Monday, May 14, 2007

Rumors addressed

Grahame Jones reported in the LA Times on Sunday that the Galaxy may trade Chris Albright and Nate Jaqua for Carlos Ruiz.

Now, for me that's a fair trade. I know some Galaxy fans would probably want to get rid of Tyrone Marshall right now but you have to give up something to get something, and Albright is that something. Albright's a key part of the team, he's a gamer, he gives everything he has in every game he plays (well, except for the ones before the World Cup...).

I've always felt the greatest respect for Albright. The guy is a warrior. Conversely, I haven't been impressed by Nate Jaqua. He has a big body and is a big target but can't position himself very well at all.

Albright-Jaqua for Ruiz is a fair trade. If I'm Dallas, I'd probably try for Albright-Sturgis and maybe offer a draft pick to sweeten the pot but I'd settle for Albright-Jaqua.

Before the conference call, Grahame talked to another reporter about the deal and just by the way he was talking I got the sense that the trade is going to happen. When asked about the deal, Alexi Lalas said this:

We don’t anticipate making any changes. Having said that, it’s part of my job to constantly be looking at opportunities to upgrade. There are options out there and there are possibilities out there and they are very, very preliminary.

The core players that we’ve got and then obviously with the addition of Abel and David coming later this summer and another signing we look to do here in the next few weeks is a team we feel is going to compete. We don’t feel the need to make drastic changes to the player personnel that we have although if there exists opportunities to upgrade both in the league or internationally, we’ll do it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"another signing we look to do here in the next few weeks"

Am I crazy to think it could be Zidane?

L.B. said...

Certifiably.

I can't rule anything out at this point but the chances of Zidane coming here are in my opinion miniscule.

It's probably another veteran like Xavier who is waiting for his contract to end.

Anonymous said...

As a Dallas fan, the Ruiz for Albright and Jaqua is not a fair trade. Albright is over-rated, and plays a position that could be deemed the least important of field players in MLS. Jaqua is decent, but I have never been impressed by him. Ruiz is prob a top 5 striker in this league, if you trade him, you have to get significantly more.

J.S. said...

Can we trade Antonio Cue for a real owner or is there a DP owner slot that we have to wait for?

Anonymous said...

albright is getting old and has been mediocre at best his whole career (warrior or not). And Nate can only be successful in a Bruce Arena-style offense. This trade would be a steal for LA.