Mo and company have a lot of picks to work with and I expect there should be a number of deals happening but I also expect us to draft a couple of players. Now there seems to be a lot of info about players in the draft including the potential GA players who will be in the draft. Right now as it stands we have the following picks. - 1st round (2nd, 4th and 13th) - 2nd round (none) - 3rd round (34th and 39th) - 4th round (none) How the picks work due to our standings we start out with 4th, 19th, 34th and 49th. The following move made resulted in our current draft position. - We got the 2nd overall as part of the O'Brien deal - We got 13th overall from the McBride deal - Lost 19th overall as part of the El Lobo deal - Got 39th overall from Dallas as part of the Cunny deal - Lost 49th overall as part of the Harmse deal. Here is a list of players who are played in the combine this year Draft Combine List Here is a list of the top keepers and defenders in the draft pool in a article on ESPN Soccernet (There will be top mid-fielders and forwards as the draft gets near) Top 10 Keepers Top 10 Defenders Here is a good resource for tracking of potential GA players from 3rd degree and with our high draft position we could draft a some GA players like we did in the past with Edu and we currently have one in Ibbey. GA Tracking I think with the major injury to O'Brien White a player who would be a safe bet would try to get our hands on it should be interesting to see if Mo might still take a shot on him. As far as history last season only James and Edwards played with the first team from that draft class played because Phelan and Zaher were traded and Lapira decided to play in Norway. When you consider 2007 draft the only player left at the club that was a draft pick is Edwards which is quite surprising. So what are you opinion of the draft? Who should we draft? What position should we look at to draft in? Should we just trade away all the picks?
longer versions... defenders http://www.3rddegree.net/2008/12/2009-preliminary-mls-superdraft-defender-rankings/ gks http://www.3rddegree.net/2008/12/2009-preliminary-goalkeeping-prospects-rankings/
Buzz has done the latest draft preview article on the crop of mid-fielders in the draft coming up in a couple of week. Top 10 Mid-fielders
Ives has been doing some mock draft with rumors of players or deal made during the draft. Here is the link to the whole thing Mock Draft 3.0 Here is what Ives said thus far for those who don't fell like reading through the whole things. I can't see us getting O'Brian and Tracey when we already have a deep pool of strikers both young and old at the club already.
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2009/01/hyndman-cooper-staying-put-for-2009.html ives is saying we are trading #2 for serioux and another pick, would be nice to have a quality canadian central defender in the back
Am I the only one who thinks that the draft is a complete boring waste of time?! I'm guessing we will end up signing a players who doesn't want to play in Canada (again) and will bugger off to the Austrian league within weeks, leaving TFC with nothing. Oh what fun!
I think the draft offers some positives things for clubs to take advantage of and one of the big thing is if you do your scouting right or lucky enough to have a high pick then you can get cheap players (since entry players make nothing) who some have good potential or get a GA player who offers you same thing only no cap space taken. The draft is less of a factor to us because 95% of the players in the pool would take a international spot which many would want to have an experience players fill up I do think the draft offers some players who could be of good use. I also think we never really give players much time or because we are in a situation where we need more experience players who will take International Slots then we are quick to let go younger players. I look at Boyens who I thought had a good first season and could of been a decent players going ahead but what happen was he was released to make room for Tebily who didn't pan out while Boyens went on with NYRB and did pretty well for him-self. James could very well end be the same way in Houston because we were not willing to wait to see how well a player would do with a year of pro football under his belt (though I thought Boyens rookie season was much better than James). I do agree with the reputation of Mo being this suppose draft "guru" that he will need to do better this year evaluating the talent than in the last couple of years but I feel and hope we can get a couple of players from this years draft.
If the FO has the right infrastructure, a draft can be productive. No sign of that infrastructure at TFC. To support my statement, see my post at: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=904210
quick comments: This year's draft is talented and deep. I think the James & Phelan trades will come back and haunt TFC. Mo's no draft guru (see link in previous post for my explanation). Draft Stefan Frei, trade Edwards. Why, cap/roster exempt, frees up an I spot on the roster and Frei is a better, and younger keeper. I'm currentlyt hoping Mo trades all the picks for established players. If he uses the picks, I'm hoping for at least Wallace or Frei (I've posted someting different elsewhere but recent info now has me going in this direction). I'm hoping Mo is seriously concerned about keeping his job and not relying on college kids to fill the voids in our roster.
GA don't free up international spots, Ibby counts as an international on the books. GA only give you cap and senior spot protection. Besides we are pretty good right now in terms of international spots and there would be better ways to free up spots if needed. Edit GA list is released http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20090107&content_id=210926&vkey=pr_mls&fext=.jsp
Gen A players are deemed development players. Trading Edwards, after selecting Frei, frees up the I spot. Pardon my lack of clarity.
Can somebody clarify something for me? Since the generation a. players tend to leave for Europe within two to three years after becoming pro's with MLS, why would a manager want to try and build a team around them? I expect both Wynne and Igy to follow this pattern. What possible gain is there, other than for trade bait, or allocation (transfer?) money for the club and league? Mo should trade all of the TFC picks for proven players who will actually sign long term contracts to stay in MLS with TFC. Even if they are average players, because if anybody hasn't noticed, TFC is still a below-average club.
Who says anything about building a team around a one of these players? True that a few of the players will head to Europe after a few years playing MLS but drafting a player can be good to add upon your squad, especially when you are tight against the cap (like us) and hey someone will stay for a long time. That is what a lot of it is about. Getting these players before they get to Europe, training them and getting them experience and in a few years (or in Edu's case year and half) then sell them for 3m-5m on the market, transfer fees are great way to get money for the league. Of coarse the possibility of this happening is one or two players a generation while some stay in the MLS and other simply don't make it.
mind a little spam? We have a bunch of player rankings at 3rd Degree and will do doing combine reports for the 5th year. http://www.3rddegree.net/
You do a great job on this stuff so hopefully nobody on here is demented enough to hold supporting FC Dallas against you. The "this is the year of the forward" bit sounds promising from a TFC standpoint. We need better inexpensive cover up front than was provided by Lombardo and Ja. Smith, given ten appearances by Ibrahim this season means a first round pick for Dallas in 2010, because odds on Dichio will get injured again.
It would not surprise me that no players are drafted from the OUA or even OCAA. There is great talent within the Ontario University/Colleges soccer teams.
Buzz - anytime, quality site, but not thrilled about your team. Bring Back - here, here MAICOL - name them!
Huh? Getting Frei would clear a senior roster spot, but he still counts as an international player (especially since he's Swiss).
Ives comments on Day One. http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2009/01/my-entry-1.html#more Video clip of Gonzales is up at MLS. Ives had picked him as a possible #2 which would be our first pick (assuming we keep it). http://web.mlsnet.com/media/player/...mar_gonzalez.wmv&id=28992&pid=undefined&_mp=1 Ives has referred to him as slow but I've heard that he is looking great today.
I find it funny how people can watch the same game and have their own opinion and analysis on each players but that is the way things go. Interesting comments from all three of the articles done about day one of the combine. I was more interested to see if there were any more trade rumors with our picks but it seem to have gone a bit quiet.
Well less than 24 hours until the draft so here some article about the combine and final additions of the mock draft. Article on players who did well or poor in the combine http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=609496&sec=mls&root=mls&cc=5901 Ives final mock draft http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2009/01/sbi-mls-mock-draft-version-50.html