Roster Moves

The Rapids made a pair of roster moves over the last few days.  Last week they announced the re-signing of homegrown player defender Davy Armstrong.  Armstrong blew out his knee playing on-loan with Phoenix last season and had been rehabbing it since then.  He's now at full strength and was able to earn a new contract.  Armstrong has made 1 appearance for the team in league play, for 4 minutes in a 2012 match.  He also has featured in USOC and CCL play.

Today Colorado announced the waving of defender Brenton Griffths.  Griffiths was a 2013 Supplemental Draft pick and was signed early in the 2013 season.  Griffiths made 1 league appearance last year as a 90th minute sub and also played in the USOC.

As you can see this was swapping one deep bench defender for another, but it does free up an international spot as Griffiths is Jamaican.  I'm not surprised to see Griffiths waved as he was so far down the depth chart it was unlikely he was ever going to get playing time.  I'm surprised that the team re-signed Armstrong though.  He's been with the team since late summer 2010 and only ever made the one league appearance in 3+ seasons, I assumed that he would be kept on until healthy and then released to find another team probably in USL/NASL.

SuperDraft tomorrow (and two more re-signings)

First the roster news.  In a follow-up from yesterday I found out from the Rapids that Mullan is signed as a player, not a player/coach, so his whole salary will count against the cap.  Also both Brenton Griffiths and Kory Kindle were re-signed today, giving our defense some depth, even if its a bit untested.

Defensive depth will likely be a focus of tomorrow' Superdraft.  Starting at 10am MST with the first round on ESPNews the teams will go through the first two rounds, with the 3rd and 4th round held on Tuesday.  The Rapids hold 3 picks tomorrow. In the first rounf they have their natural pick at 11 for their 2013 finish.  In the second round they traded their natural pick at 11 (30th overall) to Vancouver for allocation money and an international spot two years ago but acquired LA's natural pick (14, 33rd overall) in the Pablo trade and Houston's natural pick 1(16, 35th overall) int he Mac Kandji trade.

This draft is considered to be weak on attacking power but strong on defense.  Don't be shocked if the Rapids look to add a center back at pick 11 (the same pick that got them Dillon Powers last year).  A couple of names you may hear are Denver-native defender Kyle Venter out of New Mexico, defender A.J. Cochran out of Wisconsin, Colorado Springs-native defender Patrick Slogic out of Cornell (though if the Rapids were really interested in him they could have signed him to a homegrown player contract as he was part of the Academy) , Brazilian midfielder Pedro Riberio out of Costal Carolina, and forward Denver-native Tesho Akindele out of Colorado School of Mines (who might have had the most beneficial combine out of anyone there).

If possible I'll update during the draft with our picks, otherwise I'll have a full recap tomorrow night.

Roster Churn Prior To Re-Entry Draft

A ton of roster news in the last couple of days.  Knocking it down 1 by 1.

• The Rapids have declined the option on Steward Ceus

Not to be harsh, but that's a good move.  Ceus obviously lost something this year.  He was one of the last eight players on the roster from the Cup winning team.  Ceus will be in the Re-Entry Draft on Thursday.

• Mullan's, Smith's options declined making them eligible for the Re-Entry Draft

No surprise here, both these guys (another 2 from the Cup winning team) are approaching retirement.  In the Ceus article Bravo said he expects everyone but Ceus to opt out of the Re-Entry Draft, so he mush have some feeling that Mullan and Smith will sign new contracts, leave the league, or retire.  I wouldn't mind keeping them around as coaches but their time to help on the field is basically over.

• Wallace and Armstrong are out of contract.

Sounds like Armstrong is being kept on until he's healthy, then probably let go.  Wallace is wanted back but will probably go somewhere where he can get more playing time, which I can't blame him for.  These are another two of the Cup winning players.  The only 3 with no news this week are Moor, Pickens, and Wynne.

• Griffiths and Kindle are extended new deals.

This one surprises me I figured the team might move on from both players.  Particularly Griffiths since he takes an international spot.  The coaches must see enough in practice to keep them on.  The article does say they're being offered their same minimum contracts they had this year.

• The Rapids want German Mera back next season.

Makes sense, especially after Calderon was let go.  I can understand not wanting to go through an expensive buyout for Mera and bringing him back on loan.  Smart way to go about it.

• Colorado wants to bring back Danny Mwanga.

Meh, from an age perspective he makes the most sense out of the Cascio/Hill/Mwanga trio, but from a play and cost perspective I like Cascio better.  Still it was a safe bet that at least 1 of those 3 would be back.  Maybe they can get him cheaper.

Next major even is the Re-Entry Draft on Thursday afternoon, though we may hear news about some of these players signing new contracts before that.

News Roundup 11/18/13

A couple of news and notes in the last week.

• Deshorn Brown started Jamaica's 1-0 loss to Trinidad & Tobago in a friendly on Friday.  They will play T&T again in Port of Spain tomorrow and I expect Brown to get some more time in that game.
• Deshorn's countryman Brenton Griffiths underwent shoulder surgery on Wednesday.  The surgery will keep him out for about 4 months.  This will take him right up and possibly into the start of the 2014 season, so he'll have a hard time claiming a place on next year's roster after he's healthy.
• As part of their preseason the Rapids will take part in the Desert Diamond Cup in Tucson, AZ from Feb. 19th - Mar. 1st.  They will play Chicago, FC Tucson, and New England, plus one more game against another one of the 5 teams in the competition (Chivas USA and FSL being the other two) depending on the standings after the first 3 rounds.  This after they play Chivas USA in Las Vegas on Feb. 16th.

And unrelated to the Rapids but of interest to soccer fans (and other niche sports).  If you have a Roku box you can sign up for DishWorld's sports package for $10 a month.  This gets you 5 sports channels; Universal Sports (Olympic sports), Nautical (boating and board water sports), One World Sports (coverage of East Asian sports including most of the East Asian soccer leagues and the Asian Champions League, plus the Chelsea, Arsenal, and Bayern Munich club channels), beIn Sports, and beIn Sports Espanol (English and Spanish coverage of European soccer and motor sports, South American soccer, World Cup Qualifiers, and cycling).  Comcast subscribers in Denver get both beIn channels on most packages but only in SD, while the Roku package is in HD and gives you the other 3 channels.  You also get 13 other non-sports channels for free ranging from Euronews to LUXE TV.

I used the beIn channel yesterday morning to watch the Cameroon-Tunisia World Cup Qualifier live and in HD from Yaounde, Cameroon.  It worked well.

Rapids Sign Brenton Griffiths

Today Colorado announced they signed their 2nd Round Supplemental draft pick (first pick the Rapids had in the draft) Brenton Griffiths.  Griffiths is a Jamaican international youth defender, playing for their U-17 and U-20 teams and played college ball at Tyler Junior College and the University of South Florida.  He's also played in all 4 Rapids Reserves matches this year.

Obviously this move was to add defensive cover with the injuries to Wynne and Calderon, plus the expected absence of O'Neill for the U-20 World Cup in June.  Griffths' signing brings Colorado up to 30 players, the roster limit, and 8 internationals, also the limit.  However with the number of players, both domestic and international, the Rapids have on injured reserve the limits aren't really a concern (players on IR don't count towards roster/international limits).  This probably means that the pursuit of a South American defender playing in Europe is over, as the transfer window closes at the end of the week and there's no room for another player, particularly another international, on the roster if everyone is healthy.