[beineke]

Over on another board, somebody questioned the value of looking at a rookie's minutes. After all, a rookie's playing time isn't simply a matter of his quality. It depends a lot on who he's competing with for playing time. As an example, on many teams Pat Noonan would have been starting from day one.

This question prompted me to look at the rookies who played the most. These are the guys I found who crossed the 2,000 minute threshold in their very first year out of school:

Ralston, Vanney, Duhaney, Cullen, Petke, Heaps, Rimando, Bocanegra, Pierce, Nick Garcia

It's a surprisingly small group of players (10 guys); it's also a remarkably successful one. Eight of them are still in MLS, and the other two are in Europe. Seven have appeared for the national team.

Once you get below 2,000, there is a mix of players who were pressed into service as rookies ... guys like Lance Key, Miles Joseph, Jamie Clark. But above 2,000 it's guys who nailed down a starting job in the early going and never let go.

This is a particularly relevant point as 2003 added substantially to the list above:
Ricardo Clark (the youngest inductee to club 2000)
Todd Dunivant
Shalrie Joseph(?)
Nat Borchers

Also, Damani Ralph finished at 1985 minutes and would have broken 2000 if not for national team commitments.

[ChrisE]

Originally posted by beineke
Over on another board, somebody questioned the value of looking at a rookie's minutes. After all, a rookie's playing time isn't simply a matter of his quality. It depends a lot on who he's competing with for playing time. As an example, on many teams Pat Noonan would have been starting from day one.

This question prompted me to look at the rookies who played the most. These are the guys I found who crossed the 2,000 minute threshold in their very first year out of school:

Ralston, Vanney, Duhaney, Cullen, Petke, Heaps, Rimando, Bocanegra, Pierce, Nick Garcia

It's a surprisingly small group of players (10 guys); it's also a remarkably successful one. Eight of them are still in MLS, and the other two are in Europe. Seven have appeared for the national team.

Once you get below 2,000, there is a mix of players who were pressed into service as rookies ... guys like Lance Key, Miles Joseph, Jamie Clark. But above 2,000 it's guys who nailed down a starting job in the early going and never let go.

This is a particularly relevant point as 2003 added substantially to the list above:
Ricardo Clark (the youngest inductee to club 2000)
Todd Dunivant
Nat Borchers

Also, Damani Ralph finished at 1985 minutes and would have broken 2000 if not for national team commitments.

Looking at their respective ages when they entered the league:

1996: Ralston 21, 6m
1996: Vanney 21, 6m
1997: Duhaney 22, 8m
1998: Cullen 21, 10 m
1998: Petke 21, 11m
1999: Heaps 22, 4m
2000: Rimando 20, 6m
2000: Bocanegra 20, 6m
2000: Pierce 20, 4m
2000: Garcia 20, 8m
2003: Clark 19, 10 m
2003: Dunivant 22, 0 m
2003: Borchers 21, 8m

doesn't really tell you much, I guess. I believe, however, that Clark is the first guy to make the list who came out before the end of his junior year.

I guess the only thing that really jumps out at me is that there are 10 defenders on the list, 1 defensive midfielder, and then Ralston and Rimando.

Shalrie Joseph(?)

I think if you're going to include Joseph, you've got to include Twellman as well.

[beineke]

Originally posted by ChrisE
I think if you're going to include Joseph, you've got to include Twellman as well.

I'm not sure what Joseph's background is, although I do think it's dodgy to include someone his age (25, iirc). Along with Twellman, I intentionally omitted C.J. Brown, who spent a year in the A-League before joining MLS. I didn't look seriously at anyone who turned 24 (or older) in his first season in MLS (this is another reason to rule out Joseph).

I do have one correction to add, though. I somehow forgot to type Richard Mulrooney's name.

[ChrisE]

Originally posted by beineke
I'm not sure what Joseph's background is, although I do think it's dodgy to include someone his age (25, iirc). Along with Twellman, I intentionally omitted C.J. Brown, who spent a year in the A-League before joining MLS. I didn't look seriously at anyone who turned 24 (or older) in his first season in MLS (this is another reason to rule out Joseph).

I do have one correction to add, though. I somehow forgot to type Richard Mulrooney's name.

Per Mlsnet, after graduating from St. John's, Shalrie went for try-outs in Germany and Italy, before finishing off the year with the PSL New York Freedoms.

http://www.mlsnet.com/content/02/ne1203joseph.html

[Kevin in Louisiana]

Let's take a look at what this list would look like if we ignore rookie status and look at age. Let's say under 21 at entering the league. (Note: I'm using the start of April as the cutoff. If anybody comes within a few months I'll post them as well)

Those who did it "first year out of college" (the first five stolen from ChrisE):

2000: Rimando 20, 6m
2000: Bocanegra 20, 6m
2000: Pierce 20, 4m
2000: Garcia 20, 8m
2003: Clark 19, 10 m
1998: Olsen 20, 10 m (why wasn't he mentioned earlier?)

Those who did it, but not (as best I can tell) "first year out of college" (I'm only listing the first time they broke 2,000 minutes)

2001: Beasley 18, 10m
2002: Convey 18, 10m
2002: Titus, Rick 20, 0m (Canadian, BTW)
2002: Vaca 19, 7m (Bolivian, of course)
2003: Beckerman 20, 11m

Player who got 2,000 minutes but missed the age cutoff by less than 4 months:

2001: Califf 21, 0m
2003: Countess 21, 3m

I just figured I'd give some credit to those who were young when they entered the league and still young when they got 2,000 minutes.

[ChrisE]

FYI, I was using the beginning of the calender year that they entered the league to calculate their ages, not the beginning of the season. Might change things a bit.

Second, Rick Titus would have been 30 in 1999, not 20.

[beineke]

Originally posted by Kevin in Louisiana
1998: Olsen 20, 10 m (why wasn't he mentioned earlier?)

Oops ... thanks for the correction. I should've been more careful in putting this together.

[Kevin in Louisiana]

Chris--yeah, i realized you were using January 1st as the cutoff. I can't remember if there was anyone whose birthday fell between January and April other than Califf and Countess.

I was wondering why I'd never heard of Titus. Typo on the MLS stats page had him listed as being born in 1982, not 1972.