Roster Cuts

The Rapids announced today that they cut 1st round draft pick Emmanuel Appiah and 3rd round pick Chris Froschauer.  The later is not a surprise, Froschauer was not on the bench for last night's game and with Howard coming in there really wasn't a reason for the team to carry 4 keepers (including Berner in Charlotte).  Appiah is a bigger surprise.  While some people felt he wasn't a 1st round pick I didn't expect the Rapids to move on so quickly (conversely, may thought Castillo was a steal in the second round and he seems to be living up to that).

With this news and the arrival of Greenspan the Rapids now have 2 open roster spots (1 if Ramirez unexpectedly returns).  If the plan is to sign Shelton we still need an international spot however.

Loans & International Call Ups

A little bit of mid-week roster news:

• Appiah and Calvert have been loaned to Charlotte.  This was fairly predictable.  Calvert spent most of last year with the Independence while Appiah as a draft pick will be more likely to get time there than in Colorado.  We'll see if anyone else makes the trip to the East Coast.  ?Unless their loans are full-season loans with no recall clauses they still count against the 28 man roster cap.  As reserve players they already don't count against the salary cap so no change there.
• Kevin Doyle was called up for Ireland, Marco Pappa for Guatemala.  They'll both leave after the DC game.  With (most of) the league taking the following weekend off due to the FIFA dates they won't miss any Rapids games.  We'll wish Doyle great success and no injuries in Ireland's friendlies against Switzerland and Slovakia.  We'll wish Pappa no injuries and no success as Guatemala will be playing the U.S. in back-to-back World Cup Qualifiers during the window.
• Oddly enough Gashi was not called up for Albania for their pre-Euro friendlies against Austria and Luxembourg.  I don't know if this was due to his illness and fitness level, just giving him a chance to adjust to his new team, not needing to see what he has pre-Euros, or not needing him any more..

Rapids Make A Couple Of Signings

Me right now

The Rapids started the day filling to their empty roster spots about how I thought they would.  They announced they signed draftee GK Chris Froschauer.  Then they announced they signed draftee M Emmanuel Appiah.

Then at 5:30 today they dropped the mic.  Colorado traded general allocation money and their  first round pick next year to new England for Jermaine Jones.  Yes, that Jermaine Jones.  Using that TAM they accumulated they've bought him down to non-DP status.

This idea was kicked around by the fan base and I was against it as a DP.  As a non-DP though?  All for it.  Jones is my favorite current Nat, though he dropped quite a bit with that playoff hissy-fit last year.  Because of that he'll miss the first 6 games as he serves his suspension for pushing the ref.  His first game will be April 16th against the Red Bulls at the Dick.

That suspension also explains/solves my concern about any big signing having to learn on the fly as the season goes.  He can't play for 6 weeks so he'll have the equivalent of almost a full preseason to work with the team in practice before he's eligible.

my assumption is that this "solves" the right wing issue by pushing Pappa out there so Jones can sit in the center with Powers and Cronin behind him.  Or maybe Powers will be in the center with Jones and Cronin behind him.  Either way it will be a midfield of Cronin, Gashi, Jones, Pappa, and Powers with Kevin Doyle in front of them when everyone is healthy and available.  That's a significant improvement over what we had last year.

The last notable game that Jones played in Colorado was the Snow Clasico which birthed the Sno Fro:

Current roster:

GK John Berner
GK Chris Froschauer
GK Zac MacMath
D March Burch
D Bobby Burling
D Marlon Hairston
D Eric Miller
D Axel Sjoberg - Inernational
D Sean St. Ledger - International
D Mekeil Williams - International
M Emmanuel Appiah
M Michael Azira
M Sam Cronin
M Jermaine Jones
M Marco Pappa
M Zach Pfeffer
M Dillon Powers
M Dillon Serna
M Jared Watts
F Dominque Badji - International
F Caleb Calvert
F Conor Doyle
F Kevin Doyle - International - DP
F Shkëlzen Gashi - International - DP
F Luis Solignac - International

Rapids Go All In On Outside Signings

A wild and crazy day at the Superdraft ended with the Rapids positioned to make some big signings from outside the league and not much else.  First to recap the day.

1. Rapids send Targeted Allocation Money to LA for the #12 pick
2. Rapids send the #2 pick to Philly for General Allocation Money and a player yet to be named
3. Rapids send the #12 pick, the #2 pick in the second round, and the #2 spot in the allocation order to Chicago for the #15 pick, the #13 pick in the 2nd round, and the #1 spot in the allocation order
4. With the #15 pick the Rapids select defensive mid Emmanuel Appiah out of Cincinnati
5. Rapids send the #13 pick in the 2nd round to Dallas for the #17 pick in the second round and the #17 pick in the third round
6. With the #17 pick in the 2nd round the Rapids select defender Dennis Castillo out of VCU

So the final result:
#1 allocation ranking
General allocation money
Player to be named later from Philly
Emmanuel Appiah
Dennis Castillo
#2 and #17 picks in the 3rd round and the #2 pick in the 4th round on Wednesday

That's a far cry from my prediction of Brandon Vincent and somebody else.

Really this means the Rapids have put all their chips on outside signings.  There are basically 3 ways to acquire players.

A. Draftees/college kids - The Rapids just past on their best chances to improve in this group by trading down all day
B. Internal league trades - The Rapids have to have something to offer.  At best they have Irwin and maybe Powers but that's a zero sum game
C. Outside the league signings - This is where the Rapids have put their money

With the #1 allocation spot and allocation money while passing up a top draft pick the Rapids are clearly going with the outside signing strategy.  For a while today the rumors were that they would be signing Alejandro Bedoya but that was shot down officially tonight by Goal.com.

Allocation ranking is only used for returning U.S. National Team players (both full team and youth) and players who were sold by MLS for at least $500K and are returning.  Here's the list as of mid-summer.  We would not use our allocation ranking on Pulido who would not require that (more on that later).

I wanted to highlight a couple of quotes from the Goal.com story:

"We tried to make it happen but Nantes is not selling" Bravo said on Thursday of the club's interest in Bedoya. "We still feel securing the top spot in the Player Allocation Order is a very significant step for our organization."

According to Bravo, the Rapids still plan to use the top allocation spot to sign someone this winter, though he would not say who the Rapids are targeting

and

"Our goal is to have our team together for the start of training camp, to have all the pieces together for Pablo to start the season," Bravo told Goal USA. "Our ownership has committed to really improving our team and we have a plan in motion we feel very good about."

So clearly the Rapids new Bedoya wasn't the plan when making the moves today and they have someone else in mind.  They also expect to move quickly on this plan since camp opens (probably) in a week.

On to Pulido.  ESPN had an article today (in Spanish) saying that, if Google Translate didn't fail me, states that Olympiacos and the Rapids are very close to a deal and it was originally Pulido who didn't want to come.  It also states that this would be a one year loan with the plan that Pulido will return to Europe after one season in MLS.  Now standard operating procedure for a loan into MLS is to include an option for MLS to buy the player but its not a requirement.  I;m really hesitant to go after a player that only plans to be here a year.  That's not the long-term plan we need to rebuild this team.

If they pull this off and get a significant player alongside Pulido with a long-term plan then then will be a day of great moves.  Make no mistake though this is a must deliver move for Hinchey, Bravo, and Mastroeni.  Even with their apparent job security if they can't being in Pulido and an allocation-level player before the season starts then that's the end of the road.  Today they bet everything on this plan and they better not bust.