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The MLS Players Union has once again released their league-wide salary data. I always feel a little awkward about this. How many other people have their salaries posted publicly? But hey, it's the union releasing it, so here we go.
The direct link to the PDF is here. You can see a list of the top earners here. It's interesting to note that those top earners have basically been total failures on the pitch this season. Thierry Henry at the top has been great, but 3 of the top 10 are on the 'worst team in the world' Toronto FC. Another 3 are on the LA Galaxy, who are passed out drunk in the basement of the Western Conference. Another is Kris Boyd on the Timbers, who are lying on top of the passed out Galaxy in the basement. And another is Rafa Marquez. That's 8 of the top 10 earners who you could replace with an Academy player and get just as much success. It's all the more gratifying that the Sounders don't involve themselves in that sort of business, despite their healthy revenue.
Speaking of the Sounders, here's our roster:
| Player | Pos | Base | Guaranteed | |
| Montero | Fredy | F | $600,000 | $756,000 |
| Fernandez | Alvaro | M | $300,000 | $366,666 |
| Gspurning | Michael | GK | $200,000 | $275,000 |
| Rosales | Mauro | M | $200,000 | $225,000 |
| Parke | Jeff | D | $185,325 | $185,325 |
| Alonso | Osvaldo | M | $185,000 | $185,000 |
| Johansson | Adam | D | $175,000 | $182,833 |
| Hurtado | John Kennedy | D | $160,000 | $161,000 |
| Evans | Brad | F | $145,475 | $159,225 |
| Gonzalez | Leonardo | D | $125,000 | $125,000 |
| White | O'Brian | F | $110,000 | $110,000 |
| Zakuani | Steve | F | $110,000 | $208,000 |
| Johnson | Eddie | F | $100,000 | $106,333 |
| Sivebaek | Christian | M | $99,996 | $99,996 |
| Ianni | Patrick | D | $89,303 | $89,303 |
| Tetteh | Michael | M | $66,000 | $83,663 |
| Burch | Marc | D | $65,000 | $65,000 |
| Ochoa | Sammy | F | $55,000 | $57,500 |
| Weber | Andrew | GK | $51,996 | $58,445 |
| Levesque | Roger | F | $47,500 | $47,500 |
| Scott | Zach | D | $46,314 | $46,314 |
| Carrasco | Servando | M | $44,100 | $44,100 |
| Cato | Cordell | F | $44,000 | $44,000 |
| Duran | Andrew | D | $44,000 | $44,000 |
| Estrada | David | F | $44,000 | $44,000 |
| Ford | Josh | GK | $44,000 | $44,000 |
| Caskey | Alex | M | $33,756 | $33,756 |
| Rose | Andy | M | $33,756 | $33,756 |
| Sodade | Babayele | F | $33,756 | $33,756 |
| Meredith | Bryan | GK | $33,750 | $33,750 |
| Seamon | Michael | M | $33,750 | $33,750 |
Fredy Montero is our highest paid player, and a bargain at any price. Leaving injuries aside, we're largely paying our highest salaries to our most productive players, which is where you want to be. The player whose salary is most out of whack with production on the high side (again, leaving Zakuani and White out of it for injury reasons) is probably Sivebaek, who's disappeared from the roster after some erratic early season games. But $100K is hardly a disastrous amount of money or cap space to spend on a speculative player. At the other end, Bryan Meredith, Alex Caskey, and Andy Rose have put in very productive minutes for the minimum.