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REPORT: Paul Rothrock in advanced negotiations with San Jose Earthquakes!
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We're back with more Seattle Sounders offseason coverage and our own Niko Moreno gave us quite the story to discuss, reporting that the San Jose Earthquakes have emerged as the frontrunner to sign Paul Rothrock. Could the fan-favorite winger be headed to a Western Conference rival? We'll also take a look at the list of available free agents to see if there are any obvious or viable targets for the Rave Green, and discuss a few other news items from around MLS, including LAFC's hiring of Marc dos Santos, and a development regarding the Vancouver Whitecaps' quest for a new stadium.
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Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
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Transcript
Introduction & Streaming Details
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or LobbingScorchers.com slash YouTube.
00:00:22
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. Why the scorcher today? Well it's gonna be scorcher.
Seattle Sounders Offseason Coverage
00:00:43
Speaker
Good evening, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Lobbing Scorchers Under the Lights. We are back at it with some more Seattle Sounders offseason coverage. We got Noah tapping in.
00:00:55
Speaker
We got a Paul Rothrock update. We got a couple other things to get to. Noah, thanks for tapping in, as always. How are you feeling, first of all? We got this Paul Rothrock news to get to. We'll explain what it is for anyone who's out of the loop. But how are you feeling? Just how are you processing all this? We just ah we just found out a couple minutes ago.
00:01:17
Speaker
You know, in times of distress, in times of despair, in times of heartbreak, you have to You have to surround yourself with friends and family and people who love you and understand your struggles. And so that's what I feel like we're doing tonight.
00:01:34
Speaker
You know, we're we're providing a space. We're providing a space for each other. And we will learn and mourn together. And cope. That's what I'm planning on doing is ah is coping. Yeah, you know, it ah I'll give my first takeaway. i get Well, before we get into it, let's just make sure everyone knows to...
00:01:54
Speaker
Sub to the channel. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok. And Lobbing Scorchers Hot Sauce, new batch, I guess, is still in the works. so There's a few bottles left. Very few. a few ah very few bottles left. So if you want to get in on that before the new batch, lobbingscorchers.com slash sauce.
00:02:13
Speaker
ah But ah mostly sub to the channel and ah follow us on all socials.
Paul Rothrock's Potential Moves
00:02:18
Speaker
uh let's get into it noah why uh why put it off any longer you know it's kind of funny i was ah i was prepping for the show tonight and i was like man i don't i really don't know what i'm gonna talk about i feel like it's sort of the dog days of the off season unless uh unless something big happens i you know i had the uh mls free agents list that i was gonna pull up and have us go through and be like do we want that guy on the sounders that was my plan that was my plan for the show tonight uh up until about
00:02:43
Speaker
An hour and a half ago, I guess, at this point when our own Nico Moreno, my co-host for Loving Scorchers Kickoff, very generously broke a ah a pretty big bombshell regarding Paul Rothrock, which is ah the biggest, I would say, free agency storyline regarding the Seattle Sounders.
00:03:00
Speaker
ah that we've been tracking as far as potential outgoing players. So let me let me pull up this report real quick. We'll go over that and then we'll give our reaction. This is, ah as I said, from Nico Moreno. Follow him on ah Blue Sky or I guess Twitter, you know, if you're still doing that. Uh, but here you have it.
00:03:19
Speaker
The Aniko, he says, I'm told Paul Rothrock is in advanced conversations with the San Jose earthquakes. And although there are a couple other clubs still interested quakes, currently the front runner, the, uh, Sounders have not closed the door on Paul Rothrock, but ultimately it is up to the player.
00:03:37
Speaker
Uh, oops. I took you off the stage. My bad. He was like, i'm so I'm taking you off just in case you start crying, Noah. ah Yeah.
00:03:47
Speaker
Wow. ah i'll give ah I'll give my first reaction and then ah get your thoughts, Noah. My first reaction is ah Bruce Arena knows ball, doesn't he? Damn it. Yeah.
00:03:58
Speaker
Damn it. That's like yeah actually cook. That's a cook on Bruce to, uh, to recognize the game of Paul Rothrock and be like, that guy's available. I'll take him on my kind of still rebuilding team. And, uh, yeah, but I think, uh, in addition to that, it's also like, it feels real now.
00:04:16
Speaker
I'd kind of been in this headspace of like, yeah yeah, you know, it's decently likely that he'll leave. But I think that eventually cooler heads will prevail in all this. And Seattle in in the in the Rothrock camp will be able to come to some sort of agreement where he gets his big raise and he feels valued and taken care of.
00:04:34
Speaker
ah But they don't have to break the bank on the salary cap and everyone's going to be happy that's sort of what I was thinking and hoping and wishing would happen. And now that we know that ah there's a front runner in the sweepstakes and it does not seem to be the Seattle Sounders it's the San Jose earthquakes it feels like the reality that he's gonna walk it's kind of it's kind of setting in even if he doesn't end up signing with the quakes you know there was also the reports linking him to Nashville SC which honestly if he did walk that was my kind of prediction or thought on where he would go I felt like that made sense as a fit. I wasn't even really thinking about the quakes. Now that I know this and I think about it, I'm like, that actually is a pretty good fit. But anyway, that's kind of where I'm at at this point. Go ahead and tell us where you're at. Drop your thoughts, feelings in chat. Come cope with us. But ah Noah, where where are you at with the Paul Rothrock sweepstakes and the his potential move to San Jose now that it looks like it there's a decent likelihood that it could be happening?
00:05:32
Speaker
I've been through all levels. I've gone through the despair already on here. You guys saw it when Nico said that he was more than likely going to be a free agent. I was devastated.
00:05:45
Speaker
In fact, I cracked the beer. i needed I needed a little solace then. and then i And then the Nashville rumors came out, and and honestly, I was like... He's gone, man. Like, I just i just couldn't see this. The Sounders were never going to pay him what he wanted.
00:06:00
Speaker
And, you know, something that Nico said that I really resonated with, it's one of those things where it's kind of a, even if you don't get the number you want somewhere else, it's just it's just the principle of it, right?
Rothrock's Career and Contract Analysis
00:06:14
Speaker
It's just the principle and the leverage of it. I think that... it's definitely going to suck to see him play on another team. But as a I'm excited, if he does go somewhere else and get starting minutes and get to, you know, perform and that's going to be awesome. um And, ah and like, that's great for him. And also the Bruce arena thing. He's a Bruce arena player. Yeah. He is a Bruce arena player in San Jose are the type of team that will overpay.
00:06:48
Speaker
players as well. So it does kind of seem like the right fit in terms of like where he would go to get the bag that he wanted, where he would go to get the playing time that he wanted with a coach that could utilize his qualities and uniqueness in their roster. yeah,
00:07:08
Speaker
good for him, man. Like regardless of what happens, regardless of the outcome, like Paul Rothrock's been a, been a through Ryan through line in this podcast since the beginning, it's the change of an era.
00:07:20
Speaker
I don't know. I might have to get a San Jose Earthquakes jersey. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. i'm just saying The fact that he put himself in position where whether he's going to make $600K or $800K next year is even a discussion is really remarkable when you think about the full arc from episode one of Lobbing Scorchers where at that time... We tried to tell him.
00:07:40
Speaker
At that time, we were Paul Rothrock was a ah kind of nondescript Tacoma Defiance guy who no one really. i don't think anyone thought that he was going to make it at the ah MLS level. It's kind of like a bit. It was a meme. We would talk about how, oh, like this is the only guy on the team that's scoring goals. I mean, he's single handedly carrying the squad through the US Open Cup. Every time he gets MLS minutes, he's banging in a goal and he wasn't in the rotation anymore.
00:08:04
Speaker
At that point, could you ever have imagined like during those days that we would be sitting at a place where he would be one of the most coveted free agents in the league to the point where he priced himself essentially out of Seattle? ah People are going to be crushing the team for this. There's been a lot of a lot of that in our Instagram comments. And just in general, the discourse is like pay Pauly primetime, pay him what he's worth. And ah the club are a bunch of degenerates for not ah for not meeting his demands. And we're we're letting this kind of one of the faces of the team from the last year go and should have paid him and all that bla bla blah, blah, blah. What do you think of all that? Is this a situation where the team could have handled it differently or handled it better? Or should they have just paid him what he wants? How do you kind of see the discourse on ah on how the team in the front office have handled this negotiation?
00:08:57
Speaker
I think the discourse anytime you're talking about a fan favorite player is irrational and ridiculous and emotional. And it was going to always be that way with Paul Rothrock. You literally set him up to be your messy killer.
00:09:13
Speaker
Then he did it. Yeah. And like, Now you're like oh, man. And then you're like, actually, you're going to go play for the San Jose Earthquakes now. Yeah, we can't pay you that. Of course people are going to be pissed off. I think that's so valid as a fan to be like, a this is an entertainment product. Fuck you.
00:09:29
Speaker
Sign Paul Rothrock. I don't care what the price is. And then you you have Craig Weibel, who is looking at the the numbers on a spreadsheet, who's looking at... comps, which we will look at later across the league of other players performing like him and thinking, listen, like we just, we just can't rationalize giving you that much money.
00:09:50
Speaker
And on the, on the Roth rock side for him, he's like, you need to pay me to make up for how low my wage was. while I was contributing as a starter, essentially, right? Like, that's the frame of mind, in my opinion, that he was on when giving out these very, these these larger than expected numbers, um just because, like, yeah, when when you've been underpaid, you want to catch up.
Player Comparisons and Team Strategies
00:10:19
Speaker
You want to be able to, like, get your, get your money back that you sacrificed in that time. You helped bring a trophy. You helped get, you know, you you traded his Jersey for Messi's and he was making $97,000 a year. Like, you know, I kind of understand him wanting to overcharge and, you know, every, every person in the comments thinks that they're a general manager and every person, you know, is entitled to what they, what, what, you know, how they feel, but like,
00:10:52
Speaker
yeah if he has the leverage to do it, he's going to do it. And whether it works out or not for the Sounders, like that's, that's TBD. I'm sad.
00:11:02
Speaker
Like I am sad. Like I don't, I don't want Paul Rothrock to leave. You know, he is he is in the same echelon to me as like Jordan Morris, you know, like a hometown kid is,
00:11:16
Speaker
Worked his ass off who, you know, was told that he shouldn't do something stuck with the Sounders wanted to be a sounder embodies like the Sounders mentality embodies the Brian Schmetzer game.
00:11:29
Speaker
And, and so it sucks. It sucks a lot. It sucks a lot, regardless of if it makes a business like the right business decision or not. But, you know, it's, um,
00:11:42
Speaker
It is what it is. It's business. It's soccer. And I will continue to support our boy. Yeah, I mean, it is the realities of a salary cap league to some extent. Like, you you can't keep everyone, and a lot of the times you do have players who outperform their deals, and that other other teams are going to take note of that. It does it does seem like in this situation that, like you said, Nico said, it became it's it feels like there was some bad blood in the negotiations, which I think that part of it is unfortunate.
00:12:16
Speaker
That also is something. That does happen, especially when you're in a situation where you've got a guy that was so valuable to the team and so valuable to the locker room. And you're essentially saying, ah we can't pay you that.
00:12:27
Speaker
ah I think another another thing to consider here is, ah you know, part of the reason that San Jose might be interested in making this signing. they haven't made it yet, but ah they're in a situation where their best winger, Christian Espinoza, as we know, is a is a free agent. This could be an indicator. I'm now free agent.
00:12:50
Speaker
The what? Oh, yeah. The accidental free agent. Exactly. They got Christian Espinosa as an accidental free agent. So they're like, oh, man, what do we do? What do we do? What do we do? They landed on Paul Rothrock potentially as a ah as a solution for that, which, again, that's I think that's smart on their end. But it also it indicates to me that if they're dropping a 600K plus bag on Paul Rothrock, maybe they don't think Christian Espinoza is coming back, which I think most people were predicting that because he's an accidental free agent, they might just be bringing him back and he won't be on the market for other teams to the extent that people thought he would. Now, maybe the the calculation changes and Christian Espinoza actually will be available.
00:13:32
Speaker
I've been stumping for the Sounders to go after him. Nico kind of said that ah he doesn't think that that's going to happen. And I kind of always realized it's a it's a pipe dream. I'm not super counting on it or banking on it. So it's just what I in my ideal world, that would be.
00:13:46
Speaker
ah we can play football manager, too, if we want. Number one. Yeah. The number one football manager target would have been. Would have been that. But Nico kind of you know, he pointed out that in all likelihood, Christian Espinosa on the open market would command a DP spot, which obviously the Sounders can't give him.
00:14:04
Speaker
ah i will i will say, though, you know, we saw a situation with Jesus Ferreira, who's a player of the caliber that another team in MLS would have brought him on as a DP. And he decided that he was OK with taking less money to come to Seattle because he figured he had a better chance at at winning.
00:14:22
Speaker
So I'm not saying, I don't know if Espinoza, if that's something that he would ever do. Probably not. I imagine that most guys, especially at his age, are trying to maximize their earnings in a similar way that Paul Rothrock is. And someone is going to be able to pay Christian Espinoza a hell of a lot more money than Seattle would be able to. That doesn't necessarily mean it's impossible for him to end up here, I guess is all I'm saying. And I guess my question is this.
00:14:51
Speaker
Just grant a hypothetical world where they do get Christian Espinoza. Just i say our dreams come true. he He decides, I want to go to Seattle and chase trophies. I'm okay to to sign as a k not DP to go ahead and do that.
00:15:05
Speaker
If Paul Rothrock walked, but they are able to land Christian Espinoza, How would you feel about that? would that ah Would that offset some of the hurt and pain? We'd obviously, you know, we're losing one of the seminal characters in Lobbing Scorcher's history, and Christian Espinosa can't play that, replace that. But ah on the field, as we've talked about, that dude is ab boss.
00:15:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think like he and he he's the more I kind of look into him, the more he is a system fit for Schmetzer ball. He's a hardworking, like hard nose type of player. He's not like a finesse winger. I mean, he is in a way, but he's he's not like one of those talented attackers that could never play in this system because they don't. work hard and they don't play defense. Like he's not like that. So it's just, oh it's such a good fit.
00:15:53
Speaker
How would you feel if that ends up being the situation? Rothrock walks, but incomes Christian Espinosa. Would that, would that make you feel better? I mean, absolutely. Yeah, obviously. Like if you can take San Jose's best player and swap them for one of your like,
00:16:10
Speaker
i mean yeah I would say Rothrock's in the top 10. He's in the top 11. solid starter, but someone who was poised to come off the bench next year. if You just straight up swap them.
00:16:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think I'd be happy with that. like i don't Like, I don't know what to say. Like, it's not that I don't like Paul Rothrock. It's just to say that, like, there's levels. There's levels. Espinosa it christian e spinoza's a different caliber of player. Like, this good guy was putting up numbers in the Argentine top flight. He played for Boca Juniors. He's a 10-plus assist. 10-plus assist, like, nothing every year. yeah it's and it's not to say Rothrock can't get there. It's just that, like, Espinosa is there. He's there.
00:16:53
Speaker
he's that guy. And that's the reason he's probably going to get a DP deal at like mont Montreal or something. Oh man. But if you're him, like, i don't know, I guess it, I'm never going to tell anyone to take like a discount or less money. There's a a finite amount of time that these guys have to, uh,
00:17:15
Speaker
to maximize their earning potential. I get that. But if Christian Espinosa, you know, he's made, he ah has made a lot of money in his career already. You know, maybe you got to at least, you got to at least pick up the phone, make the pitch, say, Hey, Christian, you know, come chase some trophies.
00:17:32
Speaker
Come, ah come be a part of something i'm sure they are bigger than your bank account. I'm sure they are. I think, i think that there's, I think every MLS GM is picking up the phone and and talking with his agent. Like you'd be silly not to regardless, like honestly Miami should be trying to get him like genuinely Miami should be trying to get that dude. like They have an open DP spot. So they, they, uh, Jordy Alba and Sergio Busquets, two of their DPs retired. Rodrigo DePaul, they exercised the permanent transfer option today. So he's now a DP. Their DPs are messy and, uh, Oh, sure wait, wait, wait, Ari, you're telling me that they exercised the option that was totally an option and totally not like a, uh,
00:18:16
Speaker
Totally not a scam and totally not just a falsified way to get a fourth DP. Totally not fake. Who would have thought? Gaming of the system. Gaming of the system notwithstanding. They only have two DPs on the books now with two of them retiring. Messi and RDP. so they ah But they're not they they are they wouldn't I don't think they would ever do that like intertralea an interleague move like that for a DP spot.
00:18:43
Speaker
They'd be smart to do it I mean, I think it would be a good fit. I'm sure they'll spend $45 million on some fucking yeah bullshit transfer. But, like, you need a guy. They need more guys like Espinosa on that squad next year. Like, Yannick Bright was a guy who made them super, like, way more dangerous in the ways that MLS, like, you need to be dangerous in MLS. And they just, they need more They need more dudes they need more dogs.
00:19:14
Speaker
they could do it They could do Paul Rothrock. He could go on that team and make some shit happen. um yeah i would god know That would be the one where I'd be like, that hurts. Yeah, no, that would be evil.
00:19:25
Speaker
ah For what it's worth, Espinoza had the same number of goals as Rothrock last season. Yeah, but Espinoza as a facilitator is one of the best in the league. and it's just To me, that aspect of it is just a bit of a different...
00:19:37
Speaker
a different level. Like I've watched Espinosa enough to know that his, his chance creation and his wide service are all just, Yeah. And Rothrock's game is is more about like the dog the dog. Yeah. in And to the point, there's a bunch of idiots in the fucking chat right now arguing and trying to do the little, like, I understand you're coping, so you're like, let's shit on Rothrock. Let's say that he's an average player and all of this stuff.
00:20:06
Speaker
But in the way that like you're looking at... solely a stat line to determine like, is Espinoza worth it or not? You have to watch his game. You have to watch what he brings and the values that he brings outside of just the,
00:20:20
Speaker
like literally numbers on a spreadsheet. It's kind of similar to, rock he's kind of similar to Rothrock in Ferreira more so than I was expecting, but with maybe even more refined end product as a facilitator than both. I think Ferreira, I know he only he didn't score as many goals last year as, ah as we would have liked, but he is theoretically a more goal dangerous player than Espinosa, but just,
00:20:46
Speaker
I don't think Espinosa would need to carry a goal scoring load on this team. His job would be to play in those balls from out wide that he's so good at and just let the rest of the attackers cook and then work hard on defense and bring some of that dog. And and then all of a sudden, like ah in terms of talent, like you have an upgrade in the, in the winger room. Like I think there's, There's kind of no doubt about that. It's just a matter of if they could make it happen, which, we you know, we spent a lot of time talking about Espinoza this offseason for something that probably doesn't have a very good chance at all of happening. But as long as he's still out there and on the market, I'm going to hold on to my hope because ah if they got if they if Rothrock walks with the compromises, they get Espinoza.
00:21:32
Speaker
it would still be It's going to be tough to take Rothrock leaving no matter what. But that would soften the blow, I guess, is what I'm saying. It would it would soften the blow, at least for me. I mean, it's not going to happen, but I agree.
00:21:46
Speaker
Retweet, repost. We should start a rumor. Let's start the rumor and just like push it along, see how far we can get the rumor. like Breaking, Christian Espinosa signing with the Sounders. then it'll be like And then like the next day we'll post a thing and it'll be like...
00:22:00
Speaker
breaking christian espinoza talks breakdown and then the next day we'll be like christian espinoza talks are back and we'll just do this whole bit and like get a bunch of traffic and then like but we'll just be lying the whole time i think that's a good that's one thing i will say about the the brigade campaign to to replace rusnak with espinoza i was under the impression that espinoza could play as a pure 10 kind of centrally as well as on the wing As I understand it, having looked into it more, he he doesn't. He's not. ah He's like, he's a purely a wide player. So that that's where he would.
00:22:33
Speaker
Well, I think they'd still be okay if you just got rid of Albert. It's not a like for like positional. They're like, no, because here's the answer. Ari, here's your answer. I'm going to let me put on my brigade hat really quick.
00:22:48
Speaker
Ari, bro. Like, no, like, you know, straight up, you don't get it, bro. Like, like if we play Espinosa on the wing, then dead ass, we can play. No, bro. Like you're, you're laughing, bro. But like dead ass, we can play. Hey, hey, juice Ferreira.
00:23:01
Speaker
Hey, juice Ferreira at the 10. I'm telling you, bro. Just, just think about it. I'm, I'm, I'm just trying to tell you, bro. I like the personification of the brigade member as like a stoned surfer guy.
00:23:15
Speaker
Dead ass. Dead ass trade Roosnack for Espinoza. And then you can, you can just like build the whole attack out of, out of wingers, put the winger. Am I close Reese? Did I get it? Did I get the, did I cook?
00:23:31
Speaker
That's the Reese impression. That's the Reese impression. Yeah, no. ah I don't know. Any other any other thoughts on Rothrock or Espinosa? Let's pull up. So one of our um one of our lovely viewers, TT Baby, in chat...
00:23:50
Speaker
created this insane tool we're going working with them next season to do a lot of like cool data visualization stuff and things that we can pull up on the stream that we can fact check that we can like search up and ah a bunch of other fun fun projects um But he crunched some numbers for us, Ari, because there obviously one's in with the stats. Yes, I'm coming in with the stats. He's turning me into a stats guy. What is happening? um
00:24:22
Speaker
We have some... We but we have a good breakdown here. I'm going to pull up some of these photos, but this app is really cool. I don't have... I just saved some screenshots, but trust um if I can open this. But...
00:24:38
Speaker
Obviously, Rothrock was asking for a bag. I mean, a bag, like straight up. Like, there's there's nothing there's there's talking We're talking about us ah between us like like a $600K, $700K raise.
00:24:54
Speaker
Correct. which you don you Do you ever see that in MLS? You just don't really see that. Not really. It's rare. It doesn't happen. It's a rare. um I'm trying to... Oh, here we go. Okay, hold on.
00:25:05
Speaker
I feel like usually in this situation, if someone outperforms their contract by that much, they're happy. Wait, you said yeah I don't know this meme. i So, okay.
00:25:19
Speaker
So here is a chart of the current MLS range for salaries, right? So the bottom bar has his peer range for people in his... This Rothrock? This is Rothrock. This is for Rothrock. So that star is where he currently is. Okay.
00:25:38
Speaker
There's contracts between about 100K, which is what he's on, all the way up to, I believe it's like 680K. And this is using all MLSPA data. If you look and in the range that is calculated here is in the blue. This is kind of where he should sit or where he's asking for.
00:25:56
Speaker
um This range is calculated based on a bunch of different factors and statistical analysis that I'm way too dumb to understand. But it takes into account age, it takes into account ah premiums on winning championships, premiums on like being a starter um and gives you it'll it'll spit you out of range for basically any player and tells you kind of where he should be paid.
00:26:20
Speaker
um And so right here, his recommended salary, like that's the the blue is kind of like where you should be negotiating between. If you're below that, you've got a shitty agent. If you're above that, you've got a really dumb GM.
00:26:34
Speaker
That's basically the idea. So this green dot here, he should be around $515,000 a year is what ah is recommended based on the analysis. um So his current salary obviously is $104,000. new base per FB ref um of his peers, is it should average out to $406,000.
00:27:00
Speaker
four hundred and six thousand per year. And then based on his age, he should get a premium of about 20% because this is generally one of the bigger contracts. So that's at another 81 K per year. And then there's a breakout season premium, which is about 7%. So that's 28 K. So the total should be around 515,000 year with a negotiation range of year.
00:27:28
Speaker
does that make sense so i think i follow ten for seven So around around where this has him, he's asking for significantly more than that. ah Seattle did make an offer, right, that ah wasn't where we told that that was like in the six something range and they were told that was too low. um His camp wants more like $700K or $800K. So if we're to if we're to grant that this chart is roughly accurate, if they gave him what his camp was asking for, they would be overpaying by like $200K or three hundred thousand dollars is that correct that fair to say?
00:28:08
Speaker
That's exactly correct. so so yeah i mean, yeah, like, you know, you can... ah think what you want of of the of the chart, but i think that is interesting ah because i think it kind of illustrates the team's perspective. more They probably are looking at it in a similar way of their their evaluation. $700, $800K is just beyond what their evaluation is of what they can do within the salary cap and kind of maintain the flexibility that they need.
00:28:40
Speaker
Yeah. And like, if you, so this is kind of where I'm coming from. The reason that I think that Rothrock and his agent are asking for a premium, if you look at this graph right here, right? so this is his statistical peers. People this is interesting are compared who comparatively are statistically very similar to Paul Rothrock.
00:29:00
Speaker
He's being very underpaid. Right. And so in my eyes, if I'm an agent, I'm going to the sounders and I'm saying, listen, listen, I have been a competitor for you for the last two years for nothing.
00:29:14
Speaker
yeah Nothing. It's my time to make my money. You didn't put escalators in my contract. You didn't do this, that, or the other thing. I want my bag and I want to make up basically the lost time that I had.
00:29:29
Speaker
And I'm sure that the Sounders are saying on the other end, well, We trusted you and we developed you and we did all of these things. We can only pay you what's fair in the market. And Rothrock saying, well, and this, again, this is just in my head what I assume is happening. And he's looking and he's saying, well,
00:29:47
Speaker
Alex Moyle's making $535,000 a year. That's where it gets tough. Every single guy on this list besides Mo Farsi is like not that good. Exactly. And so you're looking at this list and he's like, well, this is what I should have been making the last two years. You need to just tack that shit onto my next contract if you want me here.
00:30:06
Speaker
Who's paying Jared Stroud to jack up this market value? God damn it. what are you again Yes. like but So, like, I can totally understand where he's negotiating from. It's just the reality of the situation. d c United. All right.
00:30:22
Speaker
If d DC United has Jared Stroud on 350K, throw that out. Don't bring that to the negotiating table. I don't want to hear it. But, I mean, it is like...
00:30:35
Speaker
and he's vastly vastly outproduced and outperformed jared stroud correct it is uh but that's i think that's where it becomes one of those things where uh i don't i don't know i don't know if it has to be a situation where one party should be aggrieved or feel wronged by the other party uh It's just, it's ah it's a salary cap world, man. Like that, I think that, you know, I don't know. Maybe that's letting the team off the hook too much or whatever. But I do think therere there is a limit to what they can they can give him. would Like, would you want them to give him
00:31:14
Speaker
ah 800K or 700K, whatever, yeah even with it taken into account what you were talking about with how underpaid he has been. When you look at what would benefit the team and the roster build, how do you see that?
00:31:28
Speaker
I think it's hard because like, I'm not even basing this on statistical analysis. This is, I'm taking this, these statistics that I had someone explained to me in a call for 45 minutes while I asked the world's dumbest questions. So shout out TT baby for literally walking me through this. ah It's just the reality that like to be competitive in this league, you have to look for deals. You have to look at your numbers and are they going to start Paul Rothrock?
00:31:58
Speaker
No. So why? Like, they're not going to start Paul Rothrock if Pedro de la Vega and Jesus Ferreira are healthy. Even if he's worth $1.1 million, dollars he's probably going to sit either even or behind Paul Areola as well. So now you have a super sub, a guy who I think has earned his money, who I think is really great, but is kind of like now the third guy or fourth guy on the winger depth chart.
00:32:25
Speaker
if Pedro stays healthy, like that's, that's, that's like really hard to justify. That's really hard to justify. And like, it sucks that that's where we are, but that's where we are. And you have to think about it.
00:32:39
Speaker
You talk about this all the time. You got to think about the process. That's the process. It's not that they don't rate Paul Rothrock, that they don't respect Paul Rothrock, that they don't love Paul Rothrock and that he doesn't fit perfectly in the system. It's that,
00:32:53
Speaker
The way they've built this roster, he just he can't be on that number. He outgrew he outgrew this team. He yeah was too good. And you do you do have Paul Areola coming back next year.
00:33:08
Speaker
who i they're They're pretty similar players, the Pauls, to be honest. Maybe subtle differences, but they offer a lot of the same skill set. So you have him coming back. ah You know, the the counterpoint might be like we would have thought that he was a super sub on the depth chart going into this last season. Then he ended up starting 27 games. yeah Like you can go into the season with your depth chart, how you how you think you want it and how you think it should be. And that usually in MLS gets blown up right away. And what was so what was so impressive, honestly, about the roster last year is when stuff like that happened, the contingency plans were producing and ended up not only keeping the team a afloat, but the team was excelling, right? And that's what i that's like, I just, I literally think...
00:33:54
Speaker
Paul Rothrock played himself out. Like, he was just he was just too good. Like, he just... He earned himself more more money. And that's there's nothing wrong with that.
00:34:05
Speaker
But, like, it's just an unfortunate circumstance where... If you're asking me, I mean, I would have moved on from Pedro de la Vega a while ago. But does that mean that he's going to get an easier time getting in? I don't know.
00:34:19
Speaker
I don't know. Like, there's, you know, people can say Pedro's not Pedro's never healthy. That's that's great. But it doesn't change the fact that his roster that is numbers on the books.
00:34:29
Speaker
you You just can't justify that much money. And you're paying Paul Areola. Maybe you don't pick if they had, if they had shipped Paul are all after the season, that could have been an option, but clearly they think that a dude who's torn his both ACLs multiple times is going to come back and magically have the season of his life this year.
00:34:50
Speaker
That's, I mean, okay, sure. i There might be a little bit of sunk cost fallacy going on there. like Yeah. you brought him that We brought him in and we had these big plans for it. And then he did his knee really early in the season. We want to make good on our investment there.
00:35:05
Speaker
I don't know. are you Are you? That's a good, that's actually a good question. I think that's something that we should, I don't think this has been talked about yet, but like, should we have kept Paul Areola if there was an option to basically just swap Areola for Rothrock?
00:35:21
Speaker
if it's a Rothrock versus Areola question. I mean, it's a hypothetical, but like, i think we can kind of talk around it. I mean, I think I'm partial to Rothrock in that situation, but that's also, we didn't really get to see Areola enough. Like the thing is, Areola, when he did play last year, people forget, but he looked really good in CONCACAF Champions Cup. He scored a he scored a goal against Antigua, which I know it's Antigua, so it doesn't count, but he he did look like he was ah ready to be a big contributor for the team, and then he got injured.
00:35:56
Speaker
Where I sit with it now is like, you know, I'm a little worried about whether he can get back to his previous level next year. i also think there's a lot of precedent at this point for guys coming back from acl ACLs and being roughly at a similar level as they were prior. I don't think it's like a death sentence for his career or he's going to decline. He is older, but Paul Areola in particular, even out of most pro athletes, is kind of a physical freak. freak i know that about he's a demon dude yeah he is neemon one of the most like fit and athletic guys on any team that he plays on even at his age so genuinely i feel like if he had a good season last year he probably could have gotten called up for the national team genuinely he's a lot more physically dynamic than rothrock from that standpoint i would say like he and rothrock have similar work rates right and engines but uh
00:36:53
Speaker
Areola, it is a guy that ah that played in Liga Emekis for many years, I think, and was one of the better players in that league. That's how he ended up on the USMNT radar in the in the first place. And he's been a very high-level contributor in MLS, both for DC United and FC Dallas before he got to Seattle. So...
00:37:14
Speaker
I mean, it is a, it is an interesting question, but I will say regardless of what happens with Rothrock, I'm actually genuinely excited to watch Paul Ariel on the team next year. Like, I think he has a lot to offer.
00:37:29
Speaker
i'm I'm not going to be super worried about the effects of the coming off the ACL tear until we watch him and see if he, Oh, like if we watch him in in preseason or just started the season and he looks like slow and diminished, and like he's declining, then I'll, then at that point I'll be worried about that. But knowing what I know about him as a, as a player and an athlete with his physical skillset and him in particular, his, his dedication,
00:37:52
Speaker
to like taking care of himself and being ready. I'm excited. I am excited to watch it. Even if I will be really sad to watch Rothrock go if he, if, and when he walks.
00:38:04
Speaker
Yeah. I think for me, like if I'm doing the calculation, the biggest thing that I'm thinking about is like longevity, right? Like if you're able to get Paul Rothrock on a longer contract, he's going to outlive I mean, I'm not literally, you know what I mean? But his his his his playing years are more than likely going to outlive Paul Arriola. And I think that like as he continues to develop, there's an opportunity for him to get even better. There's an opportunity for him to be on the team and just contribute in different ways. He's been...
00:38:46
Speaker
Very, very, very durable. I mean, like the only injury that's kept him out truly was at the end of last season when he what did he do? He did something to his back or I can't remember. it was like i don't even remember. it was like yeah He was playing with the bionic hand.
00:39:05
Speaker
it was but Yeah, well, he's broken. is He loves to break his hand. That's his favorite thing. But like before the LA Galaxy game, I think he hurt himself or whatever. he was he was Or he was out for the playoffs or whatever.
00:39:16
Speaker
um but I just, I probably would have picked Rothrock out of that, even if it was an overpay.
00:39:27
Speaker
And maybe that's Cope. Maybe that's Cope. Maybe that's Cope. It wouldn't be on $800,000. I'd probably try and get him on a little bit less, but like...
00:39:40
Speaker
The Rothrock evaluation is just so tough because so much of his value is the intangibles. Exactly. That's, uh, but that, that's real. Like when I go through my favorite Rothrock memories, my favorite Rothrock plays, uh, it's not, it's not like the, uh, the goals. It's like the, uh,
00:39:58
Speaker
The one I'll always remember is the De La Vega's goal at LA in the League's Cup semifinals, I want to say, where he just makes a charging run in and blows up the goalkeeper and wins the ball. And De La Vega just has an easy finish.
00:40:17
Speaker
all because of his running and his effort. He creates he creates a goal that he gets no stat sheet credit for at all, but that goal doesn't happen without him running and working hard and just playing the game like the way it's supposed to be played, I think, and just the way... I love watching guys who play every second of every game, like it's the last goddamn soccer game they're ever going to play. like Paul Rothrock has that in spades, and...
00:40:44
Speaker
i don't think I think there is a little bit of discounting of that value going on, like even in our chat tonight. and Oh, yeah. i don't i don't I wouldn't discount that. like Losing that is a a real thing that it's not it's not going to be super easy to replace. A guy like Paul Areola, frankly, is one of the better options, and MLS proven options at least, that I could think of to give you some of that.
00:41:10
Speaker
But I mean, you are, you're, you are genuinely losing a lot with that. Even if, ah even if it is the responsible thing to do under the cap, a lot of the success that this team had last year, Paul Rothrock contributed a lot to that. He did. He really, he really did. It's not like a lobbing scorchers meme where we're propping up a guy beyond what he actually contributes to the team. I think there might've been a time back when the show first started where that was the case. Cause he hadn't played a lot, but Since he actually broke in and became a regular with the team, like he has he has provided that value. so
00:41:45
Speaker
ah it is It's sad, though, man. It's tough. It's tough. This is one of our favorite players. that like Like I was saying at the top of the show, it's like this it feels real now. feels like It is real, man. like It sucks. there's there's just i like i know that...
00:42:00
Speaker
In Nico's report, it says the Sounders remain open. That means they're not moving on their number. And i have to and also, it's up to the player. I think the player is done. like I think he's like, this team doesn't value me how I think I should be valued. And I'm going to play for a team that does value me like that. and you know Bruce Arena was sitting there and he was like, I i value that. god Oh, man. If they had a dumber coach that didn't know what he was doing like they used to,
00:42:27
Speaker
There's no way Matias Almeida knows ball MLS ball, at least well enough to know that Paul Rothrock is worth going after in free agency, but Bruce, Oh damn it, Bruce. What did you say in that locker room, Bruce?
00:42:43
Speaker
Come on, Bruce. What did you say? Paul, you don't want to go play for a guy like Bruce Arena. You don't want to do it. why You want to stay here and play for pennies and and and and maybe we'll do another jersey promo, okay?
00:42:59
Speaker
That's what you want. Don't leave us. I can't do it. i You know why he's so perfect for the Quakes is because the whole thing with the Quakes last year is they scored a shit ton of goals, but just absolutely didn't defend for anything. Correct. So the fact that they're going after a very strong two-way player like this suggests to me that they understand that. And it's like it's just the exact type of profile of player that can help you with that exact...
00:43:26
Speaker
issue like he Paul Rothrock goes as hard on d defense as any winner in the league yeah so I I agree in the arms of the angels all right away from here Do you want to take a look at the whole free agents list? That was something that I was going to do tonight. and Yeah, we can we can look.
00:43:53
Speaker
All right. ah Are you pulling it up or should I? No, you should pull it up. All right. I got a free agent. Dane St. Clair. Yeah, he is. you know who still hasn't re-signed him? Minnesota United. Can I be honest, Ari? Can I be very honest with you?
00:44:06
Speaker
Yeah. They should not re re-sign him. Minnesota shouldn't? I thought you were going to say the Sounders should sign him. Why do you think they shouldn't resign him? Because he's ass.
00:44:20
Speaker
Okay, so they could just they could just upgrade. I thought there was going to be more to that take. No, no, he's just not good. Yeah, I mean, ah Seattle did famously score seven goals on him in the playoffs and still lost when they were up a man. That was...
00:44:37
Speaker
It's so funny, guys. It's so funny. i I'm laughing. I don't know if you looked at the comments section on our InterMiami video that we put out. It has like 80 comments and like 200 views. It's a mess, but like... Exactly. Like, they're not racially just reading the title, pausing the video, writing words in the comments. I'm going to...
00:45:04
Speaker
We're taking a detour here. This is our fucking show. we do what we want. oh like The comment section went off. It's fair to say. where i regret to inform you all that Lobbing Scorchers is not very popular in the in the city of Miami. But there's no easy debate, dude. It's so easy because they don't know Anything. what they they They don't know anything. It's like you you say you say something about Major League Soccer that's like vaguely anti-Miami and they will reply with a photo of every trophy Messi has ever won. And I'm like... Well, so one of the things that this experience has taught me is the...
00:45:41
Speaker
Delineation between Inter Miami fans or or fans of whatever team Messi might be on at a given moment. And then the Messi bots, the Messi- Messi bots, bro. Oh my God. We got so many comments from where i where I read the comment and it's like talking trash about us for saying what we said about Inter Miami. And then I look at the profile and I'm like, you're not an Inter Miami fan.
00:46:02
Speaker
You're just a Messi fan. It's 99% of the time they have a Barcelona profile picture. Yeah, like what are you – this is between me and the city of Miami, okay, and the inter-Miami fan base. This has got nothing to do with you messy bots. No. What is that? Like what do you have to – You don't even have Apple TV Plus with MLS Season Pass. If you don't have Apple TV Plus with MLS Season Pass, don't even talk to me.
00:46:29
Speaker
Don't even talk to me. I think the ah the comments that we got that were very clearly that had no idea what they were talking about with MLS. I don't think it was even inter-Miami fans predominantly. It was Messi-specific fans who, so they're not happy with us. But like the the the negative comments we got from the inter-Miami fans, like, okay, yeah, like,
00:46:49
Speaker
I antagonized them first. I would expect them to respond. That's like part of the point. That's the bit. wait It's just it's just it's the bit. it's It's just banter as far as I'm concerned at the end of the day. I don't like take any of it personal. Hopefully, you're Miami fans don't take it personal. We're going back and forth. We're chirping. It's fine. But then you got the messy bots Kool-Aid manning into the situation that they got nothing to do with. I don't feel like...
00:47:12
Speaker
that that That is just bizarre to me. um But I don't even know where I was going with that. I had something to say about the ah whole Inter-Miami dispute that ah I got into. but it's My favorite was there was a comment I posted. ah i posted the score. i i I knew what I was doing.
00:47:31
Speaker
I knew what I was doing. I posted on our Instagram. the score graphic from the, that's the comment section I'm talking about. he Yes. I posted it and like, I pinned a comment, the guy deleted it, but it had like a thousand likes and he was like, um, yeah, but Seattle Sounders, Seattle, Seattle, San that he said like Seattle Sanders. It's like Seattle Sanders have never won MSL.
00:47:56
Speaker
Like and he saw that one he kept replying MSL champions. And I was just like,
00:48:03
Speaker
We're growing the game. We're growing the game. We're growing the game. We're growing the game. And then, like, you know, my Messi rant is one of our most viral videos where I i go off on how Messi's done nothing the league. I still get notifications that are like, your Messi reel popped for another this many hundred likes. I think it has like 2 million views at this point. It's like insane. But it's like every day I'm proven right about that.
00:48:28
Speaker
But it's like, i think that I should update the take to the Messi bots. Because that's very specifically talking about the Messi bots. Because they don't know shit about what's going on. No, they have no idea. When they won the Shield, they were like, guys, Messi just won MLS in his first season.
00:48:47
Speaker
He's amazing. And everyone was like, brother, that's the that's the supporters' shield. They don't even play everyone. And then now they were like, then they were like, we won League's Cup. This is the biggest tournament in North America.
00:49:00
Speaker
And then like you're like, okay, but Champions League exists. And they're like, it's easy. We're going to win it. And then they they did it. Yeah. I fear a Hunch might have cooked again. Messy Soccer League. It may as well be MSL.
00:49:12
Speaker
Wait, that's fire, actually. No, that's fire. Hunch is always cooking. You had some bad ones earlier. I was ignoring you. I closed chat because of you, but... When he cooks, how you're cooking cook he's got the the the pre-K's idea, all-timer, redubbing MLS, the Messi's locker league, but...
00:49:30
Speaker
Anyway, yeah, it was funny, the ah the view count on that video compared to the comment section. but like At least spin it. At least give us a dislike.
00:49:42
Speaker
They all sound the same. This is what I was going to say. i was when i first When I saw what was happening in that comment section, I was a little surprised because I was like, damn, you know I know we have the clickbait title on there. Inner Miami is still still chasing the Seattle South. Which you wrote.
00:49:56
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. You know, you got them on that. Yeah, I did get them on that. But like, if you actually watch the video, which I don't think a lot of people did, I was like, felt like I tried to be. The whole first 10 minutes is you glazing. I tried to be deferential. I was like, I'm trying to give credit for the aspects of Inter-Miami that I think deserve to be given credit for. I spoke at length. I said, I said, said that getting Lionel Messi is ambitious. I said that.
00:50:24
Speaker
It is. Undeniably. Yeah, yeah. I said that. I said they deserve more credit than they get for how they built around the Barca boys. I was praising their academy system. I shouted out Noah Frey, Noah Allen, Noah Frey, and Kramashi, their youth development. I said all that stuff. So I watched that part of it, and I was like, why is everyone so pissed off? And then i watched the rest of it and I was like, okay. i i Nico's take was the one that was the most offensive and no one even brought it up. He said, Inter-Miami should be thanking the Seattle Sounders for lighting the fire. he put They put the fire under Messi's ass to finally get off the couch and fucking do something, which by the way is true.
00:51:08
Speaker
That is incredibly true. You think, i believe this. Do you really think that Inter-Miami wins MLS Cup? if they go into Seattle and beat Seattle like 1-0 or something? No. They had the fire of God's ass.
00:51:24
Speaker
They got the paddle. They got the Paul Rothrock. They got exposed on national TV. How many... You know what's so funny is that ah there is a non-zero chance chance that Messi saw our Paul Rothrock real and was just like crashing out and throwing his phone in the room. going I'm going to go win MLS Cup. And then he did. I mean, one thing I will say is... ah Well, part part of the reason I got so disgruntled and reacted, I think the way I did to some of the stuff we were getting in that video is just like,
00:51:54
Speaker
oh
00:51:56
Speaker
It's less about what happened in the game for me and more about what happened after. Like, you can call it salty or sour grapes. Yeah. But ah we we joke about it, but yeah they they not only lost the game, but they started this huge, insane brawl. And then you spit on Security Gene. You can't do that that. You can't do that. that's still That still pisses me off that they did that. And then also, I took issue with their their response.
00:52:25
Speaker
to it. they ah They gave an apology that painted themselves as the victim. Luis Suarez gave one of the most laughable non-apologies I've ever seen.
00:52:37
Speaker
And so if they hadn't done all that stuff, I don't think that I would feel the same type of way, all bent out of shape about it as I do. But that kind of, it just it just still grinds my gears to this day. So yeah watching it back again,
00:52:56
Speaker
I might have been going a little too hard. but i' touch yeah Dude, no. Listen, this is this was a really good point, too, by our our lovely friend Jackson Feltz, KJR, who's also going to lose in fantasy, but you know that's not's not here nor there. He said...
00:53:11
Speaker
It was kind of impossible for Seattle fans to ever not talk shit for the rest of eternity after you spit on security gene chokeholded our best young player and like hundredch and fit all across the world and like wanted MLS to investigate the Sounders.
00:53:29
Speaker
And then you didn't, you got ah like a one game suspension. Like, brother, spend four weeks coming like barely at all. like Of course we fucking hate you. Like, I don't I don't get it. Like, i think yeah. So that's the thing I think that Inter-Miami fans have just got. We'll move on after this. It's not a sound. It's not Inter-Miami podcast. But I think that's what Inter-Miami fans need to understand is it's just like you guys are the villain.
00:53:52
Speaker
Everyone is against you. embrace it Embrace that. Yeah. Embrace that role. They're so long. Yeah, there's a badge of honor. There's a badge of honor that comes with being the team that everyone's preying on their downfall. So I'm going to continue to prey on the downfall, and I'm going to continue to clown on them for not just losing, but crashing out post-loss, starting a brawl, and spitting on Security Gene, which is not cool. And talking shit to Obed and talking shit to Pedro. Not cool.
00:54:19
Speaker
Can't do that, bro. I don't like that. I don't either. i don't like that. James, I'm sorry I forgot your super chat. I'm getting to it right now. Thank you for sending it. Appreciate you. bad streamers. Sorry, James. Weibel waits too long to re-up Paul Obed Reagan. Do you think that they could have signed Rothrock earlier? That would have required anticipating this type of year from him.
00:54:41
Speaker
like i mean they implement met a good year before i think you could have at least done like something. if they had re-signed him for like 500K before last season or 400K before last season, don't you think you would have been steering them for that, James? No. I mean, James might have. I wouldn't have been. That's what I'm saying. We wouldn't because we love Paul Rothrock, but I feel like that move... I think he's good, I guess, but why? think even if it's a hindsight 2020, even if it's a hindsight 2020 thing, I think that James is right that they should have...
00:55:17
Speaker
james James does like Paul too. I've seen James defend Paul. kate is he guy Just like us. But i think I think it would have made sense, especially from a depth perspective. And if you knew he was on one year, I think i think you can.
00:55:31
Speaker
i think you can. you can You can maybe fault him a little bit for that. You know, I think he can. I think he's a big boy. i think he can take a little flack for the fact that he be he could have potentially fumbled the ball there.
00:55:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I mean, and and he would have been it would have been. The only thing is a billion times worse, though, because I'm telling you, Ari, I'm fucking telling you, I can feel it in my bones. That dude is walking away on a free. I am telling you it's going to happen.
00:56:04
Speaker
I can feel it in my bones. How do you feel about that? I mean, you know how I feel about Craig Weibel. I like the guy. <unk>s That is, he's already trying to get in front of it too. That's hot seat, get get fired material, regardless of how you feel.
00:56:26
Speaker
What, I mean, what, it okay, let's say Obed walks on a free, but they have like a really successful season and the rest of the roster looks lit. i I think that to work. I mean, it's still bad. but that That's his job.
00:56:40
Speaker
That's his job, Ari. Your job is to develop to to develop and sell players, and you can't even sell your best fucking player on the whole fucking roster? I've never heard of a team in a situation with a prospect like this being like, no, we're just going to let him play out the contract and let him walk on a free. like I've never even heard of that.
00:57:00
Speaker
That means it's unprecedented. I'll practice in the way, again, the way that he fucking answered that question, it just makes me feel like that's going to happen. It's going to happen. I'm telling you. And you know what?
00:57:12
Speaker
People say that we're glazers on this show, and we are, man. ah Call me a Krispy Kreme donut. That's what I am. But i'm innna I am going to... Craig is going to hear me.
00:57:24
Speaker
He's going to hear me when that happens. We won't even have to skewer that. cause that that'll ah Won't I get skewered league-wide? Yes. i just I feel like I must be missing something. With yes how he portrayed the situation in the in the presser. like Yes.
00:57:41
Speaker
What are we talking about? I don't know. that's Someone said it's giving the Obed thing has given them anxiety. It is for me. yeah You know who else is giving anxiety? Fucking Craig Weibel. Yeah.
00:57:53
Speaker
He's like, Oh man, why didn't I push harder for that? You 22 extension. Now I got to get up at my, now I got to get up at the podium and just um i walk on a free. I mean, uh,
00:58:07
Speaker
you know, I guess it would be sick to have Obed on the team next year. I think this team has the best chance of contending for all the trophies they want to contend for next year. If he's, he and Christian are the double pivot again, but,
00:58:20
Speaker
Walking on a free man. I mean, we're going to obviously continue to keep track of that, but I just, I don't know. I feel like we're all taking crazy pills on it. Ari, the thing that's crazy is if they can't get this done, he's he's just going to sign a contract. The Sounders going to have to try and sell him in that period because he can then enter on his own in the last six months of his contract, a pre-contract with any team in the fucking world that he would like, any team.
00:58:52
Speaker
And he's not going to agree to a transfer. so i Also, your team if you're a team scouting him, unless you need him like right away, why wouldn't you just wait at this point? That's what I'm saying. So no one's gonna no one is going to buy him. No one's going to buy him. It's just going to happen. Yeah, the idea that he's going to get sold in one of these upcoming windows, who why would anyone do that?
00:59:11
Speaker
Unless you're like desperate as hell. But some shitty, desperate team, he's probably not going to go to. No, that's what I'm saying. The world is his oyster. If he just runs out the contract, he still gets a year with the Sounders. He can play his contract. He's going to go to the World Cup. It's going to be 2026 in the summer. Anyway, he would have already been on the Sounders as it goes. He doesn't need to sign another fucking contract. Like I don't the Sounders aren't going to sit him. Maybe he wants a million dollars, but apparently he's been told that that's pennies on the dollar compared to what he's about to get. So exactly. I don't think that's, ah you know, I don't think he's a money motivated type of guy. i think he's a guy who wants to go and play at the best club in Europe and like end up playing in the best leagues and the best all of that. And if that's your goal,
00:59:58
Speaker
Brother, i'm I'm not signing because there's so many more opportunities that just get opened when a club doesn't have to pay a transfer fee. They're going to be way more willing to take a chance on you. And and you can make more money because you can be like, listen.
01:00:13
Speaker
You didn't pay a transfer fee for me. Fill my pockets. Let me make up the money. Obed has such a powerful negotiating position right now. It's incredible. Yes. Yes. And it's, it's, it is. It's kind of, it's kind of sick in a way. not like Like anytime the, ah the oligarch classes under like Craig wives isn't, isn't full oligarch class, but he is the liaison of, to the oligarch class. Correct. So he represents their their side of it, their interests. And you got... oh I mean, Obed's obed's agent and his representation of has that dog in him. Like... no that Yeah. They played that shit like...
01:00:53
Speaker
Picture perfect. Yeah, no, she's the GOAT. She represents like... Cross Craig wives up. a to Yeah. Yeah. his his he Because he switched representation and he's represented by someone... I think they represent Holland. And Mora. Yeah.
01:01:07
Speaker
Like, yeah. Like, brother. What if Obed walks on the free, but they get Gilberto Mora? That would never... Why would he move to... He would never... They would never let him move to... I don't know.
01:01:20
Speaker
um'm I'm just... ah I'm just going off. I'm here for it. He's one of my favorite young players, period. He's fucking insane, dude. I love that guy. All right. Well, I said that I would only make you do an hour tonight, but I'm going to make you... we're good. We're good. We're good. We're fine. We're good. I'm into it now.
01:01:38
Speaker
youre what you I need it. When we're texting and I was like, going to have to get the shit out and whatever. You know, if we can just commit to an hour, once I get into it, it's like, it's going to be... We're going to do... Content sports, you can just go night. Exactly. Forget about everything. No. All right, I'm going to pull up the free agent list, which I had pulled up before we got on our little InterMiami tangent. Everyone go ah give a view and a like to our InterMiami clip that got raided by their fans and the Messi bots. Go argue with them in the comments. I i don't i haven't seen Wade in wade and chat tonight, but Wade, if you're watching, college deads I appreciate you getting in the trenches in there and having my back.
01:02:17
Speaker
Wade was dude wade was super soldiering out there. It was like know a meme where it's like the soldier and he's got all the knives and the grenades and the guns in his back. was so funny seeing the carnage I caused with that because was just like, damn, I didn't even think it was like that.
01:02:33
Speaker
But then I watched it and i was like, it is like that. And I made it like that. Hey, anything for the content, man. It's content, boys. Come on. Claudio is ah already stumping for Fafa Peacolt, who is a free agent from Inter-Miami.
01:02:49
Speaker
kind of a Kind of a good sounder skill set there, to be honest. He's just a little old. He's like he's just very unk. He's very unk. But like he's one of those guys whose game has aged like pretty damn well. All right. this is MLS free agency is open, by the way. It opened yesterday, i believe. But we have the list right here of all of the eligible players. So we're going go through it. Did you see Steph's tweet?
01:03:11
Speaker
He tweeted. no What did he say? He tweeted a happy face emoji. And a champagne emoji. Oh, that probably means he's coming back.
01:03:22
Speaker
So, yeah, that's... I don't know, but... I mean, he either signed somewhere else or is coming back, and I doubt he would be, like, popping cha like doing the popping champagne tweet about signing with, like, Atlanta United or something. Yeah. How is Brad Guzan on the free agents list? He's on fucking MLS plus tv Apple TV post-inship. Retired guys, I guess, are... Brad Guzan just did the poll for Champions League.
01:03:48
Speaker
All right, well, here's your free agent goalkeeper list. ah With Stephen Fry seemingly coming back, I don't think any of these guys are ah are worth discussing as targets necessarily. Before this Fry development, which appears to have happened, um I was looking at David Ochoa. That was the only one. Because, I mean...
01:04:11
Speaker
because i mean Remember him ah in the playoffs that year that RSL won in penalties? He's got that that penalty kick demon in him. He does. And he's still on the young side.
01:04:24
Speaker
it would just be kind of weird after how much of a Sounders villain he became that year to ah see him on the team. And also, like he's one of those guys where the I feel like the demonic behavior and goal is not like a persona or an act like it is for a guy like Dane St. Clair or Andrew Thomas. It's like, I think he's actually kind of a loose cannon just in his normal, like that's that's not just how he's acting in a penalty kick shootout. That's like how he's acting in his day-to-day life.
01:04:53
Speaker
yeah I don't know if that's true. That's just the sense I get. No, it's definitely, it's ingrained. It's deeper rooted than. It's deeper rooted with him. Like there's some serious issues going on there. But other than that, ah it's it's a lot of veterans that if Fry walked, you might be interested in him. But other than that, it's either guys like that or guys like Dane St. Clair who are probably going to be going somewhere to ah to start, which Andrew Thomas theoretically going to be the starter next year. ah But anyway, let's get to the actual position, the field players. You're the defenders, Noah.
01:05:28
Speaker
Let's take a look at this list. Let me know if anyone pops out. ah the there Here's the ones that I thought were interesting. Justin Hack. You know your Justin Hack at all? I am aware of Mr. Hack. So Mr. Hack, and NYCFC homegrown, who they, I don't know why they let him get to free agency. He started every single game, played like pretty much every single minute for them last year. And he came up as like a six or an eight kind of midfielder, but then they dropped him back to center back.
01:05:57
Speaker
this year and he was just lights freaking out yeah he was he was nice don't know how like that's there's very few guys on this list where i'm like why the hell is he a free agent justin hack i'm like that they're the and nyc fans are probably like yeah they're not having guilty kids they're probably pretty tilted that it's in question if he's going to be back there because he's homegrown and he was really good last year How do you let your homegrown walk, bro?
01:06:23
Speaker
that that seattle Sounders would never do that. What you doing? they would never Craig Wives would never do that and let a Sounders homegrown get to free agency and let them walk. That would never happen. Never.
01:06:35
Speaker
But that that was that's a name on here that stood out to me. Henry Kessler is ah good, but always injured. ah this is ah This is a bad take, and I'm going to acknowledge that for before I say it. But ah I have thought about Brooks Lennon at different junctures. yeah not Not even just for this free agency period, but as a guy who ah fell out of favor in Atlanta with the coaches, but also the fan base, they hate him now. because Yeah, what's up? Why? Why? Because, okay, because he's been a week in, week out starter for this entire year, like, 10 year that they've been trash, which dates back like five years now. Yeah. at this point And they basically, they started Brooks Lennon that whole time. And there was a not insignificant period of time where they literally funneled the whole offense, the whole offense through Brooks Lennon. They would just spam him down the right side and let him launch in a cross. And that was it. They had nothing else in attack. And I think their fans just got like, so just like i'm done sick of it that they were just like, I'm done. And he's also not super great defensively, but what he can do, what he can do is bam in crosses from the right side. And his, hit the whole appeal of him theoretically is he's a wide back that,
01:07:51
Speaker
um can put up like legitimate assist numbers. He had an eight assist season in the league. And just in general, he's very good at, ah at crossing and wide service, even from like deeper areas and all that stuff. So as, as a role player on an MLS team, I think he actually has something to offer. And it like Seattle could theoretically use a right back with that,
01:08:15
Speaker
attribute and you wouldn't necessarily have to rely on him and I think you would need to you need to get more out of him defensively I feel like he would kind of switch off at times in Atlanta and that's another reason their fans didn't like him but anyway I'm I'm not ah like I said I realized that that's he's not that good but he had he's like a specialist that could be useful yeah Brad Smith Brad Smith Brad Smith bring home Brad bring him home Bring them home. Listen, we have Kim Kihei. I'm just saying.
01:08:48
Speaker
Bradley? we've been We've been saying that a little Bradley bradley Smith type skill set is something that we've wanted. We have been. Wait, we could do the Atlanta bit, Ari. We could do the Atlanta bit. People, Chad apparently is in favor of bringing back Brad Smith.
01:09:03
Speaker
Like, i would surprised i would have thought you guys would have hated that idea, but apparently I'm just, Ari, think about it. If we do the Atlanta bit, we're like, we've been looking for this guy. We've been looking for this ah guy to fill this guy's shoes.
01:09:16
Speaker
What if we just got the guy? Right. What could go wrong? What could go wrong? I've always thought that... ah I feel like Brad Smith... Baker Whiting never getting minutes.
01:09:29
Speaker
I feel like Brad Smith was like not that popular when he was on the team, and I never got it because I feel like for what he was, he was pretty good. oh ah you thought he wasn't popular? I thought he was popular. i think yeah Maybe I'm misremembering He scored a lot.
01:09:42
Speaker
Maybe it's just my Sounder at Heart comrades who didn't like it. He's grown a lot like anyone over there. This is why you should subscribe to Sounder at Hearts, Sounders at Hearts, which is totally not the same thing and totally not go to Sounder at Heart dot com slash LS, subscribe and get a bunch of content.
01:10:02
Speaker
ah Hashtag plug, hashtag ad anyway. All right. Apparently there's a lot more ah pro Brad Smith sentiment among the fan base. Okay. Type a six in chat. If you like Brad Smith type a seven in chat, if you don't like Brad Smith, Brad Smith, free agent. If they brought but Brad Smith back for hella cheap, I would be down. ah Anyone else? I think Walker Zimmerman's the other big name. Yeah, but like he's going to be too expensive and he's he's not that good. He's going to be too expensive, old, not that good. I don't like it. Oh, dude, wait, Damien Lowe. Damien Lowe's available, former sounder.
01:10:38
Speaker
Former sounder, former fighter of Clint Dempsey. Did you know that? Yeah, I did know that. Yeah. I don't know if ah chat knows that, but Damian Lowe, two or three days before the Western Conference 2014 final against LA Galaxy, the one where Janino scored the game winner. Damian Lowe was going too hard in practice, and he and Clint squared squared off.
01:11:00
Speaker
And that was the craziest training flight I have ever seen. i was i was there for that one.
Transfer Rumors and Player Evaluations
01:11:05
Speaker
um Anyway, like, is there anyone on here who you're... I mean, you got Jonathan Bell. That's an interesting target. Maybe they should... ah He's going to Austin for sure.
01:11:16
Speaker
He's going to Austin? Well, I mean, not for sure, but like Nico reported that they're in advanced talks. To me, the one on this list I would be the most stoked by would probably be Justin Hack.
01:11:29
Speaker
Yep, same. And then if they did my Brooks Lennon take, that would indicate to me that they see something in him that could be useful and I would be willing to, I would be open to that being a good idea because it's an idea that I came up with.
01:11:42
Speaker
He's definitely like a Sounders type of we trust we we trust we can rehab you, you know? Like you're not that bad. You're not that bad. And then if they brought back Brad Smith, I actually think that would be kind of tight.
01:11:56
Speaker
I liked, I mean, like Brad Smith is a vibes guy, which I don't, I can't, I'm trying to scroll through all these six sevens, but someone said it. And um yeah, I think that's, that's, you Kenny, thank you for the $1.99. Appreciate you, brother.
01:12:11
Speaker
Duwamish zone. What does that mean? Noah, do you know what that means? Like the river? Like the the place we live. I don't know.
01:12:22
Speaker
Duwamish zone. Like he was bred here. I don't know. ah Not sure what you mean by that, Kenny, but appreciate the super chat. Incorrect. He isn't going to Austin. Is there, is there a different news? That was the last that I was that like an a John bell to Austin thing was an actual, yeah, it was an actual thing. okay We're having conversations.
01:12:40
Speaker
I saw in Chicago was another one. Yeah. I think that would be a great signing for either. i think John bell underratedly is one of the best free agents on this, uh, on this entire list.
01:12:51
Speaker
I mean, I agree. we He was literally our underrated player of the year. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, all right. Let's check out the midfielders. Uh, Sean Davis was linked to Seattle last year as someone they could sign off the street, but he didn't play a single game for the LA Galaxy. ah i mean, you got our you got our boy right here. He's just sitting out there. Option declined accidentally. They should have put parentheses accidentally. Yeah, that would be really funny if they were like, oh are not in not intended.
01:13:23
Speaker
Everyone knows that my absolute number one pipe dream would be Espinoza. But you do have a couple of other guys on here. Hassani Dotson, that's one that... ah is a good fit stylistically, skillset-wise, at a position of need from federal way. So he's got the hometown factor. But ah people in chat were saying he is like, he he doesn't like the Sounders.
01:13:49
Speaker
Can anyone ah explain what the story behind that is? Because I didn't know that. I don't know if that's something to do with ah some anything that might have happened when Seattle was playing Minnesota over the years that Dotson has been there. But ah honestly...
01:14:06
Speaker
if that you know If everything checks out with that and he's willing to look past whatever issues he might have in that regard, i think that would be – would be into that. What about you? What do you think Hassani Dotson?
01:14:18
Speaker
i Yeah, I don't really like know that much about him, honestly. like I don't know his game exceptionally well. I know that he's talented, obviously.
01:14:30
Speaker
but um he was a ah i don't know He was a very like regular, trusted starter for them. I want to say dating back to like the Adrian Heath days. But he is like he's a plus-level MLS player, and he can play...
01:14:46
Speaker
You can kind of Dude, Adrian press box behind us during the Minnesota game was the funniest fucking thing of all time. I don't know if you saw him, but he was in there. And it was hilarious.
01:14:57
Speaker
No, like watching his old team? Yeah.
Player Injury Concerns and Fit
01:15:00
Speaker
um Oh, Hassani Dotson's knees are shot? I don't know about that. And MCL tear separately. so he is a sounder. Damn. um Well, then he fits right in. Yeah, you're right. all out of favor but ti him It's one of those ones where if you can bring the hometown guy back on ah on a good number, they do like he does he can play that sort JP-type role that they're going to be looking to replace. And he's only 28. So that's that's one that jumped out to me.
01:15:33
Speaker
ah Fafa Pico is one that
Potential Retirements and Comebacks
01:15:37
Speaker
guys. Darlington Nagby for the bit. You want to bring Nagby out of retirement? That would piss a lot of people off because of the Timbys connection. Yeah, Nagby did hang it up, but he's he's technically... that There's a lot of people in here who have hung it up, but they're just technically free agents.
01:15:58
Speaker
You could get Christian Paredes as the JP replacement. I think that's what he did. What about Bryce Duke? See, that's ah that's a little bit of an interesting one because I feel like he's been a part of multiple different transactions within MLS now where I'm like, why are people paying so much for Bryce Duke? like did CF Montreal dropped like a huge bag on him. yeah Inter-Miami back when they were a crackpot organization before the Messi era, I want to say, ah overpaid for Bryce Duke. So there's clearly something there.
01:16:33
Speaker
With Bryce Duke, but I feel like he never quite lived up to that at CF Montreal to where he's more of a ah of a role player in MLS than someone that you can build an attack around. He played 18 matches, one assist, and only started 20% of his games.
01:16:54
Speaker
Yeah, see, I just kind of never saw what the... It was all it was it was a lot of projection and a lot of upside, so that comes from somewhere. But yeah, I don't know. I just feel like he never lived up to that, and I never got to a place where I understood what the...
01:17:10
Speaker
Like, Steve Montregal dropped, like, over a million dollars, I want to say, on on Bryce Duke. And they also, did you see this? Yeah, it was 1.8, I think. For Bryce Duke. they just bara with No, I'm sorry. It was 591,000 euros euros or whatever. That's what it says on TransferMarkt.
01:17:31
Speaker
They also just dropped a huge bag on ah Brian Vera, who's, like, a Best I can tell, like a replacement level center back for Real Salt Lake. So I kind of don't know what our ah our Canadian friends in Montreal are doing.
01:17:45
Speaker
but There's not actually... That organization is just run by ChatGPT. i I think so. Like you tune into their press conferences, it's all in French. Like what's going on with this? Yeah, like there's not actually anything going on there.
01:17:59
Speaker
Like I don't... i' Like genuinely, there's there's not... um The lights are on, but no one's home. mike it's You want to sign 38-year-old Maxi Morales? He's out there.
01:18:13
Speaker
Sebastian Legette, bro. That's who I want. People in chat, I think we're talking about Sebastian Legette. I don't know if he's still good. I do think at one point he was good. He's been in MLS since it started. Yeah, like he was on the he was on the original LA Galaxy.
01:18:28
Speaker
Yeah, like he probably has like five MLS Cups accidentally. And he cheated on Rita Ora where becky g Becky G cheated on Becky G. So actually, I don't want him on the team because how do you cheat on Becky G? know she she's She's beautiful.
01:18:43
Speaker
ah And we respect women in Seattle. So we don't want him here. Especially Becky G. Especially Becky G. Fafa Pekal is an idea that ah wouldn't mind as a depth piece.
01:18:58
Speaker
Paul Rothrock, that's an interesting target. They could sign him. Oh, the last the last two, Eric Tommy, designated player, I think, for the ah wrestling enthusiasts. You do have Robin Lodd. Someone else mentioned him.
01:19:11
Speaker
yeah you know your ah Do you know your Robin Lodd at all? I do know Mr. Laud. I think he's bad. think he's bad? I don't think he's good. and do you Why do you think he's bad? I just don't like his game. Like, i don't know. Like, every time I watch him, I'm just like, yeah, you play like a dude named Robin Laud. you know what I'm saying?
01:19:30
Speaker
There was a lot of times in Minnesota where ah like Reynoso would go missing and they would be like, all right, Robin Wad, you're the centerpiece of the entire attack. And he'd be like, okay. And then would actually do a pretty good job.
01:19:42
Speaker
And I'm pretty sure he would be like, hey, is Reynoso ever coming back? This is not like what I was supposed to be doing. They're like, no, we don't know where he's at. puts an Instagram story with a gun and a bag of cash. We don't really. We have no idea. We don't know.
01:19:54
Speaker
So you are now face of the club and the centerpiece of the of the attack. And he he did it. more functionally at a higher level than I think that I thought he would every time he had to do it, which was like six separate times. It was like not just Ritoso. They would have like an injury or they would just always end up in a situation that he was the centerpiece of their attack. But that's the situation they ended up with. Four assists this year, all comps.
01:20:20
Speaker
And in how many games?
Player Performance and Potential Signings
01:20:24
Speaker
thirty four thirty six three seventy eight no forty four all right so i mean not like the craziest statshtute guy but that's not really his game as much i as was a free agent it's you kind of taking what you can get here if you're if you're looking at what i wouldn't need it he's doing paul rothrock numbers he's doing paul rothrock numbers yeah And the thing is, he's a little older, like back in the, uh, in the era where he was carrying so much of that load for Minnesota United. That was like the prime of his career. Now he's a little bit past that, but he isn't, he's an interesting name for sure. I didn't know that he was going to be out there. ah
01:21:06
Speaker
Eric Williamson is another like former Timbers bit. Oh yeah. But, uh, he, he does kind of also play that, uh, that center mid role that they, that they need, they need to go sign somebody at that spot. Um,
01:21:21
Speaker
The question with him is he's been injured a lot. He did his ACL when he was with the Timbs, and then I feel like he's continued to be sort of in and out, like on and off the field with Charlotte FC. But, I mean, i don't know if you remember eric willie the Eric Williamson come up, but he there was a period where he was considered like an up-and-coming star in the league. He got a couple USMNT caps and stuff like that, and people were like widely hailing the Timbers as they found this diamond in the rough. Yeah. So he had all that press around him at one time, and he's only 28.
01:21:54
Speaker
So it's not like he's super old. He's just been injured a lot. But he would give you the former Timbs bit, and he was at least at one time a player who played that position at an extremely high level in in MLS. Yeah, two ACL tears, James.
01:22:09
Speaker
Total sounder. Weibel guy. za or weable Sounder. Sounder. Yeah. i think he Wasn't he... He won the he won the um MLS's back with them.
01:22:23
Speaker
Yeah, he was like a key. Yeah, yeah they built I do remember him. They built a statue in front of the stadium of Eric yeah Williamson. That big-ass face statue that's in front of the stadium?
01:22:34
Speaker
Yeah, that'slitter that's literally Eric Williamson. He's wearing a cape that's the MLS's back yeah banner. Yeah. wait you I'm looking him up now. I forgot. he They also called him up for that 2021 Gold Cup.
01:22:47
Speaker
Yeah. yeah that was he one He was a thing. He was a thing at one point. I remember. Okay. i'm I'm with it. I'm with it for him. I'm with it. All right. Yeah. See, that's a, it's not a a terrible target. I don't know for me, no, of this, this entire list is just all about Espinoza. I know Nico said it's not happening. I know the conventional wisdom is that he's going to go somewhere as a DP for a lot more money. Just ah pick up the phone, make a little pitch, get, ah get, Hey, Seuss or one of the guys to tamper and message him on IG. Like, Hey bro, come play. Like see, just see what you can make happen. Just put it, put out the feelers.
01:23:24
Speaker
do whatever you got to do to at least get the dialogue started and be able to make your pitch. Cause that, that would be a way to just soften the blow of this whole Roth rock situation and just give like a, that would be, i think such a jolt to the roster to be honest, if that actually happened in this hypothetical dream world.
01:23:44
Speaker
So that's really what i hope and want them to do. But there are a couple of like, ah lower level moves that they could make that I think could be helpful to the roster.
01:23:55
Speaker
um Mostly in the form of veteran type rotational guys, but you do need, you do need a couple of those guys this off season to fill this thing out. So ah the forwards, here we go.
01:24:06
Speaker
I don't know how, how much relevance this is going to have. Kai Kamara, Kai Kamara, Kai Kamara, Kai Kamara. Better than Danny Mussovsky.
01:24:16
Speaker
At every level. Kai Kamara right now will score more goals than Danny Musavsky. Mark it. Sign him. Sign him. I think he's going to be 41 next year.
01:24:28
Speaker
But he kind of doesn't age. I would trust Kai Kamara to score MLS goals at 55 years old. You could put him in emmo guy age you could put him in an MLS game in his 50s and he would like hold his own and maybe get a goal.
01:24:41
Speaker
Correct. yeah At least an Open Cup game. And he's played for almost every MLS team, but he hasn't played for Seattle yet. Nope. Nope. Trade Moose for a bag and replace him with Kai Kamara.
01:24:55
Speaker
That's my new, that's my new bit. That's my new take. Okay. Okay. I mean, it's because, you know, my whole bit has been that like Moose is getting too old. It doesn't make contractual sense. Yeah. Just, just fuck it. A guy that's a decade year older makes even less sense.
01:25:11
Speaker
Get the 41-year-old. Fort Baird, former Stanford teammate of Jordan Morris, as Kenny points out. I don't really know what he did. i think he was on San Diego last year, and I feel like he wasn't that big of a part of it, but he has been in MLS for a long-ass time and has been a pretty good player at times. But I don't know. I'm not a super big Corey Baird guy. ah Ben Teke out there, though. That's your that's your boy I would love Ben Teke on this team. Talk about the perfect target, man. like
01:25:45
Speaker
For how good the facilitation is, he would have he would win Golden Boots. Swear to God. Swear to God. So Ben Teke on this team would be a fun idea, but... I did a really bad Photoshop of him chat. I something that might make you...
01:26:01
Speaker
I have something that might might make you crash out, which is that I've seen a couple of pundits and analysts point out that Ben Teke, the best fit for Ben Teke is by far Minnesota United because all they do is pump set pieces
Team Strategies and Market Opportunities
01:26:16
Speaker
in each box. And he's literally, like, if you look at the ah if you look at the under underlying numbers of ah his aerial dominance, he is...
01:26:27
Speaker
He is by far and away the most dominant player in the air that's ever played in the league. Like it's not even, it's not even remotely close. So you put them on a team like Minnesota United, where all they're doing is just giving their attackers aerial opportunities in the box off of set pieces.
01:26:44
Speaker
He could score 35 goals for the next five years. Yeah. Playing. ter rick ramsey bubble did Yeah. it's I hope to God that there that the Loons are not smart enough to realize this because it's staring them right in the face. there's i don't mean I don't know if there's a player globally that would fit their whatever their system has become.
01:27:08
Speaker
I don't think there's a player globally that fits it more than this dude because he's one of the best in the world at just standing in the box and heading the ball in the goal. Yeah. No, they would they would probably win MLS Cup if they signed him.
01:27:23
Speaker
This is like the um Minnesota United, free advice. like i know not when here's Here's what I'm saying, dude. They signed him and Paul Rothrock. They got like a dirty playmaking winger who can like get back and like defend and do all of that, but can also like move the ball forward and then you get Ben Teke.
01:27:45
Speaker
Come on. but that's like you're You're starting to verge in the territory of like being able to play soccer. Yeah. And you can still play negative soccer. It's just like... It's just you could be even... You could win. Yeah.
01:28:00
Speaker
yeah Be even more menacing with that style next year than you were this last year when there was all kinds of numbers that showed that they were just disgustingly good on set pieces and long throws and all that stuff. Yeah.
01:28:14
Speaker
That's all they were good at, but they were very good at it. So I don't know. It's kind of, I kind of don't like that. It's an idea that's getting steam because I think they're going to do it. And I think it's pretty clear cut, like exactly what they need.
01:28:28
Speaker
um Little Joseph Martinez action. He actually was scoring some goals. last year. See, I just like the, I feel like the striker group is pretty much set unless they do what you want them to do in trade moves. But like in failing that, it's not like that. I don't think a free agent trade moves. They're not going to go out and free agency is not where they're going target. Yeah. i But yeah, we can still, we can still look at Teal Bunbury. haven't heard that name in ages. He was, ah I want to say, playing actual minutes for Nashville last year. maybe score brener Brenner on the free agent list.
01:28:59
Speaker
that's See, that's a a really good player who's still in his prime. that but That's who I would sign. Man, I kind of kind of fuck with that. That's who I would sign. Actually, that's Tom Barlow.
01:29:14
Speaker
yeah We're going to ask for Brenner and Christian Benteke, and we're going to get Tom Barlow in the liking. We have Benteke at home. It's Tom Barlow. Wasn't Michael Oure? Oh, yeah, Michael Oure or whatever. Yeah. Wasn't classed at one point for the union? Yeah, no, he's actually – didn't see him on there.
01:29:37
Speaker
I didn't know he's a free agent. He's pretty good. He's pretty good. I want Brenner, Yeah, I kind of i kind of like that. That's like, i'm I'm not against the whole trade moose crusade, but my thing is like, it's not something that you should do unless you have, ah I mean, one of two things. If there's some notable decline that you can either predict or you see coming or you have a plan that's better. Brenner in the Sounders system, I think is a plan that's better. I don't, I do think there's been maybe some issues with him, like in Cincinnati. Remember he was kind of acting like a malcontent and a diva. Yeah. so shouldn the u n say Or whatever. Yeah.
01:30:21
Speaker
I'm not so sure about also like his Schmetzer ball fit, but, uh, Off what I know of him purely just as like a fox in the box, number nine, who can finish his chances.
01:30:33
Speaker
ah Brenner, if if the if there was a moose trade and a Brenner contingency plan, that's something I would be cool with. Younger and ah just ah just as proven.
01:30:45
Speaker
Brenner would be alone. That's true. He's back at Udinese now. I just looked it up. Oh, Okay. But that's dude that's the hack. That's the hack. He's technically signed to the Tacoma Defiance, but we just loan him for a dollar to the Sounders.
01:31:01
Speaker
Think about it. Craig. It's allowed. You don't have to have DPs. They don't, they don't exist when you just do this loan scam. I'm just thinking about it. Now I'm having fun. Brenner playing in a MLS next pro dude. Brenner would be fucking insane. And next pro that dude would have like eight goals a game.
01:31:24
Speaker
Yeah. He, I mean, you think of Sazay was good in next pro. Wait till you see this guy. Uh, not ah Not a whole lot else going on in this list. It's a lot of kind of like washed vets. You got Jossie on there.
01:31:38
Speaker
got Vrioni on there who was a bust for New England and Montreal. Maxey Arrudi still playing professional soccer. God, i love that guy so much. he's I like him too. He's ah he's ah been a fun MLS character over the years doing kind of the Kai Kamara tour like most of the teams. he's done like He's literally done every team in Texas. He played for Houston, Austin, and Dallas, which I think is just very fire.
01:32:02
Speaker
He was on the Timbys for a minute, too, so you'd have the former Timbys bit. ah i like eggy You got a guy named Calvin Harris on here, which I think is kind of funny because his name is Calvin Harris. If you ever try and Google him but you don't specify that it's a soccer player, not going to get anything about Calvin Harris.
01:32:22
Speaker
That's my Calvin Harris thing. Yeah. Anyone else on here? You got Miguel Berry, Joseph Martinez, Daniel Rios, Diego Rubio. I don't know. It's just a lot of kind of like replacement level MLS guys. And Seattle's not going to be, again, looking for a striker in free agency in all likelihood. So, ah kind of a not that much of a point in going as deep on that position group as we did. But I think we did ah we did have some interesting names surface, Noah, in in going through these names. A couple of which I had thought about beforehand, like Espinoza and Hassani Dodson.
01:33:01
Speaker
But a couple of which I haven't. I hadn't, like a Robin Laud. And don't remember. Brad Smith. Hank Kessler. Yeah, I don't know. For me, Justin Hack and Christian Espinosa are the guys that I really want.
01:33:20
Speaker
I would love Hack. I think if if they're not making a play for Hack, Craig, we know you're listening. Open the book. Open the checkbook. justin hack Justin Hack and Espinoza are the two where if they pull it off, I will be like, good job, Craig.
01:33:39
Speaker
Good job. If he gets Espinoza, I will say, great job. Phenomenal job. Extend him for 15 years. If he gets Justin Hack, I will say, good, solid job.
01:33:53
Speaker
I approve of, but you're going to have earn your extension. That's my ah final ah free agency take. Hunch doesn't like the ah the Robin Lodd guy. we We were talking about Robin Lodd.
01:34:06
Speaker
Hunch, he's kind of not that good anymore, but ah he's okay. ah All right, Noah, that was all I had planned for for the night. oh Real quick, let's just hit these ah last two topics that I had.
01:34:18
Speaker
ah Number one, LAFC officially hired Mark Dos Santos. I've been saying that I think that that's... like They're going to get kind of decried,
Team Management and Stadium Plans
01:34:28
Speaker
I think probably by their own fan base, as being boring and unambitious. Yeah, but they were they were literally winning trophies, and they were like, you know who we need to fire? Our head coach. So I don't think that... listen To me, it's an example. put anyone and coach these guys, okay?
01:34:46
Speaker
Lobbingscorchers.com slash or lobingscorchers.biz. Did you know that they bought that domain from us? No. They own, HappyFoodSadFood owns lobingscorchers.biz and it just links to their merch store.
01:34:59
Speaker
That's honestly it's it's a good bit. It's a good bit. It's honestly a good bit. No, like for me, it's a ah it's an example of what a, ah smart good organization does i mean we'll see how it pans out maybe mark dos santos is like a total disaster and that take won't age well but the fact that they are entrusting him with this suggests to me that they they believe in him but also like the players in the locker room are behind it and believe in him and i think a lot of teams fall into a trap on these coaching searches sometimes of just like
01:35:36
Speaker
overthinking it like Atlanta United like they overthink it I'm not going to make this a Rob Valentino take but like there's there's been a lot of situations where people hi teams hire the wrong guy when they probably would have been better served to not overthink it go with continuity And this is this is a case of that where you got like one of the best teams in the league in LAFC with one of the best rosters in the league now with Sun Hung Min. You don't need to overthink it. You don't need to go on like a global search and bring in somebody from from somewhere else. If you have a guy that you're convicted in and you believe in, that's like what you should do. And unfortunately, as someone who roots against LAFC, think that they did the
01:36:17
Speaker
The smart thing. They cooked. They cooked. They cooked. And then also, did you see that there was a Whitecaps stadium update? I did see this. They're getting a stadium.
01:36:29
Speaker
It looks like Ari. um The Hastings district. In the city. Yeah. In the city. Who would have thought? Who would have thought? The release.
01:36:41
Speaker
I don't know anything about Vancouver. So if this is not actually in any kind Well, okay. So whatever, don't. don't I have been to Vancouver a lot because I went to Western Washington University. Shout out. Illicitly drinking, perhaps? The fact that the drinking age was 19 at the time might have had something to do with why I was there. Allegedly.
01:37:05
Speaker
Allegedly, I'm not here to to confirm or deny that one way or the other. But I so this new stadium, they've signed a memorandum of understanding little MOU.
01:37:16
Speaker
You ever signed one of those MOUs? No, they signed MOU with the city of Vancouver to enter an exclusive negotiation period through 2026 to explore a new stadium and entertainment district at Hastings Park.
01:37:29
Speaker
I don't remember ah Hastings park from when I've been in Vancouver. i have been to Hastings street. And at least when I was going to Vancouver, which those would have been like, this would have been 2010 to 2014.
01:37:42
Speaker
I was walking around Hastings street and I was like, this is a little, uh, sketchy to be walking around here. So I don't i don't know if that's ah indicative of the whole area around Hastings Park, but hopefully ah hopefully not. But either way, I just think it's it's good that they actually got movement on this I've been kind of following it the whole season and being like, it feels like one of those impasse situations where they're going to move this team, aren't they? These absolute blood sucking vulture greedy oligarchs are going to move this team and take it away from Vancouver. even after a year where they did what they did and became one of the best teams in the league. one of the best coaches in the league made it to conquer calf champions cup final, made it MLS cup, played some of the best footy in the league unquestionably throughout the year. We're packing BC place very regularly. Like, the It's not like they don't have support from the city or from the fan base. They do. like they Their attendance is not is not bad, and the fans there love the team. So I'm glad that ah it looks like we're on the track to common sense prevailing, and they're going to do whatever it is they got to do to get this new stadium done. i don't I don't know, but what do you think of BC Place?
01:38:56
Speaker
I've always kind of liked it, but I guess it's not ideal. Probably ideal and and similar for similar reasons that Lumen's not ideal for Seattle from the, like, having to deal with first and goal and not being the principal tenants of your venue type stuff.
01:39:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i agree I think that's obviously a big part of it. Like I talked about in depth in our show with Jackson, like the biggest way to up the valuation of your club and therefore your shares is to own real estate and own a stadium.
01:39:28
Speaker
And so they don't do that. Like there's just no movement there. Also, it smells like piss and shit at that stadium sometimes. So I don't like that. like And it was really disgustingly hot.
01:39:41
Speaker
in there in the summer you shoot when you went up there weren't you shooting the from the down on the field okay yeah i didn't go down on the field so i didn't experience that it was it was it was brutal i just remember the cards that's all i remember yeah but i mean i don't know i don't know what fans think i don't know the fan experience i don't know what's going on i just know that it's an ancient building it's ancient But they are retrofitting it for the World Cup. They're like doing all these crazy upgrades. The turf sucks, from what I've heard.
01:40:10
Speaker
ah Worse than a Lumen. We're pro-turf here, okay? you We're pro-turf, but ah it's bad turf. It is. that's Very bad turf. you know I think there's a little bit of a...
01:40:22
Speaker
a desire to get their own place. But listen, if they try and fucking move this team, they're so stupid. The fact that that was ever even on the table is the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Vancouver is a perfect market. If they would actually like spend five fucking seconds continuing to build on the success that they had this year, it could be the biggest sport. No one's watching Canadian football. No one's watching that shit.
01:40:48
Speaker
No one's watching that shit. Canadians might. I don't know. is Canadians watch Canadian football? No one's watching. If you're not the Toronto Argonauts, no one's watching you. like No one cares. like No one cares. you should No one cares enough that it it has to be a bigger deal than MLS. That's what I'm saying. MLS could be easily the biggest sport in that market.
01:41:11
Speaker
i don't understand. Well, hockey, right? Vancouver doesn't have a team though, do they? Canucks? Aren't there the Canucks still? you Yeah, sorry. I don't care about hockey. so it could it could like hockey is Hockey is just on its own tier with the Canadians. They fucking love hockey. Hockey is just soccer all Have you talked to Canadian about hockey? like you don't even have to say anything. You just say, what did you think of the hockey? And then they they'll just go indefinitely. Yeah.
01:41:36
Speaker
You're like, oh, how about those Canucks, huh? Yeah. But to your point, like it could be a clear-cut second over the Canadian Football League, yeah for sure.
01:41:48
Speaker
with so Hopefully, this is a sign that they're getting more investment, more support, more help from the city. i just i find it... It's bullshit that they have to threaten to move the goddamn team to like try and get a bunch of tax breaks. It's just cowardly. I hate the oligarchs, man.
01:42:02
Speaker
It's a very... It's another example of the oligarchs just Not adhering to have some common good, the public good, the good of Vancouver. and the these are These are Canadian oligarchs we're talking about. They're supposed to be like a little bit less. guess there's no limits, country limits to the corruption of the oligarch class. The Canadian oligarchs. Either way, it's good it's just good that there's movement on this.
01:42:31
Speaker
Because the the reality where they moved would be so whack, dude. like That would be one of the wackest things in MLS history by far. We would be raising hell on this show if they ever try that shit.
01:42:46
Speaker
So good thing it looks like they're not going to try that shit. if they I'm just going to let everyone know they ever tried to move the Sounders out of Seattle in a video game, I'm going to jail.
01:43:02
Speaker
that's That's all. What if they move me to Renton? If they're moving them to Renton in a video game, I'm going to jail. So anywhere
Show Schedule and Future Plans
01:43:10
Speaker
outside. not not I'm not going to jail they move them to Renton, but I won't be going to any of the games.
01:43:17
Speaker
um All right, Noah, that's all I had planned for the night. We went an hour 42 and we were supposed to go into an hour. or so There we go. We do it for you. We do it for the people. That's good shift. We do it for the people. Thank you all for tuning into this off-season episode. We appreciate everyone continuing to watch, even though we don't have the the games anymore. But we're all sickos here. So hey we hit like 90 people in here. So yeah, the content in day um keeps rolling. I will, I will say announcement before we get out of here. I am going out of town starting on Sunday to the next Sunday. i do. I want to try and lay down a show next week while i'm down there, but. just I would say in general, the schedule ah from like now through New Year's might be a little different. we're taking a break, Chad. We're going to be laying lower, not going to be doing as many shows. I do i do want to do at least a couple shows in that time frame. I don't want to go like totally dark, but we're going to be not on our normal schedule. might be
01:44:16
Speaker
one or two shows for the next two weeks. I'm going to Eugene to hang out with the fam for a week. And then in that Christmas, New Year's area, do you guys even want us to be like doing shows at that point? no If there's like crazy news, maybe we'll do one. But like Noah said, we're going to, this is the one time a year where Lobbing Scorchers can lay low and not be beholden to the content. We're going to take it before they switch the season calendar. And we're going to be in the middle of the season during the holidays. It's true. It's going to be like a,
01:44:46
Speaker
they're going to Christmas day games like they do in the NBA. I'm going to let you all know when they do change this schedule and we're still streaming because no one can take this away from us.
01:44:57
Speaker
I will be at the beach in the summer. I will be uncontactable. I will be uncontactable. Not last show of the year, Hunch. Not last show of the year. We'll see what happens next week. I do want to try and do one ah while I'm in Eugene and ideally get Nico on there because he's the one who ditched the Paul Rothrock report. So he'll hopefully he'll have some updates and more to add on that. So I'm going to try and rally Nico for a show while I'm in Eugene next week. The internet situation last time I tried to do a show from there. That was brutal. was not ideal so i'm going to try and get that short up but assuming that that's short up uh we'll do one next week fall that all now i'll announce on blue sky when that is it'll probably be on a different schedule than uh than the usual monday thursday routine but then after that will probably be a little bit dark maybe a show
01:45:49
Speaker
but not much past that. um And then January, we'll be back at it. We'll be back on the normal schedule. We'll preseason starting up, right? Mid-January. ah Let's go to Spain.
01:46:02
Speaker
You want to go to Spain? Marbella. Yeah, let's go. I'm down. Stream from Marbella? Marbella stream. All right, everyone drop a super chat so we can go to Marbella. Yeah, that's only, i'm not sure we have enough in the Lobby Scorchers travel budget. In the yeah War Chest? don't know if War Chest can fund Marbella.
01:46:22
Speaker
can probably fund LA away, but Marbella away might be a little dicier. But yeah, January will be back on the normal schedule and it's going to be sick. 2026 is going to be a big year. But other than that, please like the video, sub to the channel, like the video, follow us on Instagram, like the video and follow us on TikTok.
01:46:47
Speaker
Like the video. Oh, TikTok aren't that bad, bro. Marbella, are you seeing? To get to Malaga, it's like 500 bucks.
01:46:58
Speaker
We'll look into Marbella. We'll look into Marbella. I'm just, listen, I'm just saying it's an off season. It's off season. I got to renew my passport. If we're talking about Marbella, you better get on that. We got to get off this goddamn street. And this is, this is always what happens.
01:47:11
Speaker
All right. Stay tuned for, for when we're going live next week, I'll find a day. I'll announce it on blue sky. Until then. Thanks for tuning in.
01:47:22
Speaker
Love y'all. We out. Peace.