He probably means we're falling behind the EPL, which he believes was in pretty much the same condition in 1991 as MLS was in 1994.
Fair enough. After all, pretty much the only thing I remember from the last Superdraft was Lalas being very critical of the Deleon pick. Good call, Lalas!
The draft is a bore and rarely rewards the viewer with any new or useful information. What I'm mad about is not being able to watch the combine.
I am really shocked that they don't have even a raw stream for the combine even if they go cheap with no announcers.
It'd be nice if they would release some MLS Live info around draft time as well. I don't see a reason why they wouldn't have the draft available for live streaming on their own app? (Perhaps they will and I don't understand fully how it will all work).
so i've done a bit of number crunching for the 2010-2012 Drafts (Super and Supp): if you take the first 2 rounds of the 2010-2012 SuperDraft and "Rate" the players as follows: Major Contrib (****) - at least 30 app/year or 2,000 min/year or 10 goals+asst/year Good Contrib (***) - at least 20 app/year or 1,000 min/year or 5 goals+asst/year Moderate Contrib (**) - at least 10 app/year or 500 min/year Minor Contrib (*) - at least 5 app/year or 100 min/year Bust (x) - anything less than above you get the following: **** = 15 *** = 21 ** = 19 * = 18 x = 33 so basically there is a 33% chance to get a ****/*** star draft pick in the first two rounds and the same 33% chance you'll get a **/* star player or a 33% chance you'll get a bust (understanding that some of the 2012 draft picks that fall into the "x" rating might contribute in future seasons, the few who are still on rosters). of the 36 **** & *** star draft picks from 2010-2012 by position GK: 2 (6%) D: 15 (42%) M: 10 (28%) F: 9 (25%) i am going to try and input more drafts, say back to 2007, into my data set and see what else i can come up with. DCU has done a great job drafting in the first two rounds ... 3 picks averaging nearly 2,400 hundred minutes per season (Korb, Kitchen, DeLeon).
Also when you judge a draft, you have to take into account that some picks can be turned into a trade-able asset or you may even sell off a player and collect some transfer money.
By the way the Super Draft will be streamed live on Youtube, ESPN3, and MLSSoccer.com so I think we'll be covered. Also the first draft pick will be aired live on ESPN's Sports Center.
The usb input on your TV is almost certainly for service/repair and will not carry a video signal. Assuming you have a PC of some sort, all you need is a VGA cord. There should be a port for that on your TV. If you have a fancy new laptop, it might have a HDMI output out it. If you have a Mac, you will need the adapter that goes from whatever they call their video output port to a vga cable. This will cost you $15 at walmart or $10 online. Let me know if you need more help.
I have a bunch of draft data I compiled last year. Let me see if I can get it posted cleanly in the next couple of posts. Note that all the data in the numerous posts below is compiled from 2000 through 2011. It does not include 2012 data. Please excuse the look of the data as the charts from my word document did not copy over well but you should still be able to follow along. ============================================================== Data Set Rules The following rules were used to help determine which players would be a part of the data group Only players who chose to sign with MLS will be considered in the study. If a player was drafted and then cut during preseason, he will be part of the data group. If said player is subsequently picked up during the season by another team, the stats will reflect the original team who drafted him. If a player was drafted but then did not sign with the league and chose to play outside of MLS, he will not be part of the data group. If a player was forced to retire for non-soccer reasons (for example Zachary Herold), he will not be a part of the data group. If a player was injured before they could play a game in the first season (for example Chris Gbandi), he will not be part of the data group. If a player was previously in MLS and then was drafted in a subsequent season (this happened twice in 2001 with Andrew Gregor and Justin Evans)), they will not be a part of the data group. If a player was drafted but could not obtain a work permit (as happened to a couple of the Joe Public players drafted in the early 2000’s), he will not be a part of the data group. By following the rules listed above, a certain number of draftees were removed from the data set. The table below displays the total number of players in the study. Total # of Players in Study 283
The 283 players were broken out into the following positions and experience level. Total # of players by position Forward 80Midfielder 98Defender 101Goalkeeper 26 Total # of players by experience Senior 151Junior 60Sophomore 29Freshman 8High School 19International 12
The next table further delineates how the players were broken out into specific position/ experience categories. Total # of players by position/experience Forward Senior 34Forward Junior 11Forward Sophomore 8Forward Freshman 1ForwardHigh School 11Forward International 2Midfielder Senior 49Midfielder Junior 15Midfielder Sophomore 7Midfielder Freshman 5MidfielderHigh school 11Midfielder International 7Defender Senior 69Defender Junior 19Defender Sophomore 11Defender Freshman 2DefenderHigh school 1Defender International 2Goalkeeper Senior 11Goalkeeper Junior 4Goalkeeper Sophomore 2Goalkeeper Freshman 0GoalkeeperHigh school 1Goalkeeper International 0
The next three tables deal specifically with player appearance information. These tables display the % of games that the player appeared in his first season in the league. % is used to balance the fact that seasons in the study had a varying amount of total games per season. The tables show all combinations of position and experience level. The information is summed for all drafts from 2000 through 2011. Average Appearance % by position Forward 49.92%Midfielder 36.78%Defender 43.45%Goalkeeper 19.52% Average Appearance % by experience Senior 37.22%Junior 48.87%Sophomore 59.30%Freshman 28.71%High School 35.44%International 42.77% Average Appearance % by position/experience Forward Senior 51.14%Forward Junior 41.39%Forward Sophomore 58.41%Forward Freshman 31.25%ForwardHigh School 54.34%Forward International 13.24%Midfielder Senior 32.16%Midfielder Junior 55.91%Midfielder Sophomore 43.91%Midfielder Freshman 31.57%MidfielderHigh school 21.97%Midfielder International 48.01%Defender Senior 38.67%Defender Junior 51.41%Defender Sophomore 64.92%Defender Freshman 20.31%DefenderHigh school N/ADefender International 53.94%Goalkeeper Senior 12.99%Goalkeeper Junior 30.88%Goalkeeper Sophomore 42.50%Goalkeeper Freshman N/AGoalkeeperHigh school 0.00%Goalkeeper International N/A
The next three tables deal specifically with player game minutes information. These tables display the % of total minutes that the player appeared in his first season in the league. % is used to balance the fact that seasons in the study had a varying amount of total minutes per season. These tables give more granularity into how much the player really played in their appearances. The tables show all combinations of position and experience level. The information is summed for all drafts from 2000 through 2011. Average Minutes % by position Forward 28.08%Midfielder 24.17%Defender 36.24%Goalkeeper 18.89% Average Minutes % by experience Senior 37.22%Junior 48.87%Sophomore 59.30%Freshman 28.71%High School 35.44%International 42.77% Average Minutes % by position/experience Forward Senior 29.02%Forward Junior 20.68%Forward Sophomore 43.64%Forward Freshman 7.67%ForwardHigh School 27.24%Forward International 5.23%Midfielder Senior 19.15%Midfielder Junior 42.25%Midfielder Sophomore 31.28%Midfielder Freshman 22.36%MidfielderHigh school 14.27%Midfielder International 30.36%Defender Senior 31.12%Defender Junior 45.38%Defender Sophomore 57.16%Defender Freshman 17.95%DefenderHigh school N/ADefender International 45.30%Goalkeeper Senior 12.68%Goalkeeper Junior 29.62%Goalkeeper Sophomore 41.09%Goalkeeper Freshman N/AGoalkeeperHigh school 0.00%Goalkeeper International N/A
In performing the study, it became evident that certain colleges were used more often than others to draw players from. The table below shows the names of all colleges and universities where 10 or more players were drafted from in the study. College/University Number of players in study University of Maryland 19 Wake Forest University 16 UCLA 15 UNC 13 Indiana University 11 University of Akron 10
General High Level Observation of Data ACC schools dominate the draft Some colleges appear in bunches with in a couple of drafts. This is explained due to MLS drafters picking a lot of players from specific championship level teams, a good example of which was Akron. Senior Defender is by far the most popular position experience level to draft Forwards held the edge in highest % of appearances but defenders had the highest level of minutes by a good margin. This is likely explained by the fact that many rookie forwards are sent in as late game subs where as defenders tend to start and stay on the majority of the game. General experience level did not lean towards the more experienced player in either appearances or minutes. In fact there appears to be diminishing returns the older a player gets after his freshman year. Sophomores as a group dominated both appearance and minutes and were followed by juniors. Of the three, seniors had the least impact on appearances and minutes. Some of this can be explained by the fact that better players are coming out of college earlier.
He's not wrong. In Canada the NHL draft coverage is similar to NFL draft coverage in the US. The networks pay big rights fees to show it live. It's pure overkill. It also speaks to an oversight many MLS fans make when they try and make claims about the league overtaking hockey - the Canada factor. Hockey is a billion dollar industry up here and that money drives the sport to levels MLS can only dream about. That said, I doubt the NHL draft is watched by too many more Americans than the MLS draft is. I think it airs on the NHL Network in the US and a similar speciality channel would likely make sense for the MLS draft if such a channel were to exist.