Roster News! Troy Perkins, David Horst Re-Signed, Others Dropped
by Geoff Gibson on Nov 28, 2011 12:34 PM PST
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One thing right after another today. With the sad news of Kevin Goldthwaite's retirement -- due to, I suspect, injuries -- comes more roster news with a couple re-signings and some other, sadly enough, players dropped.
The first bit of news is very welcome to me, personally, as both our star goalkeeper Troy Perkins and up and coming center back defender David Horst were re-signed to new contracts of which we're not quite sure about the details.
I think both signings were fairly obvious.
Troy Perkins had an outstanding year, despite a couple gaffes here and there. It would be difficult to imagine somebody better coming in an taking over at this moment especially because I considered some of those more egregious errors to be put on the defensive backline more so than anything else.
Also coming back for 2012 will be David Horst, who I think thoroughly deserves the new contract. He's still young and what we did see in between a couple injuries was a hell of a lot of potential. It would have been ludicrous to drop him now as I believe he'll become a very competent MLS center back in the years to come.
Now on to the sad new. As with all season ends, some players must be let go. I don't relish writing about this and I feel for the players dropped, but this is just how the game works.
The players dropped officially are:
- Adin Brown - goalkeeper
- Kevin Goldthwaite - center back (retired)
- Rodrigo Lopez - midfielder
- Peter Lowry - midfielder
- Ryan Pore - midfielder
- Spencer Thompson - forward
- Brian Umony - forward
The big name that stands out for many of us who were fans of the Timbers prior to MLS will be Ryan Pore. It's difficult to see such a cherished player with great memories dropped. Unfortunately he just never fit in with the current line up and didn't shine like we all hoped he would. I hope he's able to find a home with the Montreal Impact or some other MLS team.
I'm also a little bummed that Peter Lowry was dropped. He didn't see much regular season playing time, but he was a definite star of the reserve side. I was hoping to see more of him in 2012. Also, we've definitely lost one of the funniest Twitter-ers, if that counts for anything.
The rest should be fairly obvious, as sad as it sounds. Adin Brown didn't really impress and was constantly injured. We never saw Rodrigo Lopez or Spencer Thompson in a regular season match and Brian Umony's loan deal was up. Simple as that.
With these reductions the current Timbers is just 22 players which leaves, as you could probably guess, plenty of room for additions when the transfer window opens in January.
Here is the current roster:
Goalkeepers (2): Jake Gleeson, Troy Perkins
Defenders (8): Eric Brunner, Mike Chabala, Futty Danso, David Horst, Lovel Palmer, Steve Purdy, Chris Taylor, Rodney Wallace
Midfielders (8): Eric Alexander, Kalif Alhassan, Freddie Braun, Diego Chara, Jack Jewsbury, James Marcelin, Darlington Nagbe, Sal Zizzo
Forwards (4): Kenny Cooper, Bright Dike, Eddie Johnson, Jorge Perlaza
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Sounds like we basically kept the guys that played
Not sure why, but Adin Brown kind of surprised me.
I JUST WANT MY BASKETBALL BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by Sean in Vancouver on Nov 28, 2011 12:48 PM PST reply actions
Hasn't proved he's can stay healthy
Plus, I think Gleeson showed them enough that they know he can be a solid number 2 at about 1/4th of the price.
Gleeson was a better #2
and we can get a far cheaer 3 deep goalie for certain.
"What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?"
— Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man)
Lowry is a surprise
Not sure what the harm would have been in keeping him on, but I’ll trust GW and Spencer. I’m curious to see what moves are made, especially with the cap room freed by Brown and Goldthwaite
Say what you want about America, thirteen bucks still gets you a hell of a lot of mice!
My guess
Let a guy move-on ala Hall/Moffat, to a team that will actually use him. Lowry wouldn’t see time in our midfield unless we move a few guys, or we have ALOT of injuries. This way, we show we aren’t totally heartless and are a good organization to work with from a player persepective. GW and JS have always preached “treat people the way you want to be treated” mantra. Lowry could start (or at least be a viable not #5 option on the bench) for alot of MLS teams.
^This
I like him too, but he deserves to play, and he wasn’t going to get that opportunity with the Timbers.
When I write, I write for the Timbers. Contributing Editor of Stumptown Footy
by Andrew Wheeler on Nov 28, 2011 2:09 PM PST up reply actions
Good point
Though to be honest, I’m pretty worried about Zizzo next year, so hopefully we will pick up some good depth in the midfield.
Say what you want about America, thirteen bucks still gets you a hell of a lot of mice!
Umony's loan had an option for us to buy after the season... looks like we're not buying
Sad, because he was a nice guy and probably could have made a bigger impact with more time on the pitch (stupid injuries)
Blazers win!
He certainly had talent, at least from what I saw in the few times he got on the field.
He’s still young, and I think he could definitely make an impact at this level, so hopefully he gets another chance.
Say what you want about America, thirteen bucks still gets you a hell of a lot of mice!
I'm ok with all of these decisions
Lots of room for new faces. Let’s hope we get something to talk about!
Too many defenders?
We absolutely need to bring in some help in back, hopefully at the top of the depth chart., hopefully two guys. Might say the same thing about forwards, but just one guy.
Also, which side does Taylor play on? I know the FO is pretty high on him.
How does roster construction usually break down in terms of the number of defenders/midfielders/forwards?
volatilelyle.com
Taylor
Played left back in college. I think he played there too for our reserve team. He is cheap and I guess showed enough that the FO thinks he can still develop. I think he played some of the most minutes of anyone on our reserve team. Hope to see him do that again and push the other left backs in practice a bit more.
Taylor is a left back
Don’t know if he could also play on the right. Of course depth is a good thing generally, but even more important for defenders.
I’m not surprised by any of these roster moves. Just looking at it now, it seems they’ll be adding midfielders … perhaps a CAM and wingers, we seem fine at the CDM position.
I love Portland because everyone here takes things so seriously, sort of.
by yepyou'reright on Nov 28, 2011 5:09 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions
My immediate thoughts
1. Only player I would have liked to keep was Umony. He showed flashes of talent and can play both up top and on the wings. However, he would take up a roster spot and this year his guaranteed salary was $85K which is too much. Lowry is good enough to play in MLS so giving him that opportunity is the right thing to do.
2. Sorry to say it but many people would agree: I am glad to see Goldy and Brown departing. Those moves save us $202,667 in cap space next year. Letting these seven players go saves us a whopping $493K next year according to the MLS Players union salary info for 2011. Hopefully we can use this as a large downpayment to get 2 players who make the roster from the superdraft (maybe even one GA with our first round pick) and add 5 quality pieces from trades, signings to replace these 7 and improve the quality of our team.
3. On the Timbers official site they also list Wallace as a defender…not sure what that means for next year but I wonder whether we see him more at left back or left mid next year when he plays.
Very curious to see who else was released around the league today
and who might help.
volatilelyle.com
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The Next Step
is the re-entry draft with round 1 on 12/5 and round 2 on 12/12. Everyone except Umony and Thompson should be eligible by my reading. It maybe possible for some of these guys to return to the Timbers in the second round of the re-entry draft and renegotiate at a lower salary (which is probably what it would take for most of them to be brought back by the club).
Contributing Editor for Stumptown Footy
by William Conwell on Nov 28, 2011 9:33 PM PST reply actions
Thanks for the reminder about the Re-Entry Draft
Will be interesting to see if the Timbers try to get anyone waived from other teams. If so I would expect it to be a veteran defender. Nothing else really makes sense unless some surprising names are on that list (which did happen last year with Juan Pablo Angel and a couple others if I remember correctly).
Of the players we just waived Thompson and Lopez really cannot be signed for cheaper anyway. Umony not eligible. Pore seems Montreal bound. Which leaves Brown and Lowry.
I would not mind resigning Lowry but like others have said I hope he gets a chance at more playing time somewhere else. Part of me would not mind Brown if resigned around $50K but that would primarily be as a mentor to Gleeson. I would rather spend $40K on another younger GK who might pan out. Gleeson has likely already learned a ton from Brown and will continue to from Perkins.
Perkin's option
I wonder if his option that we picked up was from the old contract he had with DC United. I would assume it was because this year his salary was $280K but DC United paid some portion of that. If the option is in that ballpark (likely is a bit higher if this is from the DC United contract) and the Timbers are on the hook for 100% of it then the Timbers take a hit on that one financially speaking. Not saying he is not worth it but he would be one of the higher paid GK in the league I am pretty sure (for example Tally Hall = $94K; Dan Kennedy $62K; Rimando $158K; Pickens $157K)
Right I am a jackass....sorry
The Timbers did not pick up an option on Perkins. We resigned him to a new contract. Whenever the MLS players union releases their 2012 salaries after the start of the season I am very interested to see what Perkins got. Compared to the numbers for other GKs I gave above I definitely think it should be sub $200K, probably around the Rimando/Pickens range.
I'd be shocked if he was signed for less than $200,000
Players rarely negotiate down with the team they are signed to, especially after a good season. It’s possible, but I’d be surprised his Agent/the players union let him go down $80,000, unless there was a very good reason to believe he would lose significantly more on the open market. It’s not great for cap purposes, but if he performs like he did this year, its a worthwhile investment.
I agree with you though, if we can sign Perkins for approx $160,000, I’d be thrilled. Maybe he agreed to give up 100k if the Timbers spent it on a quality defender.
Say what you want about America, thirteen bucks still gets you a hell of a lot of mice!
S true
However it is quite possible that his base compensation goes down but the incentives go up. It is my understanding that the Players union only releases the base compensation but players routinely make more than what is listed. MP tweeted about this when Diego Chara’s salary was being discussed.
Contributing editor to Stumptown Footy the Portland Timbers SBN blog.
MLS Players Union salary lists
They have two columns “base” salary and “guaranteed” salary. I am sure above this are incentives. For Perkins those two numbers are $250K and $280K. I thought he was our MVP this year, however at $250K he is overvalued for this league in my opinion.
I'm not sure there's room, but I'd much rather have Quaranta off DC
He hasn’t been as good in recent years, but he was a nice player for United. $100,000+ is a little expensive though. He’s had his challenges, but I think he would be a good fit in Portland. He was adored in DC after his return for a reason, and I think he could contribute at a reduced rate.
Say what you want about America, thirteen bucks still gets you a hell of a lot of mice!
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