Galaxy Trade Rumors (Or: Return of Ruiz, El Pescadito?)

By: Laurie | May 13th, 2007

Something’s gotta give.

Right now I’m feeling like the Galaxy is one big puzzle box containing pieces from several different puzzles, each with a few pieces missing. Maybe it’s time to start trading off some of those pieces so we can end up with one complete picture. What do you think?

Grahame Jones of the LA Times has an article today (Sunday) discussing trade rumors, and he tosses out some interesting possibilities. One of which is the return of El Pescadito, Carlos Ruiz. In English: the little fish. Rumor has it that this nickname comes from his penchant for flopping around on the field like a fish out of water — something that everybody who watched the Galaxy-Dallas game has witnessed firsthand. But I don’t want to be too hard on the gentleman, because he and I share a birthday, which means he has to be a decent guy, right? And now that I’ve told you this, I expect a card.

From the article:

Another hot rumor was that Guatemalan striker Carlos Ruiz would be returning to the Galaxy, which lacks an accomplished goal scorer and a Latino flavor. Ruiz, immensely popular in his time with the Galaxy, fills both bills.

To get him, though, the Galaxy would have to give up quality for quality, and the talk was that it might be right back Chris Albright who ends up going to FC Dallas, possibly along with recently acquired forward Nate Jaqua.

Albright AND Jaqua? What do you think? Is Ruiz worth that? Granted, Jaqua hasn’t quite worked out as expected, and Albright isn’t playing at his best. (Can somebody tell me what caused him to get subbed out in the eleventh minute against New York on Tuesday? That’s what the Galaxy homepage says. Is that a typo? I haven’t read anything about an injury. If he wasn’t injured… Wow. How bad do you have to suck to get subbed out after just eleven minutes?) UPDATE: He apparently didn’t suck THAT bad, and this WAS a typo. 111th minute, perhaps?

But the question is, could Ruiz perform as desired? Your opinion, especially if you’ve been a fan since his Galaxy days.

And if we were to let Albright go, who would start at right back? Ian Russell’s done some time in that position, but is he a starter longterm? The article lists another possibility:

one scenario being talked about was the acquisition in June of a top-class defender from a European club, possibly free-agent Portuguese right back Abel Xavier.

I’ll leave that discussion to somebody who’s actually see Abel Xavier play. But no matter what, after last night’s game, it looks like some kind of changes are in the works. So who’s headed out that door? And who’s headed in?

(Thanks to Nathanhj for the article tip.)