preliminary 2003 Superdraft news & analysis Seems like we need a new thread as the draft is only a week off. So what's going to happen? Is due time going to be disappointing in FY's drafting skills yet again? Our picks are: Round One 6. San Jose Earthquakes Round Two 16. San Jose Earthquakes Round Three 23. San Jose Earthquakes (from KC) Round Four 36. San Jose Earthquakes 39. San Jose Earthquakes (from NE) Round Five 46. San Jose Earthquakes Round Six 56. San Jose Earthquakes As discussed in here https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24920 and here https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24702, people feel we need help/depth at right back, another winger, and a replacement for Graz if he is gone for good. Depending upon what happens with Wade and Joe, we may need help in a few other areas as well (yikes!). Training with the eQuakes this week are: Goalkeepers: Steve Cronin (Santa Clara) Chris Doyle (Hartford) Mitchell Watson (NC State) Jeremy Proud (Fresno State) Defenders: Ryan Edwards (Seattle Sounders) Taylor Graham (Stanford) Todd Dunivant (Stanford) Troy Roberts (CAL) Midfielders: Lars Lyssand (San Jose State '02) Kapono Lowe (Fresno State) Jake Vaughn (USF) Johanes Maliza (Stanford) Adam Ivankovic (Cal State Hayward) Patrick Fisher (CAL) Mehdi Ballouchy (Creighton) Forwards: Corey Woolfolk Jamil Walker (Santa Clara) Roger Levesque (Stanford) Nelson Santana Other things to consider (subject to correction): SJ has 3 SI's (DeRo, Ronnie and Graz...) SJ has 3 discoveries (limit is 4 apparently) (Manny, Ronnie and Troy. Is that all?) SJ has at least 3 empty developmental slots. Not sure what happens to Roner this year. SJ could probably use another P-40 to go with Barclay. Speaking of which, do we know when Devin is going to "graduate"? (Since we will then need to move another player.) Well it's a start anyway...
Jacob LeBlanc (local boy/college mid) signs with MLS: http://virginiasports.ocsn.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/010703aaa.html btw - sounds a wee bit cocky don't you think? "I feel that MLS will help prepare me for this next step in my career." anyone heard of him?
With the players who are currently rumored to sign P-40 with MLS this could be a very good draft. And I would hope that Yallop will finally draft a P-40 or 2 for developement. There will be some good defenders and midfielders and those are the spots I think we need to look at first.
After reading Wade's article on MLSnet.com, even if he re-signs, and with Goose and Dayak getting up in years I think defense (not just an immediate starter, but also someone to develope) is going to be a big need.
Agreed, we need to have another defender, an outside midfielder and a center midfielder (how old is Ekelund?). Also a forward who could be ready to step up in 2 years after Donovan is gone.
Interesting. This LeBlanc kid would be a perfect Development contract player. Question is if he'd take it.
If you have already announced that you signed a contract with the league, does that mean that your contract would then preclude signing a development contract (for one of the 4 development slots)? I would assume so, but maybe you can be drafted, then waived, and then re-signed?
Yep, he played for Palo Alto High School. He was VERY right footed. Also, a bit of a hot head (and egotisical). He was a member of the ODP pool and has some youth national team experience. Got a full ride to Virginia. He's got great skills and is a natural midfielder. Might be another "Carierri" attitude, though. He robbed my High School of the chance to play in the CCS finals by "faking" an injury and getting our center back ejected. As you can imagine, I'm not a fan of his.....
PAHS '01 here. I sat next to him in Geometry and played on JV when he was on Varsity. He came to Paly from Bollitieri and I remember him being a few years older than everyone else. He had a very good shot, especially on freekicks. I think he scored two fk goals off the post his senior year. Quiet guy, seemed a little shy. His brother and sister both played at Stanford.
preliminary 2003 Superdraft news & analysis Just that alone makes him sound like a real dribshidts, Jeff. I would cast a no vote.
Could be. He only has one year of college left anyway. I believe that the League is planning on releasing a list of recently signed P-40's later today so perhaps that will clear things up.
12 Pro-40 players signed, developmental slots increased from 4 to 6: http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/p400109signings.html
All right, now with Graz officially gone from the 'Quakes, (and Lucci history as well), what's the EQ braintrust got planned in terms of replacement forwards? We've got an SI spot, Yallop was scouting in England for quite a while. Depending upon where Cannon and Wade come in salarywise (if they come in at all) we should have a limited amount of money to spend on a replacement. Then you have the draft - someone like Roger Levesque could provide some cover as a sub, but would he be able to start at forward while LDo and others are off with the Nats? (or dare I say, injured) I doubt it, but I haven't seen him play. Getting called up for the U-23's makes him look like hot stuff, but there's got to be more to it than that, right? Then you've got a list of waived players that's due to come out. We could pick up a vet - Serna would be a mistake obviously, but there might be some quality to be had on the cheap. Likewise, we could trade for someone a little more desirable. Perhaps it's time for Jon Conway to start in goal, leaving Cannon as trade bait. Agoos could be a trade option that would do wonders for our ability to go out and pick-up a quality offensive threat, ala Earnie Stewart. The question is, who's out there that's available? Obviously they (Moore/Yallop/Dom) must have some sort of a plan, especially after jettisoning an inexpensive forward like Gonzalez - unless there was something else going on with waiving Lucci that we haven't heard about, such as himn demanding to be traded/cut? (They're not thinking of moving Manny or Ian back up top are they? That would seem pretty weak - no offense of course.)
Draft-wise I'm only going to focus on the #6 pick the Quakes have in the first round. With 12 P-40s signed we should obviously have a good chance to pick one. Of the P-40s there are definitely some I would take with the #6 pick and who I think would be available when the pick comes up. Pause Magee Lewis Clark Alvarez Stokes are 6 guys who I would like the Quakes to have a shot at. Clark will be gone before the Quakes pick and Alecko also. That leaves 5 of the players I listed available on only 3 picks before ours.
Gonzalez is also going to be great in MLS, but I have a feeling he will "mysterioulsy" drop and still be available at the #8 pick for the Galaxy. If he was available at #6 I would love the Quakes to take him because of his amazing skills, but also to screw the Galaxy.
I just thought of this, but in the MLS release, it also was stated that developemental rosters have been expanded to 6 slots. With that being the case if Yallop doesn't take a P-40 player with the 6 pick he is officially in the Big Book of stupid.
I'm big on Stokes. I remember him from the NCAA championship game a few years ago. Shut down Indianas top man (Grabavoy?). By the way, what happened to that kid? LeBlanc would be nice from his local connection. Other than that, I really don't know about these guys. I'm assuming Eskandarian is gone.
2003 superdraft Stokes as been billed as the next Eddie Pope, but he's also suppossed to be inconsistent. For all that athletic abililty he wasn't a key player on any of the youth national teams. Stanford has a good, left-footed senior defender named Todd Dunivant coming out, and an even more talented younger one, a former member of the U-17s, who hasn't signed (yet?)-Chad Marshall. Then there's Stanford forward Roger Levesque, who I think would fit in well with the Quakes. One good wingback type player available for sure in Clemson's Ricky Lewis. Might be another one availble in Philip Salyer, if decides to give up on Werder Bremen and sign with MLS (as he's rumored to be doing). Not a good year for outside midfielders, or defenders. But quite a few young forwards and attacking mids available.
preliminary 2003 Superdraft news & analysis Ned Grabavoy is still at IU, Defender. He's a sophomore (can you believe that?).
I attended a practice back when the team trained in Morgan Hill and was named Clash, and there was this kid practicing with them who explained that he attended Palo Alto High School. I'm almost positive it was LeBlanc, and I think I may have seen him train with the Quakes a couple of years later. His UVA bio says he had the option to play professional soccer coming out of high school: http://virginiasports.ocsn.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/leblanc_jacob00.html
Updated roster from the SJ Murc article: "Opposite Donovan, Yallop plans to start Dwayne DeRosario (four goals), under-20 national-team player Devin Barclay (no goals in 12 appearances) or Manny Lagos (three goals), who played in the midfield in 2002. The other option, Yallop said, would be to draft a forward or sign one as a discovery player." With Devin as a P-40 and Chris Roner currently as a developmental player, we've currently got 15 senior roster spots taken, leaving 3 open spots (plus 4 developmental slots. Here's our current roster though many of the spots are not nailed down of course: ................Landon..........Dwayne*..................................(bench: DB, ML, #16) .......................................................................................................... Ramiro............................................Ian/Manny.................................. ..................Ronnie.......Richard................................... (bench: ER, CR, #17) ........................................................................................................... Wade?..........Jeff......Troy...........Jimmy/Craig W............ (bench: ER, #18) ........................................................................................................... .............................Joe?..............................................................(bench: JC) *Dwayne is rumored to be heading out on loan for 3 months this spring. ? Both Joe and Wade are out of contract and may not fit the Quakes budget for 2003. National team poolers (who will be missing time): Donovan, Cannon, Barrett, Mulrooney, Agoos and Barclay (U-20) Obviously, it's very possible that Johnny Moore will pull the lever and make a trade or two which would shake things up considerably. Still, it's pretty clear that we need help in all areas of the field. The next few weeks should be very interesting...
MLS Player Combine guide with stats: http://www.mlsnet.com/special/draft/2003/adidas_combine_guide.pdf Draft info from MLS: http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/mls1010combine.html
Re: preliminary 2003 Superdraft news & analysis Um. I'm a sophomore. Not really. Cannon isn't going to be a fixture on the national team. I would count him as committed to club full-time. When will the World Youth Championships be for the U-20s? I want to say January or June.
preliminary 2003 Superdraft news & analysis No, by that I just meant that it seems like he's been around longer than two seasons.