* Rapids pick Mike Grella in Re-Entry Draft, immediately trade him to Columbus for a 2019 2nd round draft pick
- As the Rapids Media Director later confirmed on Twitter this was a quick way to get a free draft pick. The Rapids had no intention of taking anyone but the Crew approached them about making this move (they couldn't trade the pick due to the blackout period pre-draft) so Colorado got a draft pick for nothing. Why not?
* Steve Cooke takes over the USL's Oklahoma City Energy
- Not a real surprise except maybe the timing. Cooke has put in his time and showed a bit of what he could do as the head coach when taking over Pablo's spot this past season. The Rapids made keeping him a condition of any new coaching hire so I thought he'd be around at least until the midseason coaching moves in the lower leagues happened but either way he was going to get a chance sooner or later. Good luck to him! I don't think this is a huge loss for Colorado. While I'm sure Hudson would have been happy to work with Cooke giving him more freedom to set up his own staff is probably a good thing.
* Rapids will open with the Fire at home on March 3rd at 7pm then head to New England for their home opener on March 10th at 11:30am (MT).
- Good to open at home though a night game in early March might be chilly. And we always seem to get a road game in New England early in the season.
* Colorado draws Toronto in the CONCACAF Champions League. Home game Feb. 20th at 8pm, road leg Feb. 27th at 6pm (MT). Season ticket holders will get a ticket to the home match as part of their ticket package.
- All good news except that date/kickoff time. Can you say brrr? Its likely going to be quite cold by the final whistle at 10pm. I'm much happier drawing a equally-in-preseason Toronto than a in-midseasonn-form Mexican side in the first round. Our odds are better against TFC, even if they are the GOAT MLS team. I mean, they hosted us last season when we were awful and they couldn't beat us.
* Colorado trades $100K of TAM to Vancouver for New Zealand outside back Deklan Wynne.
- No surprise that Hudson is grabbing up his former New Zealand players that are in MLS. Much like McBean, Wynne has spent most his career on Vancouver's USL side, and I would expect that he continues to see time in Charlotte. $100K in TAM sounds like a lot but with the amount of TAM more than doubling this season that's only worth about half as much as it used to be.
That's it for the news over the last couple of weeks. To do a quick review of our offseason so far we've acquired one likely starter (Blomberg) and 3 young players unlikely to contribute in a meaningful way to a successful 2018 season (Colvey, McBean, Wynne). There's nothing bad about any of those moves they're just fairly meaningless, outside of Blomberg. We have a little over 3 weeks before camp opens, I expect the Rapids to be very busy stocking up the actual first team roster in that time if we hope to be successful in the CCL and league this season.
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Glad that you are back and nice to see the summer of what has gone on thus far with transactions. I am in agreement that three of the four completed during the off-season won't have a big impact on the '18 campaign. The two Kiwis + McBean seem to be moves for the future in that if they develop they could be in first team in a season or so.
Now, the next month will be make or break for this upcoming season. Really, since Aigner there haven't been any big signings. So now Pádraig & Co. need to produce big time if the Rapids are going to have any success this season.
Here's a parting thought . . . If the Rapids are going to play a 3-5-2 this season then they will need at least five players that are capable of playing on the back line. Besides Sjóberg and Ford who else do they have at this time that would qualify as starting material? Are Da Fonte, Miller and Watts in the mix to be the third starter or are Pádraig and Hudson willing to bring in a more talented player to start?
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