Well this came out of no where and really can be filed under the Joey Lawerence category, you know the "Woah!?" category. With all of this happening so fast Geoff and I decided to try and give a pretty good analysis so we took different sides, not necessarily what we think, and looked at if this is a good trade or a bad trade for the Timbers.
Before we get to the analysis let's look at their stats for this year:
| Player | POS |
|
GS | MINS | SHTS | SV | GA | GAA | PKG/A | W | L | T | ShO | W% | Sv% | |
| Troy Perkins | GK | 22 | 22 | 1957 | 104 | 66 | 35 | 1.61 | 3/3 | 5 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 23 | 63 | |
| Donovan Ricketts | GK | 24 | 24 | 2136 | 104 | 61 | 39 | 1.64 | 7/7 | 9 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 38 | 59 |
Now their career stats:
Troy Perkins
| Year | Club | GP | GS | MIN | SHT | SV | GA | PKG | PKA | W | L | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Portland Timbers | 22 | 22 | 1957 | 3 | 66 | 35 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 5 |
| 2011 | Portland Timbers | 29 | 29 | 2610 | 9 | 91 | 38 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 12 | 8 |
| 2010 | D.C. United | 22 | 22 | 1980 | 5 | 72 | 37 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 15 | 4 |
| 2007 | D.C. United | 29 | 29 | 2610 | 8 | 117 | 32 | 1 | 3 | 16 | 6 | 7 |
| 2006 | D.C. United | 30 | 30 | 2700 | 8 | 100 | 34 | 8 | 8 | 15 | 6 | 9 |
| 2005 | D.C. United | 2 | 2 | 180 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2004 | D.C. United | 16 | 16 | 1440 | 3 | 52 | 26 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| Career Totals | 150 | 150 | 13477 | 36 | 503 | 204 | 21 | 25 | 53 | 57 | 39 | |
Donovan Ricketts
| Year | Club | GP | GS | MIN | SHT | SV | GA | PKG | PKA | W | L | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Montreal Impact | 24 | 24 | 2136 | 3 | 61 | 39 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 3 |
| 2011 | LA Galaxy | 15 | 15 | 1284 | 7 | 41 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 4 |
| 2010 | Los Angeles Galaxy | 29 | 29 | 2610 | 11 | 79 | 26 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 7 | 4 |
| 2009 | Los Angeles Galaxy | 26 | 26 | 2274 | 9 | 82 | 26 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 10 |
| Career Totals | 94 | 94 | 8304 | 30 | 263 | 102 | 13 | 14 | 44 | 26 | 21 | |
More after the jump
Geoff
From a team perspective this move makes absolutely no sense and further shows that Gavin Wilkinson is either absolutely out of his mind, or thinking so far in advance that he's lost perspective on what the team needs right now, today, in order to make anything out of this season.
The primary argument many might have for Donovan Ricketts is that he was goalkeeper of the year in 2010. And yeah, that's a great accolade to have the resume, but the fact is that since 2010 he has not been a great keeper and is often injury prone and a bigger liability than Troy Perkins ever was, even after getting his nose smashed in...
And then there's the salary issue. If this trade was done with the outlook for the 2012-2013 season, then why trade for Ricketts at all? His base salary is $250,000 compared to Perkins' $190,000. I know wrapped up in this deal has Montreal paying for a chunk of Ricketts' salary but for how much, and for how long? If Ricketts' contract goes beyond this year the Timbers could be on the line with a far more expensive goalkeeper who, at least recently, hasn't performed much better than Perkins.
Finally, to wrap it all up, during a state of upheaval where fans are clearly discontent, who in their right mind would trade a fan favorite? We saw what happened in Philadelphia, and now it seems like the Timbers are following their every move. If you want fans to keep showing up to games, then you need to keep the fan favorites around, unless you have a very clear upgrade. I just don't see that upgrade in Ricketts.
Ryan
This is a hard trade to analyze as it really is trading like for like but this could turn out to be a great trade for Portland. First off I don't see this as an upgrade right now and it can only be an upgrade if there was something behind the scenes we did not know about. However the reason it can be a good trade has more to do with future seasons and nothing to do with this season.
Ricketts has, at best, 2 years left on his contract, which would mean he signed a 5 year contract with the Galaxy, and could possibly be done after this year. In general I think 4 years would be the more likely scenario and this would mean the Timbers are either going to try and resign Ricketts or let him walk. Troy on the other hand just signed a new contract last year and at the very minimum would have been a 3 year deal but more than likely it was a 4 to 5 year deal. With these assumptions in place you can say that Portland have taken on some salary this year, when their roster is already full, to shed a lot of salary next year to fill the wholes this roster has.
If Ricketts is gone this off season that moves Jake Gleeson or Joe Bendik into the number 1 spot unless the FO goes out and signs a keeper in the off season. If Jake pans out and becomes the number 1 Portland will have kept costs down and found something to build on in the future and this is why it could be a good trade. Unfortunately in this scenario only time will tell if it is a good trade or not.
Final analysis
This trade really feels like a "wait and see" if it actually works and it if it doesn't it really could blow up in the Gavin's face or it could be like striking oil with Jake Gleeson. If this is the analysis it makes you wonder if the trade was worth it and if Portland wanted to give Gleeson a chance why trade keeper for keeper?