And for our 3rd round pick we take..... an OTC, an orange seat, some orange slices ........ aka, nobody
Round 3 37 Santiago Bedoya to VAN 38 Taylor Mueller to POR 39 PASS by DCU [********ing Brilliant] 40 Curtis Ushedo to CHV 41 Matthew Marcin to PHI 42 Andrew Sousa to NER 43 PASS by HOU [okay, at least we weren't alone] 44 Scott Rojo to TFC 45 Sam Arthur to CHI 46 Michael Mravec to SKC 47 Sean Morris to SEA 48 Andy Adlard to CMB 49 PASS by NYRB [good company we're keeping] 50 Nick Love to RSL 51 Victor Cortez to SJE 52 Zack Johnson to LAG 53 Craig Hill to DAL 54 Javed Mohammed to COL
The MLS site lists Brettschneider as a "F/M/D." You can't get more versatile than that. With luck, this is Devon McTavish, Take Two.
The USC site only mentions him as a forward, all the way back to pre-college Like pretty much every NCAA bio I have tried to read, 2010 has not ended yet and is not documented - but you can read about 2007-9. Prediction: We will have cut him by the time his 2010 stats appear http://gamecocksonline.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/brettschneider_blake00.html
He looks pretty good in his highlight videos, but I'm sure all of his wrong footed moves would never make the cut.
Here's a stamp, lets just mail it in. The roads are too treacherous to bother coming into the office. WTF Here are my notes on him from the combine, from 1/11/11 (needs to improve), Blake Brettschneider (USC) bad cross weak left foot. good tackle on Balchan, though it was more because Balchan pushed the ball too far and it looked like Brettschneider was in slo-slo-slo motion ; from 1/10/11 (horrific), Not very good in either moving with the ball, with his first touch or passing. Estupinan is not going to give him the ball again after he kept losing it. He reminds me of a poor-mans George Josten (Gonzaga) – he was so successful. ; From 1/8/11 (need to observe), only played 2nd half and no notes. Combine isn't everything. I caught several games of USC on the teeny web thing. I caught him live in the spring. Never impressed. Ugh. This guy is going to stick around for a year or two not producing anything, but not being cut, because this organization is in a shambles and is gutless. PASS. Holy shit. Let me make a f-ing pick. I see beer in my future.
Stats: In 2010: 20/20 GP/GS, 7 G, 10 A, 74 SH, .473 SOG% In 2009: 18/18 GP/GS, 2 G, 1 A, 34 SH In 2008: 18/16 GP/GS, 6 G, 2 A, 28 SH, .750 SOG% In 2007: 19/19 GP/GS, 4 G, 4 A, 51 SH, .588 SOG% 2010 Conference USA MVP 2010 Conference USA Offensive POTY 2010 1st Team All-Conference USA 2009 3rd Team All-Conference USA 2008 1st Team All-Conference USA
now, now - the guy who does that has had the job less than 10 years, perhaps he just needs to grow into the role.
It seems like a no-brainer. They must have 10 players lined up ready to announce over the next week or two.
Does anyone ever go back after a few years to see which players exceeded pre-draft expectations and which failed to meet them? We all know about guys like Ream who come out of nowhere, but I'll bet there are many more who either are total busts or who show something in MLS that eluded most "experts." By definition, whoever was doing the evaluating for the MLS teams often find themselves at odds with the freelance prognosticators, or else they wouldn't draft these guys in the first place.
Um, you guys do realize that the this is the SUPPLEMENTAL draft right? Only 1-2 players out of a draft like this ever become anything worthwhile anyway. So why the huge amount of outrage when its a total crapshoot throughout the whole draft? I'll admit that I don't understand the pass in the 3rd round but some of you seriously need to take a chill pill.
1. Roster sizes went up by five players this year. All teams have to fill those positions; so the depth of the draft that's "relevant" is higher this year than it was in previous years, or will be next year. 2. The difference in quality between 3rd round-5th round players is not that large. You're right that it's highly, highly unlikely that any pick would amount to anything much; but the same can be said for a 3rd round pick. What we *do* know, though, is that if we have more players of that level in camp, competing for a place, we'll do a better job of filling out the end of the roster. In other words, your question of "what's the likelihood of such a player being very good?" is the wrong question to ask. The right question to ask is "what's the likelihood of such a player being good enough to compete for positions 28-30 on the roster, against the other players on the bubble?" Do we really know for certain that no one we could have picked instead of passing could have given Barklage, Thompson, Harrison or Horwarth a run for their money?
Not outrage. Just exasperation. When you have a lot of open spots on your roster, why not use all the avenues available to fill them? Sure, there may have been zero viable options available... or maybe the FO didn't do any research beyond the well-known programs.
But if they are inviting non-drafted players to camp as usual, what's the harm in actually drafting one of them?