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Red Bulls eyeing Carlos Ruiz

Carlos_ruiz_isiphotoscom

                                                                                Photo by ISIphotos.com

The New York Red Bulls quest to find a replacement for Jozy Altidore has led them to a player who just happens to be in town this weekend.

The Red Bulls are considering acquiring Guatamalan forward Carlos Ruiz from the Los Angeles Galaxy, sources within MLS have told SBI. The former MLS MVP is on the trade market as the Galaxy look to shed salary, and the Red Bulls could make room for Ruiz on their salary cap if they and the Galaxy can agree on terms (which would likely include the Galaxy paying a portion of Ruiz’s salary).

Would Ruiz be a good addition? He is a proven goal-scorer in MLS but has struggled this year since missing considerable time with a knee injury suffered early in the season (and also struggled with FC Dallas last season, finishing with seven goals in 22 games). He has no goals or assists in limited action this season (188 minutes in six matches). The 2002 MLS MVP is also likely to miss time due to World Cup qualifying with Guatemala later this summer and in the fall.

What’s my take? I think if the Red Bulls are limited in their resources to add a forward from outside MLS, which has been suggested, then they could do worse than Ruiz.

What do you think about the Red Bulls possibly adding Ruiz? Would he be a good fit? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Can we have a update on the Ruiz situation? Not getting much information on it. How close are they to possibley signing him?

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  2. Now that Dane Richards is hurt, we are between the proverbial rock and hard place. Ruiz may respond to Osorio, and if there is no one else, what choice do we have? Echeverry has been a bust! Woly too.

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  3. Anyone criticizing JCO about not being able to build a team is out of place. He has only been here for half a season, and you all are talking about getting him fired! Maybe this is why we struggle year in and year out. It’s hard to build a team when the fans only give you half a season and then the can. Have some patience, please! I’m sure JCO will make a practical decision on Ruiz. How bout standing by our coach for once

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  4. Anyone see the Santos forwards in the chivas usa game? The white guy with the mashed up nose and the fast black guy with the 80’s jerry curl. how about them?

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  5. I think any team in the league that can afford him would love to have Carlos Ruiz. He scores goals, plain and simple. Regardless of whether the fans like him, he’s good locker room guy, etc. he’ll put the ball in the net and win games for your team. He’s one of the few players in the league who can win a game on his own, and New York simply isn’t good enough to compete for a championship this year without him.

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  6. Rumor is that Red Bull is looking at signing Carracio who was released by the Dynamo. I liked what I saw from him, but he needed space which Houston could not provide. I think he would do good next to JPA

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  7. …YO this whole ruiz situation reminds me of Mamadou Diallo…Yo Mamadou Diallo was the MAN!!! I remember when he got traded to red bull we all hated him we were like that “f@cker broke mike ammann rib cage” and then he came out and single-handedly scored like 5 goals and we were like DAMN!!! Yo!! Yo let me get his jersey!! the guy was a beast!! he was like a scoring machine!! he would like take on whole teams and yo people would just bounce off him because he was so powerful and stuff!!! Yo we need another guy like that YO!!! YO THINK ABOUT THAT $HIT YO!!! THINK ABOUT WHAT WE COULD DO WITH ANOTHER MAMADOU DIALLO!!! YO LETS GET THAT MONEY$$$

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  8. Man, we have the whiniest, most annoying fans in MLS!

    Ruiz is a proven goal scorer in MLS, can be had cheaply & can start playing immediately.

    Stop whining.

    Damn, my fellow RBNY fans are whiny cissies.

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  9. I’ll give even odds right now this is part of a bigger deal with TFC and Chicago, and they’re just announcing it as casual interest to keep LA from asking for something ridiculus.

    COnde to TFC for McBride

    Conde to New York for Ruiz (and hopefully Richards as well, the little piston)

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  10. At first, I thought this was a good idea with the details given that ruiz would only be a temporary fix for the rest of this season and that LA is practically givng him up for a bag of beans and willing to pay a good chunk of his salary to make room for others.

    This sounds like another stupid Lalas move: make a trade in which the Galaxy either gives up too much or gets too little. If the Gals are going to pay a good chunk of Ruiz’s salary, then how will that release salary for better defenders or ball-holding midfielders?

    If I’m Lalas, I ask for Van Den Bergh and Stammler in return and I won’t be satisfied until I get one of them.

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  11. I once wished cancer on Ruiz while he was taking a corner at Spartan. I regret many drunken comments. Not that one.

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  12. I know I’m not the first one to say this but if we’re seriously considering Ruiz, then why not just re-sign Cleetus?! At least you know what you’re getting.

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  13. I just got off the phone with Alexi, he wants to know if the Red Bulls have any over priced midfielders to get in exchange for the fish.

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  14. When Oso said he was looking at a striker w/in MLS I thought to replace Jozy…I thought who could that be? Well now I have my answer, I think… Ruiz may be a good fit for the BUlls and then again he may not. As others have said he will be gone a good chunk of this season for WC Qualifiers, he is a flopper and a wanker, but he does have a knack for scoring! To me he reminds me of Guevara. On a a good day he can be great and on a bad one he can be very bad… Does the RBNY need this kind of inconsistency? From my POV the answer is NO and although I am not as hostile to this move as Haig and others, but if the BUlls don’t get him for next to nothing then it would definitely not be worth it…

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  15. We are hald way intot eh season and mired in last place. I would take Ruiz for the remainder of the season at a low cost to us. If all he does is force teh defense tobe honest and not double team JPA he is worth irt. If defenses continue to double JPA, an uncover Ruiz will be a monster against any team.

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  16. Not that I want it to take place, but I would not be suprised if TFC ends up as the destination for this guy, and I have two reasons for saying so:

    1) The McBride situation – I am thinking that a way out of this impasse between the Fire and TFC might be to engineer some sort of three way deal where Chicago sends LA some cheap defensive help, TFC sends McBride to Chicago and Ruiz comes here.

    2) Mo has been unable to sign any striker of note so far this season and if you can’t sign anybody (salary issues, field turf, whatever the reason) then the only other option is to trade for one.

    And if he can find a way to get rid of Jeff Cummingham as part of this deal so much the better…

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  17. I can see why a lot of people are hostile about this signing, but if you look at the forwards on the squad right now I find it really hard to believe that Ruiz is not a significant upgrade. So unless it ties us up long term and we have to spend a lot of money for him it’s not a bad deal. One has to consider the time that he’s going to spend away during qualifying, but besides that I don’t think that it’s all too bad.

    Although I also read that RBNY might be interested in Caraccio from Houston? I do think that I’d rather take Caraccio due to the fact that he’s way younger, costs way less, and has a tremendous amount of upside.

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  18. Onionsack. I have to agree with you. Osorio is beginning to put his team out there. I love the Blanco analogy, he’s the player the Fire fans hate to love but he somehow gets the job done. Nobody thinks Ruiz is the key to the future of RBNY, but to have a gutsy goal scorer up front wouldn’t be such a bad thing and might take some of the pressure off JPA with the double marking that is going on. I wouldn’t finance the farm to get him but we need to score more goals to win games.

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  19. Whats the news on George Welcome?

    I know that today was his final practice session with the club, was wondering if he was expected to recieve a contract with NYRB

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  20. Keep his dirty playing out of the East. It’s bad enough that we have to play against him once or twice a year. I’m sure all of us DC fans would support the Red Bulls Fans in trying to keep him out.

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  21. Some of you folks need to relax…

    Yes, Ruiz flops, is dirty, blah, blah, blah….

    but the guy scores goals and is a proven MLS scorer when healthy. What’s not to like. This would be a good move.

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  22. Some of you RBNY fans need to relax…

    Yes, Ruiz flops, is dirty, blah, blah, blah….

    but the guy scores goals and is a proven MLS scorer when healthy. What’s not to like…

    This would be a good move.

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  23. The interesting thing is why does L.A. want to unload him…???

    …was his injury that really that bad that L.A. deemed Ruiz no longer useful?

    …is he out of fitness?

    …is he pretty much shot for the rest of the?

    according to metrofanatic.com: http://www.metrofanatic.com/story.jsp?ID=4820

    Carlos Ruiz made (350,000, 460,000)??? as of April 13, 2008 for L.A. this season

    which confuses me because I thought non-DP money was limited to ~325K

    …but anyway 350K, 460K, 325K, or what ever it is, its a pretty big salary for Red Bull to take against their cap. (with (400K) that Renya wasted by retiring that should take up about just about all the cap money we have for the rest of the season…(if were lucky))

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  24. the truth is that he hasn’t really done $hit in 2 years (since 2006) and he looks likes he’s in a down spiral in his carear…and that maybe the biggest indicator of how he plays now…but now in the prime age of his career at (age 28) do you think he has anything left to turn his carear around…on a team with Juan Pablo Angel, Jorge Rojas, Dane Richards, and Dave Van Den Berg, and Seth Stammler, and Gabriel Cichero. Or do think he’s a failing soccer who L.A. is trying to unload on Red Bull hands?

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  25. It will be a good move for the Galaxy. With Buddle and Donovan on fire, Ruiz is out of the picture and is paid way too much to be a 20 minute sub. The Red Bulls need to add some firepower to go along with Angel and to me, Wolyniec isnt enough.

    Does anyone know if the salary shed by the Galaxy (Ruiz and Xavier) will lead to somne good backline players for the Galaxy in the coming weeks???

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  26. ^*note* that he has always scored over 10 goals years except in recent years in 2007 and 2008 when he’s suffered from injures

    …and he’s scored in every playoff game since his inception into this league

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  27. Every team should have more players with the desire and determination of John Wolyniec. Plus, he scored the best goal in Metro history …

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  28. Ok… I’ll admit in the past Ruiz was a good forward… but that was in 2002 and 2003(when he was in his early 20’s(22))…but now, in 2008,(age 28) its seem like he’s droped off the radar and is no longer a good foward…

    that could be because:

    1)hes getting older

    2)the talent in MLS is getting better

    3)or he simply doesn’t have it anymore

    4)or bad luck (due to other circumstances)

    he are his states:(check for your self)

    http://web.mlsnet.com/history/register.jsp?content=players_r

    ——–reg—playoff

    L.A.

    2002_-_(24)—(8)

    2003_-_(15)—(2)

    2004_-_(11)—(1)

    DAL

    2005_-_(11)—(2)

    2006_-_(15)—(2)

    2007_-_(7)—-(1)–*(injury)

    2008_-_(0)—-(/)-6 games-188–(min)*(injury)

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  29. I don’t like Ruiz because he is a dirty player. I like to be entertained by a team.

    Flopping and crying all day does not entertian me. Though Ruiz might help get some wins, he will not entertain.

    In this sense, I don’t want Ruiz to play for NY for very practical reasons.

    -Mike

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  30. At first, I thought this was a good idea with the details given that ruiz would only be a temporary fix for the rest of this season and that LA is practically givng him up for a bag of beans and willing to pay a good chunk of his salary to make room for others. However, after thinking about it, this trade would just be lazy on JCO’s part. If, as we think, he will simply be here for this season, and gone afterwards no matter what, then why even spend our time with him when we can try to find someone new who can grow with the club? Assuming we would be paying 100k of ruiz’s contract, then why not just dump echeverry (80k), lump this sum up (180k), and get someone actually worth something. Didn’t emilio initially come to DC for like 180k? There are great forwards in mls who don’t even make 180k, yet we can’t find someone with that kind of money? As I said… seems LAZY!

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