Grossman Signed by Bob Bradley

Duke University player, former Columbus Crew SC draft pick and Helltown Legend - Cole Grossman was just signed by former USMNT head coach Bob Bradley's Stabæk side.

Not many here in Columbus probably remember much about Cole's stay, but I do. He was a bright spot on a bad team during a bad few years. While not earning much praise outside of Helltown, he did find himself picked up by Garth Lagerwey's Real Salt Lake and now former USMNT coach Bob Bradley's side.

Cole was / is a cerebral player that has above average technical skill. He is a US player who could have been easily lost in the "try hard, run fast" section of MLS rosters but he developed something of a winning habit when playing. He never lost a game when starting here in Columbus (the only player with over five games to do so) and held his own out in Salt Lake when Kyle Beckerman was out. Best of luck, Cole.

Crew Drop Three, Grossman to RSL

Olman Vargas, Nemanja Vukovic and Cole Grossman have been dropped.

From TheCrew.com: "All three players are not eligible for the MLS Re-entry Process and will be placed on the MLS Waiver wire, with the MLS Waiver Draft taking place at 3:30 p.m. ET this afternoon."

A COUPLE THINGS on that STATEMENT

1. Grossman was the only player picked from the 43 dropped for today's "Waiver Draft". Real Salt Lake nabbed him, wisely.

2. The Re-entry Process" is a tricky animal as MLS over-engineers player draft rules everything. My understanding is that Vargas and Vukovic are dangling out there once their 2012 contract officially ends at the end of the calendar year. Both are quality players

NICHOLAS HOLLAND "Cole" GROSSMAN

I've written a lot about Cole here at Helltown over the course of the 2012 season, with emphasis since the end of the Crew season when doing player evaluations. The reason for this is because his metrics were notably good in the short time he played.

Real Salt Lake was smart to pick him up.

For me? He's a $44k a year player who was put into impossible positions when called upon this year. He started against Seattle, DC United, Sporting KC, LA, and Houston and never lost a match with 8 goals for and only 4 against. If you didn't notice; Those are the best teams in the league.

His counterpart, Milovan Mirosevic? He didn't win a single game against a team ranked 1-9 on the table when starting. NOT A SINGLE ONE. 0 Wins, 4 Draws, 5 Losses. 10 Goals For, 16 Against. A main contributer to the club missing the 2012 playoffs was Mirosevic's presence on the pitch when playing better competition.

Let's take a second to break down some of the incompetence that Grossman mentions in his Facebook post today.

Below is a record of the Crew's results when Mirosevic was a starter against better competition:

Round 4: NY. LOSS
Round 6: HOU. DRAW
Round 10: SJ DRAW
Round 20: DC. LOSS
Round 21: LA. DRAW

You would think that during this part of the season the club would have noticed a trend. Why? Because by week 22 Grossman had 3 wins in 5 starts vs top teams to Mirosevics 0 in 5.

The team didn't take notice and started Mirosevic in critical late year matches. He ended up starting in 4, losing 3.

Round 28: NY. LOSS
Round 30: CHI. LOSS
Round 32: SKC. DRAW
Round 33: DC. LOSS

At one of the most important positions on a Robert Warzycha coached team (Defensive Mid-Fielder)... Why would Mirosevic, a player who clearly struggled against better players early on, get time late in the year against quality clubs?

I'm sorry, but it doesn't take a Duke University graduate to figure this one out. A trend is a trend. It should have been sorted. The Crew reacted quickly with Olman Vargas by pulling him early in the season (didn't start after week 10, no wins against top half talent), why not Mirosevic?

GROSSMAN IN A BETTER SITUATION

RSL is ranked 3rd in over all record over the last 4 years. While it's true that Columbus is 4th in that time, RSL still clocks in at 4th over the last two years. Columbus has tumbled to 9th.

Grossman is going to a better run MLS franchise. The fact that they picked a player like him is a testament to how they measure performance and why they are consistently better than Columbus and the other 15 clubs in the league below them.

AFFINITY DIAGRAM TIME

I ventured in to the ever increasing dark forest that is Facebook and found that common fans are upset about Vukovic getting dropped. Longer written posts reason out in favor of keeping Cole and there is general indifference to Vargas.

PLAYER VALUE

I rate every player. I also keep track of every player's salary. If I take the 10 players above and below an individual on my rating scale I can summize general value (or "HB Market Value" if I may. If you will).

Nemanja Vukovic: $125,500
HB Market Value: $75,000
Difference: -($50,500)

Olman Vargas: $175,000
HB Market Value: $93,300
Difference: -($81,700)

Cole Grossman: $44,100
HB Market Value: $65,000
Difference: +$20,9000

Both Vukovic and Vargas are overpaid. Cole is underpaid by a significant percentage. By picking him up in the MLS Waiver Draft RSL is getting a value.

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The Columbus Crew let go of $344,600 today.

The total HB Market Value of these players: $233,300.

Aggregate salary dropped today, by club.

$756,255 : NYR : 9
$463,790 : PHI : 3
$413,256 : SKC : 4

$344,600 : CREW : 3

$292,514 : FCD : 5
$208,502 : COL : 2
$185,600 : TFC : 4
$155,000 : VAN : 3
$149,372 : NER : 4
$111,500 : POR : 3
$103,333 : SJE : 1
$35,750 : RSL : 1
$33,750 : MON : 1

RSL picked up Cole's $44,100 salary, so call it even for them.

Of the 43 dropped today I recommend the following players (other than Cole):

B. Brettschneider: $33,756
HB Market Value: 105,950
Difference: +$72,194

C. Rodriguez: $64,383
HB Market Value: $90,750
Difference: +$26,367

Crew Player Evaluations, GD p90

The Columbus Crew found themselves on a dead even Zero Goal Difference (GD) for the year. Below are players that drove that number up or down for each 90 minutes on the pitch.

GD p90 : NAME : 90 MIN GMs

[GROUP I]
+0.90 : Cole Grossman : 5.6
+0.66 : Carlos Mendes : 10.5
+0.38 : Justin Meram : 10.7
+0.32 : Nemanja Vukovic : 12.4
+0.27 : Federico Higuain : 11.2
+0.23 : Emilio Rentería : 17.1
+0.17 : Dilly Duka : 11.9
+0.15 : Josh Williams : 27.0
+0.13 : Julius James : 7.9
+0.12 : Sebastian Miranda : 32.0
+0.11 : Danny O'Rourke : 17.8

This Group I includes the players the Crew should be locking up for next year. Notable here is Nemanja Vukovic and Emilio Renteria. Two players, based on how they were used, that are seen as part-time contributors by the club staff. This metric tells us that they contribute positively (both played enough time to make a statistically significant contribution).

The class of this group comes in the form of Josh Williams and Sebastian Miranda. Considering the amount of time the put in, both these guys should be hardwired into next year's plans.

Helltown Hero, Cole Grossman, is so out of control high it's crazy. I don't care that his Blue Devil bball teams beat up on my Campbell U. Fighting Camels on a regular basis... Grossman's club numbers are impressive... On top of that he contributed exactly as I would expect a Duke grad to; Intelligently and confidently - with a passing hint of smugness. He's my favorite type of player. One that knows how to win on the team level - also, cerebral and able to survive outside the sport.

[GROUP II]
+0.03 : Andy Gruenebaum : 32.4
+0.00 : Jairo Arrieta : 17.0
-0.03 : Eddie Gaven : 33.2
-0.04 : Milovan Mirosevic : 23.8
-0.06 : Chris Birchall : 16.8

Look at the games these guys racked up. These are the guys that drove the whole of the 2012 season. Consistent performers, but like your Crew toiling their craft at the middle of the table? Pick these guys each match.

[GROUP III]
-0.14 : Tony Tchani : 14.8
-0.17 : Chad Marshall : 23.8
-0.36 : Shaun Francis : 5.6
-0.37 : Bernardo Anor : 5.5
-0.44 : Eric Gehrig : 9.0
-0.54 : Olman Vargas : 7.4

Group III is the bad group. You don't want your name here if you have significant minutes. Especially if your name is Tony Tchani and Chad Marshall.

Below is going to be the guys that didn't see enough time to matter on an individual level. However, as a group, they matter. Just last week a friend of mine sent me an email detailing winning percentage of players in his pickup basketball league. I dug into it and found an all to familiar fact. Players that don't play much hurt your chances of winning. Meaning, The more players you have getting "spot" duty each year the worse off you will be. Since Robert Warzycha took over his teams seem to be hounded by players that pepper the line up.

[GROUP IV]
+1.41 : Ben Speas : 0.7
+0.00 : Kevan George : 4.7
+0.00 : Matt Lampson : 1.6
-0.30 : Aaron Schoenfeld : 3.3
-1.27 : Ethan Finlay : 4.7
-18.00 : Tommy Heinemann : 0.1

Ethan Finlay was dangerously close to topping that 5 game (450 minute) mark. I saw him play a lot this year and am convinced that he is a good soccer player but the way he was jammed into the lineup early on was a mistake. He is too small to play up top, yet he was put there (he actually suffered injury due to that). Finlay can be best used as a player in training behind Sebastian Miranda at Right Back.

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The numbers above are only one way to measure performance, though. With something like GD while on the pitch, look for players with over 10 games (900 minutes). They are the guys that drove results.

Crew Rd. 19: Win, Again!

Jairo Arreita shines for the Crew in a reversal of fortunes on the reverse fixture.

1ST HALF
KC jumped on the Crew just as they did a couple weeks ago. In the 8th minute Kei Kamara leaped in front of Chad Marshall and knocked in a header in off a Graham Zusi service. The lead wouldn't last long though. 10 minutes later, just as Crew fans were pondering their next hashtagged Sack Warzycha tweet, Josh Williams charged into the middle of the field from the left and passed the ball beautifully forward to a breaking Arreita. He gathered, opened and knocked it in far post. In a few ways it was similar to last weeks goal that involved Williams, Jairo and Chris Birchall.

Refreshingly, Columbus stayed on the attack and were rewarded in the 34th minuted as Zusi gave one away to a waiting Arreita who punched home a goal of the week 25 yard bomb.

2ND HALF
Columbus performed their token attacking effort right out of the gates but nothing even remotely close came of it. After about 10 minutes they pulled back to defend only.

Sporting controlled the whole of this half, almost entirely in the Crew side of the field. KC are going to feel as if the gods were against them as they missed chance after chance right in front of goal. Andy Gruenebaum also had three magnificent saves in support of god hand that kept KC out of the net.

25 shots is what KC ended up with. 6 on target and 2 off the crossbar.

THE END WITH NOTES

• I'll start with Cole Grossman again this week. Three starts, three wins (at what amounts to basically CDM / stopper spot). Those wins? Seattle away, DC at home, KC away. He was flawless in his role save for the late tackle on Zusi last night (that earned him a 2nd yellow and subsequent ejection).

• Poor Dwight Burgess was left alone in the virtual space booth Fox Sports Ohio puts him in. He was just as hard pressed to tell what was going on because he is watching the same sloppy "HD" broadcast we are... One nugget was that we were treated to a Tommy Heinemann substitute graphic. Good job Tommy!! Anyhow, alone or with Duncan Oughton, Dwight still calls games as if he were a youth coach and not a play by play man.

Speaking of Oughton; he was actually at the game as a assistant coach. The live pregame interview with him, while out of sync, was great. Also, the Crew pulling him in as a coach during gameday is 100% approved by me. My understanding is that he is with the team all week in training so he should be there gameday.

• On Kei's 8th minute header... the way I saw it was that Chad Marshall fouled KC, Zusi spotted it up and Kei then beat Marshall for the goal. I've been down on Marshall all year. he's just not himself. In the paper this morning I read Williams post game quote where he took the blame for the goal, saying Kei was his man. I did see Josh marking Kei all game on set pieces but if Kei was his man on that play, who was Marshall marking? The thin air behind him? I admire Williams coming out and saying that. Accountability! Leadership!

• Arrieta's goals were fantastic. Two goals and an assist in his last two league matches. It's just what he needed to do after the recent "designated player" signing the club made. Perhaps it's motivation this player needs. If you look at a record of his matches you see that once he was approached by the Crew last winter (around the same time Olman Vargas was signed, the were to be a Costa Rican package-like deal) he stopped scoring altogether. I feel sort of bad for his former club... one foot out the door, so to speak. Maybe two.

• Warzycha's formation is evolving. He seems to be moving a little away from the overlapping right and left wing backs into a more 4-2-3-1 which sharply turns into a 4-3-3 in attack. If you look at the average positions of Dilly Duka and Justin Meram you actually find they played just as advanced as Arrieta.

I've seen this more clearly during the last Reserve and Friendly matches when Warzycha has Aaron Schoenfeld, Olman Vargas and Emilio Renteria playing in attacking positions.