Julian Baudet To Rapids?

It was in the news yesterday that the Colorado Rapids have offered Crewe Alexandria's Julian Baudet a contract.

What could this mean for the Rapids? We won't know until he signs and his current contract is over. It's unlikely that Crewe, in a relegation battle in England's League One (Div 3) would let him go before his contract runs out this summer.

An arrival later in June would give Rapids coach Gary Smith plenty of time to sort things out with his roster to make room. It could be as simple as waiving a player. If Julian Baudet is signed, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Rapids make room for his arrival via a trade. Right now a few MLS teams could use another defender or three on their roster. And a couple teams, like LA and Seattle, have defenses that my grandma could get through easier than a Sawzall cutting through butter.

Or maybe Corey Gibbs will be leaving the Rapids this summer to head back to Europe?

As for Baudet, who knows if this is a good move or not. I don't many folks other than Crewe fans, or maybe some old Northampton or Oldham fans, have seen he play. Which is why I don't understand why View From The Couch fell for the temptation of evaluating the move. It's unfortunate to see.

Without the means to directly judge Baudet as a player, View From The Couch resorts to using this rationale :

A player that can't get out of League One when most MLS players that go to England end up in either the Premiership or the Championship is an indicator that he's average MLS quality at best.

There are several problems with this logic. The first is that one can gleam anything about Baudet based on his playing in England's 3rd division. This is then compounded by assuming that the few MLS players that have gone to England are representative of an average to good player in the MLS. But these players are the ones that are the exception to the rule. Of the few MLS players that are in England, most either haven't had time to prove themselves (Brad Guzan) are have not panned (Matt Pickens, Eddie Johnson, Duncan Oughton). Essentially this approach to judging Baudet is about meaningful as reading tea leaves (sorry, Jason).

View From The Couch is good blog for tracking the Rapids and gaining insight into events surrounding the team. It's just nice to have another blog to point to and disagree with about the Rapids.