Time To Part Ways With Some Players?

I think there’s going to be a roster battle between Cruz and Villar this pre-season and if I had to keep one I’d keep Cruz.

You can’t keep both of them and Cruz is younger, has a better pedigree and has more potential than Villar.

Villar was given opportunity after opportunity and there just wasn’t enough end product for me.

Edwards, Lambo (assuming GA graduation) and Galindo are all no-brainers.
I heard somewhere that Hall was playing injured most of his time in Frisco. Not a full excuse for his poor play by any means, but I could understand it if SH wanted to wait. Say he shows up fit and focused to camp. Then you may have a worthwhile player. I wouldn’t be mad if they cut him, though.
I’d very much like to reserve judgement on Cruz. 543 minutes is a pretty small sample size to judge someone new to the league. That said, they do have to unload a foreigner or two and/or trade for an international slot before pursuing any more Columbians. Potential casualties for that reason would include Cruz (2011 base salary 90k), Villar (150k), Santos (126k), and Jackson (84k). I think Villar should be cut and Jackson traded. Then unload Santos when strikers are signed.

that man is a steal at 84 for all that he does for us – versatile and dependable. I wish we got half the consistent production out of our other players that we do out of Jackson – his “emotional intelligence” episodes aside, he’s still a bargain.

Villar does seem high cost compared to his 2011 performance.

maybe I do have a rosy-colored image of Jackson then – been in afghanistan since mid-May, relying on printed sources (like this blog) and short video clips to keep up with team news. It just seemed to me (overall in 2010-2011) that wherever we had an injury-induced hole in the starting 11 or some other sort of impending loss, Jackson provided the flexibility we needed to adapt. He admittedly provided more speed and touch than field vision (the problem Daniel noted) though. I also have to accept the argument that Chavez filled our weaknesses out in front much more ably than Jackson too. So there is a limit to that versatility.

But since we’re talking about attitude problems limiting player performance…let’s examine Maicon Santos in the same light, who has much more of a problem in this area than Jackson. We should also consider that Brasilian culture (both Jackson and Maicon are Brasilian) is very different from American culture, and much of what we might find rebellious or offensive…or ball-hogging…isn’t viewed the same way in Brasil. (growing up in Orlando perhaps I have an immersion tolerance to this though).

Anyway, you both make a good case. The need for Jackson’s versatility might drop considerably if we make better decisions in this offseason than we did in 2010.