YNT-Eligible MLS Players: 2018 In-Season Thread

That hairline, Brandon. Ouch.

 

Mexican media said he has an academy or some kind of training center in Houston

https://www.matiasalmeydatc.com/

 

Website says practically nothing about the academy, coaches, programs, etc., and seems to stress the availability of training fields to rent.

 

You bring up a few interesting points/questions. As you say, we will lose a lot of minutes in the 'graduating" class of 98 and Tyler Adams.Together they are responsible for approximately half of the total minutes this year (1308 minutes). We also have a number of other young players recieving massive minutes....there won't be much increase from this group so it has to come from somewhere else. I personally think the minutes will be similar if not greater next year.

Going forward the key will be the teams themselves. There are currenty 23 teams in MLS. Of those 18 teams gave at least one minute to one or more players. Of those teams, 9 teams gave a total of at least 500 minutes or more to their players, five of those 5 gave at least 1k minutes and 4 teams gave at least 2k minutes to their players. The point, of course, is that the vast majority of the minutes given to young players has been given by 4 teams out of 23. What this means, is that we are still at the point where there is a lot of low hanging fruit. If a couple of teams step up as they develop their academies and their prospects the numbers could dramatically increase over the next few years to the point where we would be seriously disappointed with 30k+ minutes and perhaps we should be this coming year as well.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I expect a minimum of 28k minutes next year with 35k+ more likely. Unfortunately, with my memory, I won't remember this post, nor will I be able to find it to see if I am right or not. Maybe one of you will let me know if I can gloat or if I have to eat crow. (gloatng only allowed for 35k+, crow required for less than 25k)

 

Looking player by player, I think it's hard to think we'll get up to 28k, just based on the roles guys had this year. Just for roughly going through how much I think guys will play, I got to around 23k, and I think my predictions were a tad optimistic.

 

I think you can add a thousand minutes for Scally, if not more. Sands will probably get that or more, but you’re more likely to have him in your calculations already.

If Haak will sign his offer, he’d get at least 2018 Sands level minutes I think. IMO, he’s a better prospect than Sands, but that may explain him holding out. Could be another one straight to Europe at 18, sadly. He’s my favorite kid in the NYCFC academy. I just love his game.

 

I was more pessimistic when I looked at them. NYCFC has three fullbacks they like, and I don't think they give that much playing time to a 16 year old. Sands will also be a bench option next year for them. I said 300 for Scally and 800 for Sands.

This added up to 22900.

 

Tinnerholm has fallen off a cliff.

Sweat is terrible. Matarrita is injured half the time and disinterested half of the rest.

And apparently someone decided that SAS didn’t deserve to play despite being extremely productive when he was getting minutes early in the year.

I may be overly optimistic. But I’ll stick with it. The club is always unpredictable, maybe this time it’ll be in a way that makes me happy.

 

Just gonna drop this in here:

Oscar Pareja: MLS should establish a rule for game-day rosters, having a certain number of players under-24, -20 or -17 playing https://t.co/VbIhrPA0Lg

— Mike Woitalla (@MikeWoitalla) October 10, 2018

 

I don't see anything wrong with your reasoning, in fact I initially approached it in a similar manner. I started with what I thought were reasonable estimates for each player and found myself putting down extremely wide ranges. We have a number of players that could get monster minutes or almost nothing...or something in between. Pomykal is a good example, I believe it is possible that he get anywhere from 300+ minutes to 2500+ minutes. If I had to guess, I would put him around 1000 but but there is a great deal of uncertanty. Carlton I would put at 300 or less or 2000+ if Tata is there (Tata doesn't give players 800-1500 minutes). Just between those two players there is a potential 5K minute swing. Add in Sands, Perez, Durkin (I don't know if his minutes will go up or down), Toye, Bwana, Busio, Bello, and several others and making an accurate prediction becomes more and more difficult. In additon, I fully expect at least one player that got minimal (perhaps zero) minutes in MLS this past year to break out with 1500-2500 minutes next year. People that know much more than me were familiar with guys like Cannon and Trusty but did they expect over 5k combined minutes from them?

So what's my point? Using only players that got minutes this year, I basically guesstimated the numbers that I felt were pretty safe to be around 25K minutes league wide (similar to your method) but I also believe there will be a few positive surprises that come out of USL and because one or two postive surprises can make such a big difference (2K+ minutes is almost 10% of the total minutes), I just added that on. (2 additional starters gets you almost to 30K). I was feeling even more optimistic when I wrote the post so I upped it to 35K+ (probably should have left it at 30k which still might be overly optimistic considering the minutes we are losing.) Of course I also ignored injuries which, undoubtedly will occur (see Mihailovic this year...I am sure he would have had 2K+ instead of approx 400)

 

My early 2019 prediction is Angking gets around 2,000 minutes. Probably would’ve seen more time in 2018 but has been injured and Friedel won’t be scared to give him minutes.

Plus, with as frugal as NE is, they’re one of the better MLS clubs at giving Americans playing time.

 

Has there been any update on if Tommy Redding is retiring?

 

Some nice words from Pareja about Reynolds in the most recent FCD practice report. [Also check out the link for nice words from the author on Pomykal, who played as a #8 in this game. Folks will remember that this is the position I think he's destined for...…………….]

#FCDallas Practice Observations October 10 https://t.co/hPuyWu5YVh Training has gone to the dogs.

— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) October 11, 2018

I think it would be fair to say Ryan Hollingshead and Bryan Reynolds are perhaps the two players in contention to fill in for Reggie Cannon at right back. Could you tell me a little about what each of them brings to the table?

Ryan [Hollingshead] knows the position and has experience. And [Bryan] Reynolds is doing great in training he has, I've noticed, a lot of growth on him. He's understanding the game much more in that position. So a good two alternatives.

I've been watching Bryan Reynolds myself of late too, trying to judge his progression. He seems to have gained a whole lot of confidence, a lot of aggression going forward, from the start of the year to now. He's much more willing to venture and attack. Do you think that's a fair assessment?

Right, cause he gets comfortable in that position. He can use his speed, he can use his height, and he can use his skills to go forward as he used to do as a winger. But now he is incorporating some other tools into his box. His defensive instincts. He can take advantage of his speed to be better in the duels. The positioning, we are making him grow into it. I think he's going to be a great right back for this country.

 

If Atlanta can start a 16 year old at LB, Dallas should be able to start a 17 yo at right back.

 

I’ve been arguing with buddies for a while that MLS should make game day rosters at least 21, if 3 players are under 21. It’s bound to result in more minutes for kids.

 

A very token stoppage time appearance for Josh Perez. Probably on the field for less than a minute before the whistle blew but it's technically a game played.

 

Glad is from Arizona.

 

👏 @colebassett19 becomes the youngest starter in club history!

Here's our XI for #MINvCOL.

👨‍⚕️ Injury report: https://t.co/mhND8xQjhB
📝 Roster notes: https://t.co/wBqtp0vLNc#Rapids96 | #MINvCOL pic.twitter.com/kkjpT0D5ls

— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) October 13, 2018

 

Nice! Good luck to him. He had a great subs appearance, so hopefully he shows something today. Nothing to lose.

 

I'll be keeping a close eye on this one. I've really like him every time I see him play. He rarely, if ever, misplaces a pass.

 

Impressed with Basset. Composed, clean on the ball, active. Don't know that he's a future star but he's got a 15-year career as a good player in front of him.

He's also now played more in MLS this season than Andrew Carleton has.

 

17-year old Bryan Reynolds on the bench for FCD today against DCU. If he can get on the field, it'll be his professional debut.

#DCUvFCD Starting XI + Lineup Notes: @abelaguilart's first start, the return of Roland Lamah and more. // @ChickfilA

📝 https://t.co/aobfnqx33D pic.twitter.com/PWHyNz6Z3q

— FC Dallas (@FCDallas) October 13, 2018

Durkin starting for DCU!!!

The XI. #DCU | #DCvFCD pic.twitter.com/8ax69DvsQd

— D.C. United (@dcunited) October 13, 2018

 

Colorado could quickly shoot up as one of the more followed teams in this thread next season if they give Bassett, Vines, and Hundley (assuming they sign him) a decent amount of minutes.

Sounds like Colorado might not pick up Edgar Castillo's buy option: https://www.burgundywave.com/2018/10/12/17968536/source-rapids-might-lose-out-on-edgar-castillo

 

I thought Bassett struggled early on (he had a back pass that nearly lead to a goal and failed to track a run or two in the first 20 minutes), but it was his first start, so he obviously needed to adjust to the game. He nearly scored and assisted on goals later in the half, and I liked his combination play in midfield. He's a good passer. Struggled some with the pace of the game out of possession, but I don't think thats out of the ordinary for a player who hasn't played many minutes at this speed. I saw very little of the second half, so I can't say how he looked in that half.

 

What position did he play?