You Be The GM: Should Andrew Wenger Be Protected or Not?

The You be the GM series shift gears to focus on the expansion draft and which players are most expendable.

By unionoscopy@JaredEYoung Nov 13, 2014, 10:00am EST

After looking at the known "free agents", players on loan and the goalkeeping quagmire the focus of the series now turns to the Expansion Draft. The Philadelphia Union will concede talent and get nothing in return, but are allowed to protect eleven players, and a twelfth after the first player is drafted. The question is which talent to protect, and who to potentially give up?

The Brotherly Game staff voted on which players they would protect, and here is a chart that shows which players were most popular.

If we assume for arguments sake that anyone with more than 90% of the votes is a lock to be on the protected roster, then eight players will most certainly be on that list. I would also argue that a goalkeeper will also be on the protected list. I can't imagine the Union playing roulette in this case - even if they know they would only lose one keeper at a maximum. That leaves decisions for just two players. The player with the most votes by the staff with less than 90% of the votes was Andrew Wenger, so we will start with him.

Coming in for fan favorite Jack McInerney, Andrew Wenger was behind the eight ball from the get go. Then he proceeded to struggle when placed up top in John Hackworth's system. When Jim Curtin took over and Conor Casey became the target forward, Wenger was on the bench behind Danny Cruz. Eventually it became clear that Wenger was performing more consistently than Cruz and earned the starting spot on the left wing. He played well there as the season ended and greatly increased his stock going forward. But was it enough?

Here are Andrew's whoscored.com stats broken down by minutes at forward, on the wing and as a substitute.

Role	Games	Minutes	Goals	Assists	Key Passes 90	Shot Pass Completion %	Rating
Starting Forward	7	593	1	1	0.9	61%	6.94
Starting Winger	12	1,019	4	1	1.4	67%	7.22
Substitute	9	236	1	2	2.3	68%	6.52
Total	28	1,848	6	4	1.4	66%	6.93

Interestingly, Wenger was most efficient as a sub. Per 90 minutes he scored the most goals, made the most assists and key passes as a sub. As a starter, he was notably more effective on the wing rather than as a forward. His 6.93 whoscored rating ranks him 101st out of 272 players who played more than seventeen games last season.

From a salary perspective Andrew Wenger was paid a base of $140K in 2014. His total compensation, however was $242K so it is unclear what the salary budget implications are for Wenger going forward. At $140K he seems like good value, but may not be worth as much as $242K per year.

Is Wenger an solid but expensive super sub, is he an important part of the next year's starting XI, or should he be left unprotected in the expansion draft? You be the GM.

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