Roster Moves and Player Updates

A couple of roster notes from the last couple of days.

• Yesterday Colorado released Josh Janniere in order to make room for Edu on the roster.
• They also placed Ross LaBauex on IR
• Today they announced that Wynne and Cummings will be out about 4 weeks.

So that leaves us with 31 rostered players.  With Wallace on season-ending IR even with everyone else healthy we're still within the 30-man roster limit.

We currently have 7 internationals, Castrillon, Edu, Henao, Rivero, Smith, Yamada, and Zapata.  Smith is currently on IR so we still meet the limit of 6 international spots we currently have.  I've herd multiple reports that he's expecting his green card any day, so once that happens he won't count as an international and we'll be at our limit of 6.

When Edu was signed the Rapids mentioned that they would need to make moves to free up salary cap space. Janniere didn't count against the cap so releasing him didn't help, and players on the IR still count against the cap.  If the Rapids are salary cap compliant then they did some behind the scenes manipulation to get to that point without having to release players.

Earls and Janniere Finally Signed

The Rapids have just announced the long-rumored signings of defender Danny Earls and midfielder Josh Janniere. Getting Janniere cost us a 3rd round supplemental pick in 2013. Ouch, that's going to0 hurt. ;)

Here's our current roster:

Under Contract:

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Danny Earls

Michael Holody

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Steven Emory

Josh Janniere

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

Caleb Folan

Macoumba Kandji

That's 28 of 30 roster slots filled (31 roster slots while Kandji is on the IR).

Josh Janniere Might Be Signed?

Mixed signals from the Rapids on the status of trialist Josh Janniere. There's been no "official" announcement but Gary Smith mentioned the signing in his pre-taped pre-game interview before Saturday's game. Also I stumbled onto Janniere's Facebook while researching for more information and it shows a picture of his locker in the Rapids locker room and his employer lists the Rapids. However he played 30 minutes in this week's reserve game against School of Mines. The official report of the game shows him as a non-roster player. So its unclear at this point if he's been signed or not, but it seems like there's a good chance he will be signed, if he hasn't been signed yet. Or something like that.

News and Notes 2/21

The Rapids posted an article by Nick Thomas today that gives some insight into the last few roster spots. Assuming that Emory, Ababio, and Holody accept their contract offers that leaves 4 roster spots. Smith says that 2 of them are senior spots and 1 of them is a developmental spot. The team is still hoping for Folan to fill one of the senior spots, and the second is believed to be for a English defender playing in Greece. That would most likely be Jordan Stewart.

Stewart spent his career in the English Championship, with one season in the EPL with Watford. Stewart is primarily a left-back but can play center back in a pinch. He's currently on loan from Sheffield United to Skoda Xanthi in Greece.

The last developmental spot is being left open to let Josh Janniere, a Canadian from Toronto's academy, compete for it. Janniere is a right winger who has already been in camp with the Rapids and will be returning this week. I'm not sure how this works with the MLS Academy rules, but I'm assuming Toronto has decided he doesn't feature in their plans and/or the Rapids are possibly willing to make him a full player right now and Toronto isn't. Either way, he's being brought into camp this week to try to claim that last developmental spot.

There should be a 4th spot available as that would only be 29 contracted players. I don't know if Smith has something in mind for the 30th spot or if he wants to leave a spot open to start the season.

In unrelated news there's a good interview with Smith in the Arsenal magazine.