Trade Analysis: Carroll for Kamara

The Columbus Crew shipped forward Kei Kamara to San Jose for midfielder Brian Carroll today.

Who wins in this deal? From a talent standpoint, I'll go with Columbus, which lands a solid defensive midfielder whose stock is low but upside is high. The Crew already has Danny O'Rourke in defensive midfield, but pairing them together would give Columbus a pretty tough tandem to provide defensive cover behind midfielders Eddie Gaven and Guillermo Barros Schelotto.

As for San Jose, you had to see them dealing Carroll, whose contract is a little bigger than you'd like ($115K in 2007). Kamara has scored some goals in MLS, and is a bargain at the $33K he made in 2007, but I have never really rated him as someone who can be a productive starter. Will he need to start for the Earthquakes? You hope for San Jose fans that he won't. I can't help but wonder if San Jose couldn't have gotten more for Carroll. Then again, that contract might have scared some teams off.

What do you think of this trade? Did the Crew make out or did Yallop move one step closer to bringing MLS Cup back to San Jose? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

[emilio]

Im not to high on Kamara either, he is a solid 3rd or 4th forward. It show how much Carroll's stock has dropped, his high salary appears to be the primary reason for that, he is still a very good player. Columbus needs some experience and this move should help.

This move also shows how confident Yallop is in Vide, it appears he will be a serious contender for the d-mid spot for SJ.

[Joe]

Looks like Yallop is opening up cap space, probably to sign a serious striker. With Joe Vide already in SJ, Carrol was redundant and the more expensive of the two.
BC is a solid player, he'll bounce back in the coming season and make CLB a stronger team. Too bad he'll be doing it for someone in the East, I'm sure DC was happier sending him out west.
Kamara will at least get to play for the reserves in a nicer part of the country.

[Furia Yanqui]

schelotto won't be back with the crew. put your money on it.

[blogo]

Schelotto won't be back? Um, huh? That doesn't make sense at all for CMB.

As for the trade, I think it was a good move for everyone involved. SJ win by getting a backup striker, CMB should be much stronger with Carroll.

This deal works, I look forward to seeing who SJ get with some available $$ cap room.

[Hincha Tim]

Blog,
I think what Furia Yanqui was saying is that Schelotto was making some noise in Argentine papers that soccer in the U.S. was not up to snuff and he wanted to come back to Argentina.
Why is 115K a high salary for Carrol? I thought the salary cap was 2.5 million? Wouldn't that make the average salary for the 18 man senior roster $139,000? Carrol would seem a player worth about 20k less than the average MLS player.

[Mickey]

Be careful not to confuse Argentine papers making noise and Argentine players making noise...

Carroll in Columbus is a perfect fit behind Schelotto - gives him a lot of space to move forward on the offense without having to track back on defense as much. BC played really well in a 3-5-2 formation here in DC United before this season's shift to the 4-4-2.

[Brett]

At first, being a Crew fan I was not happy with the trade as goal scoring was lacking for the crew and getting a defensive midfielder for a striker was not a way to go about fixing that problem. However, the more I thought about it the more it makes sense. I see the Crew trying to get another seasoned striker and slotting Carroll in the defensive midfield with Duncan Oughton. I see O'Rourke moving to the backline. He was played at right back and central defense (Though his height is an issue) and did pretty well. I seem to remember that Sigi felt he would be a better defender than a midfielder in the coming seasons.

[blogo]

Thanks

[Craig]

To Hincha Tim:

You pay more than just the 18 man roster. You pay reserves as well.

[Hincha Tim]

Reserves don't count against the salary cap (from what I understand), just the senior 18 players.
Maybe Ives can clarify the bizantine MLS salary cap rules.

[Matt]

This is the second Crew trade in recent months where I thought Columbus knew what it was doing (the first being Moreno for Ngwenya). Kamara is, at best, our second best forward on a team that can't score. Best to ship him off for value - which we're certainly getting in Carroll. This reasonably gives us Moss, Oughton, O'Rourke, and Carroll at defensive midfield - which should give us enough cover to get through a season.

[Matt in SF]

Hincha Tim is correct as far as I know. The salary cap only applies to the 18-man senior roster.

[Joamiq]

Hincha Tim: 115k is a lot of money for someone who played as poorly as Carroll did last year. Once you have a few top players you're paying 150+ to, you don't want to waste 115k on someone like Carroll (assuming he doesn't revert to form). Also, I think the salary cap is closer to $2 mil, not 2.5 mil.

[Hincha Tim]

It certainly makes sense if the Quakes are going to make up their defense of journeymen Americans who can get the job done and who have small salaries and then spend big on some quality attacking players (maybe from Argentina or other SA country). That would be my strategy if I were SJ. I think the quality between a journeyman defender and an allstar defender in the MSL is a lot smaller than that of a journeyman vs first class striker/playmaker. You can get a really high quality striker/ midfielder in Argentina for under 400k.

[alex]

^ I'd love to see that happen. I'm interested to see what kind of player you could get from SA for high 200's 300 range.

[AnewRevolution]

The crew just went from decent to decently good. I can't remember the last time they were decently good.

[Mike O]

Wow, $33,000? I mean, I know the league's still young and relatively small and all but still...

A livable wage for every player on an MLS roster (start with a league minimum of AT LEAST $50,000) is the only way talented developing young American players will continue to stay. If it becomes too top-heavy salary-wise that's going to spell trouble down the road. It will sacrifice the depth of the league and cause labor strife among the lower rung of players who even bother to stay.

Seriously, do these guys work at soccer stores or other jobs during the off-season or something? This is an emerging top 5 major sports league in the United States, the richest country in the world. That's embarassing in the 21st century. The MLS is doing better. It's time to spread the wealth a little more.