The Aftershock Podcast: Shaken From Their Slumber

In the middle of a sleepy offseason, I got rattled out of bed by a series of transactional tremors in the last week and a half.

While the acquisition of an Argentine defender from the Costa Rican champions would in previous years have been the headliner, instead Andres Imperiale's acquisition served as the undercard to a beloved former Earthquake, Simon Dawkins, returning on a Designated Player deal. And that doesn't even get into the surprising SuperDraft selection of Clemson 'keeper Andrew Tarbell.

In this episode, I explain what the last few weeks (which included two conference calls with team management and reporters) have revealed about the club's philosophy for the 2015-2016 offseason, and break down how each transaction fits into that broader project. Most importantly, I try to make sense of an enigmatic first-round draft choice. In addition to Tarbell, Dawkins, and Imperiale, I go through the details of Chad Barrett's incoming, the smaller transactions, and positional shifts coach Dominic Kinnear suggested may occur with the roster as-is.

Beyond that, I analyze the structure of DP deals, how the club appears to be leveraging TAM to clear out space below the cap, where they may go from here, and what the likely tactical set-up is. Finally, I close out with observations about the recent USMNT call-ups, the newly-released schedule, and Avaya's potential hosting of the U-23 Olympic Qualifying playoff with Colombia.

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"The Aftershock," the only media podcast covering the San Jose Earthquakes, is entering its second season. You can listen to it with the player below, download it at the link, or subscribe via iTunes or Stitcher.