This week in the comments [run through walls is dead edition]

January 15th: "Reports: Reports: Sounders may send Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Patrick Ianni to Fire for Jalil Anibaba"

Mahtli69

Hurtado vs. Robbie Keane LAG away was definitely the high point of JKH’s 2013 season. He destroyed Keane physically and mentally that entire game and it was a joy to watch.

Randy Meeker

He had 26 starts at CB in the 2011 and 2012 seasons •Chicago was 5-2-4 (WLD) in 2011 when he started as a CB. •They were 5-7-3 in 2012 when starting Anibaba at CB. •Chicago allowed 33 goals in his 26 starts (1.27 goals per game) as a CB between the 2011 and 2012 seasons. •Chicago allowed 12 goals in his 9 starts at CB in 2013 (1.33 goals per game), but the real problem was the offense, which only scored 6 goals in those games. •Overall, Chicago has allowed 45 goals in Anibaba’s 35 starts (1.29 goals per game) as a CB over the past 3 seasons. •In the matches that Anibaba didn’t start at CB, Chicago allowed 95 goals in 68 matches (1.4 goals per game).

Jackington

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January 16th: "MLS SuperDraft 2014 Open Thread"

Perrinbar makes their debut!

Sounders drafts. A mystery wrapped in a riddle. Wrapped in a WTF.

You all clearly picked this one. I was also strangely drawn to its beauty. I don't know.

Martin Blank.

Here's a weird thought Maybe just maybe the FO have actually seen these players play, evaluated their skills with their own eyes and have met and talked to each of these players to get an idea of their character. Either that or they read a lot of mock drafts on the internet and became instant experts on all of college soccer in their spare time.

January 16th: "2014 MLS SuperDraft: Seattle Sounders choose Jimmy Ockford in second round"

The16thdoctor shows you what you all did. Are you happy?

So he didn't run through tony.walls? And that’s all folks.

Dylan Vanderhoof

The big question is How does he work, and how does he play?

January 17th: "NWSL Draft Live Thread"

All hail Sevenless, caller of the pick.

I'm rooting for Frisbee If for no other reason than to troll the Thorns fan base a bit more, plus Harvey really seems to like versatile players who can slot in multiple spots. I’m not convinced they’ll go after a GK in the draft unless someone with a lot of potential unexpectedly falls to the third round. Although Portland and WNY are the only other teams lacking a current backup, so who knows… Also, I suspect Kopmeyer will be back in preseason to compete for the backup position, so it’ll depend on how high they still are on her versus filling other depth needs on the field.

January 17th: "Major Link Soccer: Recapping the SuperDraft"

agtk

I've got two responses here A: The "narrative" is that the Sounders are good at pretty much everything they do, truthfully. They have consistently made the playoffs every year, have done well in the Open Cup, and have competed from day one. They have acquired outstanding international players, have made smart moves in trades, have developed a great Academy system, worked the Expansion Draft well, and brought in some great DPs. Based on all this evidence, it is a clear outlier that the Sounders have not found any great players in the draft. People who run the narrative that "Sounders are horrible drafters" with a simple results based analysis rarely, if ever, provide any explanation for why the Sounders might be poor at drafting. They are great talent scouts in every other arena, so what is so special about the draft that they aren’t getting? I’ve never really seen a good analysis of the why. But there are many good explanations for why the Sounders have had poor draft results that do not involve the Sounders actually being poor drafters. I will not rehash these here. B: I just want to note that the biggest irritating factor for people pushing the "Sounders are good, we should trust them" "Narrative" is that commenters on articles and whatnot seem to think they actually know better than the Sounders. It’s the classic fan myth that "I could do better than that schmuck!" Occasionally it is true. It very rarely is actually true. I extremely doubt it is actually true here. Especially because the comments here and on other Sounder forums (I just had to resist using SounderLand so bad) are pretty much exclusively based on what we have read the pundits and experts say. We have watched few of the games the draftees have played, we did not watch them with our own eyes at the combine, we haven’t had any discussions with them or their coaches to determine what kind of personality they have… We just don’t have the information that the team has. It’s not our fault. It just means that we probably should put a little trust in the FO, especially when they are very often making smart moves in all other areas of personnel management.

January 18th: "Sounders' roster, salary-cap situation comes into soft focus"

sounderspeanut

Out of curiosity - and boredom I guess - I looked at all of the players that were selected in the 2012 re-entry draft I compared their 2012 salaries to their 2013 salaries, 3 of whom retired or were not signed, and the remaining 21 players averaged a 25% reduction in their salary from 2012 to 2013. Maicon Dos Santos actually saw a 44% increase and with that one removed the average became 28.5% less year over year. Last year Chad Barrett saw a 56% decrease in his salary so I am not sure if he would have signed for significantly less than the $110,709.17 that he earned last year. However, I would think that with all things considered, Kenny Cooper more than likely took a 25% decrease which means that he would make about $256,875 this year, somewhat less than the $300,000 that you have. It seems that once a player has had their option declined he knows that he will have to negotiate a lower salary. A similar example would be Casey Conor who dropped 56.25% when he signed with PHI.

Trolltossin found a great tweet from Kovar. January 19th