa on my keep list, I've always personally liked Eloundou but I realize I'm a minority in that opinion.  Figueroa was a keeper based on keeping his salary around the $100K he was listed under last year, if his option had a significant escalation I can understand not retaining him.  I also had Moor and St. Ledger as keepers.  Everyone else was in a middle ground of "good enough but we should look to do better" and I'm glad we're apparently trying to do that.