The Morrison Report – November 29, 2011

Welcome to The Morrison Report. Having settled into the offseason, I wanted to create a semi-frequent place to talk about the goings on around Morrison Street and the MLS. Here we’ll primarily discuss Timbers offseason news, but when PTFC news is light, like this week, we’ll touch on some topics around the league.

In this edition of The Morrison Report, we’ll discuss the Impact’s impact, say farewell to a few Timbers, and go over a couple other PTFC notes.

The Impact’s Impact: Why Montreal’s wild-eyed swashbuckling is as stupid as it is fun.

Last week when I wrote about the Expansion Draft I did so with a bit of trepidation about Montreal. I was worried that they wouldn’t bring quite the punch to the league of the past four newbies. After all, things had been awfully quiet out of Montreal. One week later, we can say with confidence that my concerns were wholly invalid.

The Expansion Draft was full of talent, with multiple options for the Impact at each position. Montreal didn’t take long to make a splash, however. Houston left Brian Ching unprotected for obvious reasons. He has a very high salary number and, at 34, isn’t the dynamo he used to be.[1] Plus, Ching made clear that he would retire if Montreal took him. By all rights, there was little chance he would be selected, and Dynamo didn’t seem to be taking a risk leaving his exposed.

Nonetheless, Montreal took him with the first pick in the Expansion Draft. There were plenty of other good players, even strikers, available if Montreal desired one. Younger strikers. Cheaper strikers. To be honest, better strikers. But no, they took Ching.

Why? Because Montreal had their eyes on a bigger prize, and they needed a hostage. Yep, they took Ching as part of a nefarious ploy to land Impact alumnus and Quebec native Andre Hainault. Montreal knew how much Houston wanted 2012 to be Ching’s swan song and hoped to leverage that to coerce the Dyanmo into selling Hainault for 50 cents on the Loonie.

But here’s the thing; that’s a really dumb move. There are three ways this could turn out. First, they can’t swing a deal with Houston, don’t get Hainault, and Ching retires. Essentially Montreal just wastes a pick in a really loaded Expansion Draft. All they have done then is royally tick off Houston and make the rest of the league’s FOs wary of dealing with the Impact. Oh, and this is the best realistic scenario for Montreal.

The nightmare scenario is if they can’t swing a deal and Ching shows up, albeit less than motivated. Let’s face it, right now, at his best Ching isn’t worth the $375,000 he’s owed in base salary. Not even close. He’s still a decent player, but not a DP-level salaried player. Now imagine that he’s in a place he doesn’t want to be, away from the franchise he loves, playing for a franchise that took him hostage. You think he is going to bleed for the shirt? Not unless Stockholm syndrome kicks in. So, on the off chance that Ching reports to Montreal, they probably just drafted themselves a $375,000 part-time striker. Oh, and if this happens, by May they will be begging Houston to take Ching back. Now who is the hostage?

The third scenario, and this sounds like Montreal’s intention, is to trade Ching back to Houston for Hainault. Yep, you read that right, they want to call Houston and demand one of the better backs in the league (with an absurdly reasonable contract) in exchange for the sentimental value (and monstrous contract) of Brian Ching. And I would like a 40-hour per week job with a flexible schedule that pays me six figures upon graduating from law school. Yeah, that’s not going to happen. To make matters worse, the Impact just traded perhaps their best throw-in asset for any Hainault fantasy deal, Seth Sinovic, back to Sporting KC.[2] Unless Montreal is willing to ship out boat loads of allocation money or draft picks to Houston, then, it looks like this deal isn’t happening. Right now it’s rumored that Montreal is demanding picks or allocation from Houston in any deal.

The sad thing about this is that Ching is a legend in MLS, and especially in Houston. He deserves to be able to retire on his own terms, not on the Impact’s.

In any case, it looks more than likely like Montreal, by taking Ching hostage, either needlessly passed up on another quality player in the Expansion Draft or landed themselves contract bad enough to make Rafa Marquez blush.[3] In the end this is wildly entertaining for you and I, and wildly irresponsible for the Impact.

Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye, I Cry a Little

On Monday the Timbers announced the retirement of Kevin Goldthwaite. I’ve frequently been critical of Goldie in this space, and not for no reason. But by all reports he’s a hard worker, a consummate professional, and a darn good guy. He also scored one of the better, if most improbable, goals for the Timbers this season with a clever back heel against New York. Here’s wishing Goldie all the best in his future endeavors, for he’s a jolly good fellow, indeed.

The Front Office also announced that six other players wouldn’t be rejoining the Timbers in 2012. Ryan Pore, Spencer Thompson, Pete Lowry, Adin Brown, Rodrigo Lopez, and Brian Umony will all be seeking employment elsewhere come January. The only one that surprised me a bit was Brian Umony. Umony had shown flashes throughout the season, but ultimately I imagine the FO decided his $80,000 salary number wasn’t worth waiting to see if he would develop into a consistent contributor. Maybe not the move I would have made, but in Gavin I trust.

A special word of thanks should also be given to Ryan Pore, as this appears to be the team’s final break with him. He was one of the stars on the teams that ushered PTFC into the MLS, and has given a lot to this great club over the last few years.

Timbers Notes

This week I heard from Merritt, via Twitter, that the Timbers new practice facility will be opening in late January – I imagine in time for the start of training camp. He seemed pretty excited about it, saying that it will be a big asset to the club, not only in terms of training, but also in player recruitment.

Speaking of player recruitment, it sounds like the Timbers may have at least one player acquisition to announce within the next couple weeks. Word is that at least one is virtually locked up, and Gavin and company are actively working on at least one more. Reportedly, at least one signing is likely to be a designated player. Based on the Timbers salary situation my guess is the Timbers will avail themselves of the new youth DP rules, signing a promising young player and taking only half the salary hit.

This is a bit older, but have you seen the Sounders new third jersey? It’s like they are genetically predisposed to being hideous. Thank goodness they will only be wearing them in non-MLS play.

Finally, the Timbers third kits are set to be unveiled December 6^th. Personally, I’m hoping for a white 1970s NASL era retro kit, based on something like this. Nonetheless, with player acquisition and kit announcements looking imminent, I wouldn’t recommend planning anything that will take you away from the internet for the next couple weeks.

Onward, Rose City!