[ChrisE]

Nothing really to say here, just a few lists, all lists have penalty kicks removed.

Top 15 in Goals/90 2003, min. 600 minutes:

Twellman, Taylor	0.713
Roberts, Zizi	0.617
Buddle, Edson	0.596
Noonan, Pat	             0.547
Donovan, Landon	0.526
De Rosario, Dwayne	0.525
Moreno, Alejandro	0.483
Ralph, Damani	0.453
Simutenkov, Igor	0.439
Ching, Brian	             0.437
Mcbride, Brian	0.412
Serna, Diego	             0.409
Spencer, John	0.397
Chung, Mark	             0.375
Eskandarian, Alecko	0.371

assists/90, 2003:

Preki	             0.571
Cancela, Jose	0.552
Lisi, Mark	             0.541
Moore, Joe-Max	0.531
Stoitchkov, Hristo	0.499
Williams, Andy	0.463
Nhlecko, Toni	0.455
Cunningham, Jeff	0.448
Garcia, Freddy	0.423
Guevara, Amado	0.398

(I cut this one short because Quaranta snuck on at like 14. The ultimate sin.)

assists+goals/90

Noonan, Pat	             0.930
De Rosario, Dwayne	0.918
Twellman, Taylor	0.903
Buddle, Edson	0.835
Moore, Joe-Max	0.834
Donovan, Landon	0.813
Preki	             0.807
Stoitchkov, Hristo	0.799
Ralph, Damani	0.725
Cunningham, Jeff	0.705
Serna, Diego	             0.682
Nhlecko, Toni	0.682
Moreno, Alejandro	0.645
Simutenkov, Igor	0.627
Eskandarian, Alecko	0.618

And career numbers, minimum 2000 minutes:

goals/90

John, Stern	             0.867
Twellman, Taylor	0.731
Shannon, Musa	0.636
Diallo, Mamadou	0.616
Buddle, Edson	0.588
Ruiz, Carlos	             0.554
Marino, Pete	             0.545
Savarese, Giovanni	0.540
Lassiter, Roy	0.530
De Avila, Antonio	0.526
Graziani, Ariel	0.523
Serna, Diego	             0.521
Pineda Chacon, Alex	0.501
Diaz Arce, Raul	0.500
Razov, Ante	             0.486
Rammel, Steve	0.485

assists/90

Valderrama, Carlos	0.657
Etcheverry, Marco	0.557
Bishop, Ian	             0.553
Limpar, Anders	0.546
Williams, Andy	0.531
Stoitchkov, Hristo	0.515
Preki	             0.511
Martinez, Antonio	0.506
Paz, Adrian	             0.496
Hermosillo, Carlos	0.480
Machon, Martin	0.464
Wynalda, Eric	0.463
Podbrozny, Jerzy	0.457
Warzycha, Robert	0.452
Kosecki, Roman	0.447
Nowak, Peter	             0.444

assists+goals/90

John, Stern	             1.008
Twellman, Taylor	0.939
Hermosillo, Carlos	0.929
Serna, Diego	             0.912
De Avila, Antonio	0.912
Stoitchkov, Hristo	0.901
Buddle, Edson	0.882
Shannon, Musa	0.859
Cunningham, Jeff	0.832
Diallo, Mamadou	0.831
Wynalda, Eric	0.814
Pineda Chacon, Alex	0.811
Valencia, Adolfo	0.783
Moore, Joe-Max	0.776
Razov, Ante	             0.768

Well, maybe a few things to say.

First of all, I was really surprised to see Toni Nhlecko on any lists, considering it was generally thought in Dallas that he looked good and made the offense better, but wasn't himself particurlarly effective.

Alecko scored had a higher goals/90 than Ruiz (.309). It will be interesting to see how he does under new management next year.

Zizi Roberts didn't play a lot of minutes, but was productive in the time he did play. And several of the 5 goals he scored were quite impressive. I hope he finds a spot in the Rapid's lineup next year.

Two of this year's three MVP candidates practically disappear when you look at per90 stats.

Cunningham ain't the black hole people make him out to be.
Steve Ralston career assists/90: 0.390
Jeff Cunningham career assists/90: 0.369

OK, I think this post is by now far far too long.

[NoSix]

Originally posted by ChrisE
all lists have penalty kicks removed.

Why? Because Carlos Ruiz takes LA's penalty kicks, and it would upset the BS faithful if he showed up higher on your lists?

A penalty kick counts just as much on the scoresheet as any other goal. If you are going to subtract penalty kicks, why not goals scored off free kicks, or tap-ins from 2 yards out with the keeper already beaten - surely that is an easier shot than a penalty kick.

[Naco]

Originally posted by NoSix
Why? Because Carlos Ruiz takes LA's penalty kicks, and it would upset the BS faithful if he showed up higher on your lists?

A penalty kick counts just as much on the scoresheet as any other goal. If you are going to subtract penalty kicks, why not goals scored off free kicks, or tap-ins from 2 yards out with the keeper already beaten - surely that is an easier shot than a penalty kick.

I agree.

[NoSix]

Originally posted by ChrisE
Well, maybe a few things to say.

First of all, I was really surprised to see Toni Nhlecko on any lists, considering it was generally thought in Dallas that he looked good and made the offense better, but wasn't himself particurlarly effective.

Alecko scored had a higher goals/90 than Ruiz (.309). It will be interesting to see how he does under new management next year.

Zizi Roberts didn't play a lot of minutes, but was productive in the time he did play. And several of the 5 goals he scored were quite impressive. I hope he finds a spot in the Rapid's lineup next year.

Cunningham ain't the black hole people make him out to be.
Steve Ralston career assists/90: 0.390
Jeff Cunningham career assists/90: 0.369

OK, I think this post is by now far far too long.

Quibbles about PK's aside, this is interesting stuff and your analysis is spot on.

Hard to understand with DC's anemic offense why Eskandarian didn't get more chances - hard for the crude but effective types to get minutes I guess.

Similar situation with Alejandro Moreno in LA, as much as they struggled to score, seems like he should have been Ruiz's regular strike partner.

Lisi looked great in the few times I saw him play - also not sure why he didn't figure more prominently for Bradley.

[Elninho]

Ruiz deserved his PK goals... he earned most of those PKs himself!

[NoSix]

FWIW, the top 15 G/90, A/90, and G+A/90 including PK's:

G/90:
Taylor Twellman 0.713
Zizi Roberts 0.617
Edson Buddle 0.596
Carlos Ruiz 0.579
Landon Donovan 0.574
John Spencer 0.556
Ante Razov 0.555
Pat Noonan 0.547
Dwayne De Rosario 0.525
Hristo Stoitchkov 0.499
Damani Ralph 0.499
Brian McBride 0.495
Alejandro Moreno 0.483
Igor Simutenkov 0.439
Brian Ching 0.437

A/90
Preki 0.571
Jose Cancela 0.552
Mark Lisi 0.541
Joe-Max Moore 0.531
Hristo Stoitchkov 0.499
Andy Williams 0.463
Toni Nhleko 0.455
Jeff Cunningham 0.448
Freddy Garcia 0.423
Amado Guevara 0.398
Dwayne De Rosario 0.394
Pat Noonan 0.383
Santino Quaranta 0.366
Ali Curtis 0.358
Ian Russell 0.336

(G+A)/90
Hristo Stoitchkov 0.999
Preki 0.975
Pat Noonan 0.930
Dwayne De Rosario 0.918
Taylor Twellman 0.903
Landon Donovan 0.861
Edson Buddle 0.835
Joe-Max Moore 0.834
Ante Razov 0.793
Carlos Ruiz 0.772
Damani Ralph 0.771
Jeff Cunningham 0.769
John Spencer 0.755
Toni Nhleko 0.682
Alejandro Moreno 0.645

[NoSix]

Perhaps Hristo still had the skills to be MVP, but not the fitness or attitude.

If Noonan and Twellman, and Donovan and DeRosario can remain healthy, the Revs and Quakes could put up some big offensive numbers in 2004.

For that matter, if the Crew can retain their trio of Buddle, Cunningham, and McBride (#18 on (G+A)/90) and keep them healthy, perhaps Andrulis can get some vindication in 2004. Giving Freddy Garcia more minutes in MF might help.

[beineke]

Originally posted by Elninho
Ruiz deserved his PK goals... he earned most of those PKs himself!

I agree that, ideally, PK goals should count for something, both for the player who drew it and for the player who converted it. (Likewise, a shooter should be penalized for missed PK's.) But elsewhere in this forum, Chris documented all of this year's PK's, and IIRC, Ruiz only drew 3 of the 8 he attempted.

[Nutmeg]

Chris,

Great stuff. Thank you.

[voros]

Great stuff Chris, the next step is to "normalize" the stats to compare across years. Why:

A. MLS in 2003 decided to get a bit more picky in the way it hands out assists, so assists dropped this year.

B. Scoring was a good deal higher in the 1996-1999 period of MLS before the league started to develop decent defenses league wide.

If you do this, it makes Twellman's performances thus far look pretty damn stunning.

On the subject of PKs, PKs were converted roughly 80% of the time. Until someone can show me _significant_ differences in the abilities of various players in taking PKs (secondary PK takers in MLS had a slightly higher conversion percentage than the primary ones in 2003), I'm VERY comfortable with giving out not much for converting spot kicks. Give credit to the guys who drew them, but I don't think the league lists them in it's stats databases.

And there's no comparison to tap ins from two yards because it often takes a fair amount of skill to be in position to convert those easy chances. The penalty kick easy chances are handed to you by your coach.

If you want to give Ruiz .2 goals for his converted ones and minus .8 goals for his missed ones, I suppose I can't stop you. Ruiz would then have 8.6 goals and Twellman would have 14.2.