I was the one who brought up Ernie Stewart. Don't ever, and I mean ever confuse me with a DC fan. There are some lines you just don't cross.
Obviously what was originally posted has been totally lost in whether Adu will or should go to DCU or Dallas. Back on topic... I assume that there will be an expansion draft for San Diego, correct? Where each team can protect up to X number of players (12 to 14 seems about right) and San Diego gets to draft Y players (18 seems about right) with no more than Z from each team (2 seems about right). If they do that, should they then get to turn around and have the first pick in the draft? I'd say that the more players that the existing teams get to protect, the higher SD's draft spot should be. If teams can protect 16 or 18 players, that leaves SD with not a hell of a lot of talent to choose from so they should get the #1 pick, heck, maybe even 2 from each round. But if teams can only protect something like 12, SD will get some top notch talent -- probably some starters and certainly some key subs. In that case, I'd say the 11th pick would be appropriate. How were things handled when Chicago and Miami joined? Did they get an expansion draft plus get the top picks in the regular draft?
I would compliment Andy on this. The Latinos were very good players and we had "a ton" of latino fans to go with them.
DC was sitting on 2 allocations last offseason, one for missing the playoffs and one gained from the Pope/Petke etc trade. They used one of those allocations on Stewart (this is where the Salary effect Haig mentioned was applied. This new policy that a player gained on a free but with an allocation has the value of that allocation subtracted from his cap number that year.). The DID in fact use the other on Hudson's "hairy chested Bulgarian" Galin Ivanov.
When Chicago and Miami were added to the league they both got the top picks in the rounds. What I think will happen is 12 people will be protected on each team. San Diego will get up to 14 picks from the expansion draft, and 3 allocations plus the first pick of each round of the Superdraft. That right there is 17 roster players before the Superdraft. There are also the possibilities about discovery players (which are very complicated). I would think that teams can not lose more than two players. Of course I am not commissioner, so the way I want things done is meaningless. The only way I think that Dallas will get the #1 pick is if Chivas doesn't happen next year, and Freddy Adu doesn't happen next year in the draft.
Does it really matter if you pick #1 or #2? Or even #3? Here are the top 3 picks in the college/super drafts. 1996 #1 McKeon, Matt #2 Pope, Edie #3 Pollard, Brandon 1997 #1 Jakins, Tahj #2 Fisher, Mike #3 Jachym, Rob 1998 #1 Cullen, Leo #2 Kotschau, Rich #3 Parry, Ben 1999 #1 Moore, Jason #2 Heaps, Jay #3 Mulrooney, Richard 2000 #1 Shak, Steve #2 Garcia, Nick #3 Brown, Adin 2001 #1 Carrierri, Chris #2 Curtis, Ali #3 Lisi, Mark 2002 #1 Gbandi, Chris #2 Twellman, Taylor #3 Davis, Brad 2003 #1 Eskandarian, Elecko #2 Clark, Ricardo #3 Jaqua, Nate I dont know, but the #2 and #3 picks don't look any worse than #1.