MLS Draft will only be on ESPN3. No ESPN2 coverage.

NHL gets ENORMOUS revenue from what they do with their draft.

we are falling behind. SMH....

"falling behind" implies MLS was once "even" with NHL in this (or any) portion of their business.

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.

I'm not saying your wrong. But I'd love to see the numbers behind this?

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.

If nothing else, it just looks bad.

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).

Sixty posts now, and not a single image of Danny Szetela?

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.

Nice info. Do you happen to have the total number of draft picks by position for 2010-2012?

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.

Please, we save those for the weighted lotteries.

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

80

Midfielder

98

Defender

101

Goalkeeper

26

Total # of players by experience

Senior

151

Junior

60

Sophomore

29

Freshman

8

High School

19

International

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

34

Forward Junior

11

Forward Sophomore

8

Forward Freshman

1

ForwardHigh School

11

Forward International

2

Midfielder Senior

49

Midfielder Junior

15

Midfielder Sophomore

7

Midfielder Freshman

5

MidfielderHigh school

11

Midfielder International

7

Defender Senior

69

Defender Junior

19

Defender Sophomore

11

Defender Freshman

2

DefenderHigh school

1

Defender International

2

Goalkeeper Senior

11

Goalkeeper Junior

4

Goalkeeper Sophomore

2

Goalkeeper Freshman

0

GoalkeeperHigh school

1

Goalkeeper 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/A

Defender International

53.94%

Goalkeeper Senior

12.99%

Goalkeeper Junior

30.88%

Goalkeeper Sophomore

42.50%

Goalkeeper Freshman

N/A

GoalkeeperHigh 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/A

Defender International

45.30%

Goalkeeper Senior

12.68%

Goalkeeper Junior

29.62%

Goalkeeper Sophomore

41.09%

Goalkeeper Freshman

N/A

GoalkeeperHigh 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.

You get two.

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.