Who says the "Beckham Rule" has been good for MLS teams this season?

True, the "Designated Player Rule" as it is properly known, has been great for the league overall. The arrivals of David Beckham and Cuauhtémoc Blanco have done wonders to promote MLS to mostly non-soccer, baseball-loving fans who live in red states and Latinos, who have been largely ignored over the past decade as a fan group.

However, the signing of both these players has done little - and in the case of the Los Angeles Galaxy absolutely nothing - to elevate them to a level worthy of contending for the MLS Cup come November.

Right now, I'm putting my money on United and the Dynamo to reach the MLS Cup on Nov. 18 at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. If either - or both - these teams do reach the final, both will have done so without the use of a designated player.

But the best teams in the league at this point in the season - DC United, the New England Revolution, Houston Dynamo and Chivas USA - never filled their DP slots. All four of these teams clinched playoff spots last month before any other teams. Moreover, these franchises focused on cheap, largely unknown talent - and it paid off.

Take United, for example, who signed Brazilian striker Luciano Emilio and midfielder Fred this past year. The Revolution scouted the NCAA ranks and picked up striker Adam Cristman and midfielder Wells Thompson. The Dynamo and Chivas made very few trades - and when they did, they picked up players who have already proven themselves in the league.

Bottom line: it has made more sense for MLS teams to spread their money around and build a strong roster, rather than sign a high-profile player (are you reading, Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas?) and put all your eggs in one basket. Beckham, for instance, joined the Galaxy injured, played while he was injured and was eventually forced to sit out the rest of the season.

Beckham's 2007 stats will probably forever read like this: 310 minutes, six games and one goal. Or put another way: $20,968 per minute, $1.1 million per game and $6.5 million per goal. Unfortunately, the Galaxy allowed Beckham to call the shots on when he would play, and that hurt the team in the end.

Beckham was great for marketing and ESPN's ratings, but not for the Galaxy's chances of making the playoffs.

Given DC's amazing scouting over the past few years (players such as Argentine-born midfielder Christian Gomez was picked up in 2004); they may never need to ever sign a designated player. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, particularly if United continues to scour South America for untapped talent.

The injection of Latin American players this season has made it more entertaining to watch, and hopefully, that trend will continue over the years to come. Emilio, for example, has practically become a shoe-in to win the Golden Shoe as top scorer (the first man to reach 20 goals in the last five years), grab the MLS MVP and Newcomer of the Year award, created by the league this past summer and handed out to a rookie who has played professionally in another country.

The "Designated Player" rule has been effective in one way - getting the attention of foreign players to sign with MLS teams, even if they lack the official DP designation because they earn less than $300,000 a season.

For instance, players such as Argentina's Guillermo Barros Schelotto would have never signed with the Columbus Crew or Costa Rica's Paulo Wanchope with the Chicago Fire if it hadn't been for Beckham. Both these players have helped turn their teams into playoff contenders - but are not making Beckham money.

Indeed, the only bad thing could be the ripple effect that spreads across the league like a tidal wave this winter when players such as Schelotto and Wanchope demand more money.

The fight for higher salaries may force the league to introduce another DP slot, although that doesn't seem likely since financial stability has been the cornerstone of the league's success since its inception in 1996.

If teams can't accommodate the demand of players, they are likely to go away. Emilio has hinted over the past few weeks that he may not play in MLS next season, and that would be a shame given his flair and knack for putting balls into the net.

While the Galaxy and Fire try to find ways to retool their rosters for next season, other teams, such as United and the Dynamo, could be celebrating an MLS championship. Who could argue then that the "Beckham Rule" has really been a good thing for MLS teams?