Rapids News and Notes - December 3rd 2011

Sorry I went AWOL on everyone (which I'm guessing is about 5 readers at this point in the offseason ;)) for a few days, stomach flu sucks. A couple of interesting news items came out this week.

• Colorado declined the options on Miguel Comminges, Danny Earls, Steven Emory, and Michael Holody.

Holody's 3 years of service means he's eligible to be selected by other MLS teams in next week's re-entry drafts. The other 3 are either have to work out new deals with the Rapids or hope they can get a team to trade for their rights. The only real surprise here is Comminges. I thought he played fairly well in his time here, but Colorado doesn't seem interested in keeping him. My only guess is that he had a significant salary escalation clause if his option was picked up and the Rapids want him, but not at the higher price. Declining the option gives Colorado the chance of renegotiating now.

The other oddity was protecting Danny Earls in the expansion draft but then not picking up his option. Maybe the Rapids were really hoping that Montreal would take Folan or Comminges with their current contracts and wanted to leave them exposed, which would have required them to protect Earls as one of the only three remaining internationals.

• The Denver Post reported that Colorado had a 4th coaching candidate in Commerce City for face-to-face interviews on Wednesday.

I'm glad to see things are moving quickly out at the Dick. It sounds like the team is hoping to have somebody in place before things start shutting down for the holidays. According to the Rapids the one thing all 4 candidates so far have in common is that they all have head or assistant coaching experience in MLS. Everyone seems pretty sure that 3 of the candidates are Curt Onalfo, Denis Hamlett, and Steve Ralston. My choice out of those 3 would probably be Hamlett, and I would hate to see Onalfo become the guy. I'm hoping the 4th one is a bit of a wild card like Steve Morrow or Cobi Jones but the heavy favorite seems to be Richie Williams.

TV and Roster News

Two big pieces of news today. first the Rapids officially announced that they'll be back on altitude in HD this year for 27 games. That appears to be every non-FSC or ESPN game, and the two ESPN games will be rebroadcast on Altitude. When the games overlap a Nuggets or Avalanche game the game will be on Altitude 2. All the games will have a 30-minute pre-game show and the home games will have a 30-minute post-game locker room report. They'll rotate through 6 different play-by-play guys, using the whole Nuggets and Avalanche staff and also pulling in local independent (and View From the Couch favorite) play-by-play guy Marc Stout. Rapids legend Marcelo Balboa will continue to do color commentary.

The bigger piece of news is that both Mike Holody and Steven Emory have signed contracts with the team. Today was roster and salary compliance day, which means all teams had to get down to 30 players and below the salary cap. This doesn't mean that teams can't continue to sign players, just now if they sign anyone they have to fit in under the roster and salary limits. With today's signings the Rapids currently have 25 of a possible 30 players under contract. We won't know the salary cap room they have until after the Union releases the salaries after the seasons starts. Here's the roster as we know it right now:

Under Contract:

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Michael Holody

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Steven Emory

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane

Sanna Nyassi

Jamie Smith

Wells Thompson

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Conor Casey

Omar Cummings

Macoumba Kandji

Offered Contract Or In Negotiations:

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio

Forwards:

Caleb Folan

Roster Update

The Rapids have given an update on the status of the 8 trialists that traveled with the team to Arizona. First-round draft pick Eddie Ababio, Metro State trialist Steven Emory, and former Rapids player Michael Holody have all been offered contracts. The team has also started negotiations with Irish international Caleb Folan. Andy Lorei, Adrian Leroy, JT Murray, and Logan Emory have completed their trials and left the club.

That gives us 23 rostered players, 3 players with contract offers, and 1 player in contract negotiations. With a roster limit of 30 that gives us room for at least 3 more players. Here's the breakdown right now:

Under Contract:

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane

Sanna Nyassi

Jamie Smith

Wells Thompson

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Conor Casey

Omar Cummings

Macoumba Kandji

Offered Contract Or In Negotiations:

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio

Michael Holody

Midfielders:

Steven Emory

Forwards:

Caleb Folan

Rapids Waive Holody

To make cap room after the two trades thus week the Rapids waived defender Michael Holody. He was drafted last year and made 4 appearances last season, scoring one goal.

Roster News

Burgundy & Blue game review coming later tonight. First the Rapids have just announced the signing of one of their draft picks, defender Mike Holody, to a developmental contract. John DiRaimondo was waived to make room for him. DiRaimondo got some good playing time early last year but apparently didn't fit into Gary Smith's plans. The Rapids have now signed 3 draft picks, Holody, GK Steward Ceus, and F Ross Schunk.

In other news that I didn't get a chance to mention last week Pablo Mastroeni was called up to the National Team for this weekend's World Cup Qualifier in El Salvador and next week's Qualifier in Nashville against Trinidad & Tobago. He'll miss the home opener for the Rapids but should be back in time for the game in LA the next weekend.