Sporting Kansas City and the remainder of MLS released their protected player lists this afternoon in preparation for Wednesday’s Expansion Draft. There were no major surprises in the Sporting Kansas City lists however the process, unpopular with fans leaves a couple of fan favorites unprotected. Designated player Omar Bravo has been exposed, as has the ever popular Seth Sinovic and the guy he has kept on the bench Michael Harrington.
Will any of them be selected? The smart money is on Seth Sinovic being picked. The local lad come good after being released by New England Revolution earlier in the season arrived with most Sporting KC fans wondering who he was, and why we had signed him and quickly answered those questions becoming the starting left back at the expense of the out of form Harrington within a matter of weeks. What made Sinovic possibly the shrewdest bit of business this season in terms of trading makes him a commodity for any team building a squad. He is hard working, talented, has a fantastic work ethic, is still only 24 years old and he will only cost Montreal $42,000 a year while he is subject to his current contract. He is cheap.
Michael Harrington, plays the same position, is roughly the same age and at $136,000 a year against the cap offers less than Sinovic both in terms of value but also consistency. The simple efficiency of Sinovic when contrasted with the more flashy but less productive Harrington ultimately means that if the Montreal are shopping for serviceable left back then Sinovic represents the better target provided they believe he can play within their system. Harrington, at least in my mind is fairly safe.
This leaves Omar Bravo out there. If you had asked me a few weeks ago if Omar Bravo would be protected I would have said without a doubt yes. Maybe the expensive Davy Arnaud would be unprotected to make room, or Jimmy Nielsen or Julio Cesar. Goalscorers are a commodity, and beyond this Omar Bravo also captained whenever he started and Arnaud didn’t. He was in no way expendable, at least until we hit the playoffs. While he was injured he was also unhappy to be sidelined and there is a growing hint of friction as Bravos attempts to play off season soccer in Mexico appear to have been foiled by Sporting KC. We can speculate the the salary of well in excess of $1m a year (yes that is sourced), might be enough to scare off Montreal however if they are in the market for a DP Omar has proven he can get the job done in MLS but the question I want to ask is this: Did we leave him unprotected because we think Montreal won’t take him or did we leave him unprotected in the hope that they would? Either way it would not surprise me if he went, I don’t expect it at all but I would not rule it out entirely either.
Protected
Davy Arnaud, Matt Besler, Teal Bunbury, Julio Cesar, Aurelien Collin, Kevin Ellis (home grown), Roger Espinoza, Kei Kamara, Jon Kempin (home grown), Chance Myers, Jimmy Nielsen, CJ Sapong, and Graham Zusi.
Unprotected
Korede Aiyegbusi, Omar Bravo, Daneil Cyrus, Birahim Diop, Jeferson, Michael Harrington, Eric Kronberg, Scott Lorenz, Lawrence Olum, Peterson Joseph, Craig Rocastle, Soony Saad, Luke Sassano, Seth Sinovic, Milos Stojcev, Shavar Thomas, and Konrad Warzycha.
Who else is out there?
The Monteal Impact get ten picks on Wednesday, and we in many instances have decided we are destined to lose a player but Sporting Kansas City are not the only team letting some talent go. Young or old, expensive or cheap, there are some quality signings out there. Kosuke Kimura, Ned Grabavoy, Freddy Adu, and Julian de Guzman can’t hurt the interests of any new team. Older veterans like Brian Ching that can still play will be tempting. In this company Seth Sinovic, while an admirable performer does not necessarily appear so attractive. I don’t expect the Impact to pick for their roster entirely, if a player like Adu does not fit, he will have decent trade value and may get Montreal a piece or two that they do not currently posses. If they do go for trade able picks a player like Adu may command a couple of quality players.
A final thought
I hate the expansion draft. The goal of any team is to field a competitive first team, and to have a depth behind it to supplement that starting eleven when players get injured, get called up for international duty or lose form. Doing so with the small salary caps we are dealing with requires more than just opening a check book, players needed to be scouted, brought in on the cheap, often developed, and once all the hard work is done teams are forced to give these guys up like it hasn’t cost them any effort or time to turn them into players that are desirable to whatever team happens to be next in line for a franchise.
I would much rather the expansion team get give a couple of million of extra allocation money for the first season and then enter the MLS market not poaching players because teams have no choice but to give them up, but to make offers, to wheel and deal and make things happen. That way if Michael Harrington or Seth Sinovic is wanted, Sporting could in theory turn around ask to see some cash, get something they can use rather than an empty roster spot that needs filling.
#MLSProtectedPlayerListsAreLate
I started it, it was Mike Kuhn’s idea (sort of) … but while MLS was dragging its feet prior to releasing the lists we got some Twitter sillyness going. (I think) that there is some funny stuff in here. http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23MLSProtectedPlayerListsAreLate