Carlos Ruiz Breaks The Los Angeles Galaxy Piggy Bank

Guatemalan international Carlos Ruiz is heading back to the Los Angeles Galaxy in exchange for a 2009 first round draft pick and an undisclosed amount of Colombia’s finest perrico fee. That means David Beckham, Landon Donavon and Carlos Ruiz make a Los Angeles Galaxy attacking midefield more stacked than a Venice beach blonde. Yet, peeps over at FanHouse have dug up some interesting stats about how much the Galaxy has gambled when it comes to where they wnt their team to head.

While MLS roster and salary rules are complicated, the situation breaks down like this: Donovan, Ruiz, and Beckham all count as 1.2M against the 2.3M cap (400k per player). Although Beckham is the Deisngated (sic) Player, the first 400k of his contract counts against the cap. Donovan and Ruiz are grandfathered by the league, LA to book them as max salary players.

The grandfather reference explains the baldness, but what does this mean for the those other names on the 2008 roster?

The deal leaves the team with 1.1M dollars to spend on 15 players, roughly 73k per remaining player without going into the complications of developmental salaries etc. Quite the disparity considering cap limitations and the rising cost of quality talent. Combine this with the always present speculation that LA would like a second DP, with another 400k against the cap, and your “average” player would take home even less.

This means that Los Angeles, if wooed to buy someone like Luis Figo, or lets say, Fat Ronaldo, would be left with $700,000 for 15 players; or 47K per dumbass who decides to sign player. Galaxy fans should start buying more jerseys to help out.
LA Galaxy Acquire Ruiz, Reserves Continue to Get Paid in HerbalLife [FanHouse]
‘Pescadito’ Ruiz al Galaxy [Univision]
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