Yeah, at the beginning of the year Parke's story was intriguing, but I think that the novelty has worn off. I can't even see him as a future contender for the national team. Marshall, Dempsey, Adu, ...yes. At this point, not Parke.
Stat wise I think Adu is better than Gros. Adu has 5 goals and 13pts. He was the 3rd most fouled player on the team which meant that defenses did their best to take him out of the game and he still scored 5 goals in half the minutes of the max. Having said all that Adu is ok to be nominated but he shouldn't be the ROY. Dempsey or Marshall should be over him. This from a DCU fan.
Forgive my stupidity but I don't get this post. If you're saying that the past ROYs were crap I would have to say that Boca is still pretty good and Ralph is too along with Ben.
It was a cheap joke. It's actually better suited to the #1 draft pick (Moore, Shak, etc.) than ROTY, but it was the first thing that came to mind when the list reminded me that Mike Duhaney had actually won something other than Rat Bastard Of The Year.
It's still an apples-oranges type fo comparison, I think. Gros was useful from Day 1, where Freddy was overwhelmed. But Adu improved rapidly, where Gros's was moer moderate. By the last half dozen games, Adu was a tactically and technically better player than Gros. I like Gros, he gives good effort out there, and is a good two-way player, but he's basically a poor man's Ben Olsen. Freddy Adu is better, not merely for the future, but today. If Gros gets more minutes now, it's because of positional considerations. Now, whether you give the RotY to the guy who contributed more during the season (which is probably Gros, owing to his minutes), or the guy who became the best player over the course of it, is more of a philosophical question. Most people choose the former, but I've always criticized that a little because it sometimes leads to voters picking a guy everybody knows will never be much better than he is over the guy who it's obvious is a bigger impact player (see Amare Stoudemire over Yao Ming).
Boy, the history of the RotY is literally up and down, isn't it. Ralston good, Duhaney bad, Olsen good, Heaps bad, Bocanegra good, Faria bad, Martino good. Arguably Ralph was the first to really break the pattern by finally having two in a row produce something in the rest of their careers.
I agree with your player analysis just about 100% I just never thought of a ROTY (or MVP, or defender of the year, or any such type award) as being a 'most improved' category. Never occured to me. I think this year Gros had a bigger impact on the field than Adu, and should have been nominated over him. I really am trying to care, but it's not working.