Ten Worst: Metro trades
December 7, 2005
Throughout their often-pathetic ten-year history, the MetroStars have made their share of bad trades. Something has to be done to keep the players rotated, right? Of course, in many of the trades discussed below we now have the benefit of hindsight, but with the majority of these, the idiocy was seen from the onset. In cases the draft picks mentioned were re-traded, or were used on someone inconsequential, their results are not listed.
10) Steve Rammel from Colorado for a 1st round supplemental pick (Kevin Anderson), 1998
No, Kevin Anderson did not achieve much in MLS, but he did play in 49 games over three seasons... which is 49 more than Rammel did after his trade to Metro. Rammel, who scored the first hat-trick in MLS history en route to 14 goals in 1996, slumped to just one in 1997, but the Metros needed all the attacking help they could get. They got for a couple of preseason games before Rammel abruptly retired.
9) Jonny Walker to Columbus for a 4th round supplemental pick, 2005
Even if Walker was never play for the Metros again with first the emergence of Zach Wells and then the trade for Tony Meola, they should have gotten something for for Jonny, especially with Columbus desperate for a starting goalie. Instead, the trade was equal to an outright release.
8) Paul Dougherty to Tampa Bay for Mike Duhaney, 1998
The diminutive Dougherty was a sparkplug on the early 1998 Metros, scoring three goals and nine assists in just 16 games. But with Marcelo Vega coming back from the World Cup, Paul was deemed as surplus and was shipped to Tampa for former Rookie of the Year Duhaney, who fizzled (along with Metro) during the following one-and-a-half forgettable seasons.
7) Marcelo Balboa from Colorado for a 3rd round pick, 2002
This trade looked golden from the onset. How were we expected to know that an injury would keep pushing Balboa's Metro debut to the next game, to the next game, to the next game... until the last five minutes of the season, when Marcelo graced the field with the team already down 3:0 to New England.
6) Daniel Hernandez, Brian Kamler, and Diego Serna to New England for Mamadou Diallo, Andy Williams, and Ted Chronopoulos, 2002
The blockbuster trade looked good early on as Diallo and Williams combined to lead a Metro rise in the standings. But it soon fizzled, as the Metro acquisitions slumped and the Rev ones excelled (except for Serna, who got injured soon after the trade). Kamler and Hernandez helped lead New England to the MLS Cup appearance that year, and both have had solid careers since. The only place Diallo, Williams, and Chronopoulos helped lead the Metros was out of the playoffs, and all three were gone soon after the season.
5) Peter Vermes to Colorado for Kerry Zavagnin, 1997
Yes, Zavagnin has remade himself into an All-Star and US national team-caliber player, but this is after two horrible years with the Metros and one in the A-League with everyone's favorite defunct homeless club, the Lehigh Valley Steam. The trade baffled even when it was made; the lameness of Zavagnin in his Metro stint might have been hard to predict, but the trading of a captain for an unknown player (who was just picked in the third round of the supplemental draft) reeked from the onset. And Vermes, converted to a defender, peaked after being traded away, and had a great MLS career. In 2000, he was named league Defender of the Year, and together with Zavagnin, helped Kansas City to the MLS Cup.
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