Saturday, November 14, 2009

End of Season Grades

The Wizards season is over and it's time to take a look at how the Wizards players stacked up this season grade wise. It wasn't a good season and many of the players grades reflect that. Some fan favorites suffered for the way the team had played this season as well. You can check out the midseason grades here.

Davy Arnaud - C - The season seemed to start brightly for Arnaud had he had some very nice goals early on, but then things fell off. After his time away with the US at the Gold Cup, Arnaud did not look the same. He wasn't the same player Wizards fans have come to see in Arnaud. His form after the Gold Cup was completely in the tank.

Matt Besler - B - A solid season from the Wizards frist round pick. He didn't do anything amazing, but was very consistent with his play, whether it was in the middle of defense or on the wing. Doesn't look like a guy who will ever overly impress, but will be a consistent player.

Jimmy Conrad - B- - At times this season, Conrad showed his age and appeared to have lost a step. At other times he looked as good as he ever has. Conrad still has the smarts and the ability to captain this team and be one of the best players.

Adam Cristman - INC - 5 games played, 213 minutes in a season cut extremely short by injury. I was very high on him when he was brought in, hopefully he can return to full health, but with all the forwards, you have to wonder what will happen to him.

Roger Espinoza - C - Didn't get as much time this year as he did last year, part of that had to do with Lopez's move to more of a left wing position dropping Espinoza to the bench. He seemed to fall out of favor after Vermes took over so we'll see how things go.

Herculez Gomez - C- - I wanted to grade him higher because I like his style of play, but he just isn't producing, only 1 goal in his season and a half here is not enough from him. He seemed to fall out of favor as well under Vermes, more so than Espinoza. With his salary being what it is, I think he's a good candidate to go to Philadelphia.

Michael Harrington - B- - Harrington regained his starting spot at his best position (in my opinion), left back. With Besler's move to the middle, Harrington has been able to reestablish his spot on the left. Second half of the season for him was a much more consistent for him.

Kevin Hartman - A- - The team's MVP in my opinion, if not for Hartman this team would have been a lot worse than it was.

Zoltan Hercegfalvi - B - Turned into a good midseason acquisition. I want to see him get more time and would have loved to see a Hercegfalvi-Kamara lineup up top.

Santiago Hirsig - C+ - Seemed to fade a bit as the season wore on. He started out well but as the league adjusted to the type of player he was teams were able to shut him down better.

Aaron Hohlbein - C - Hohlbein lost his starting spot later in the season to Besler, and was unable to regain it unless Conrad was out. He didn't have a great season when he was playing, but did have some good bright moments.

Jack Jewsbury - C+ - Jewsbury didn't have a flashy season, he didn't do much to really stand out during games and didn't do anything to cause major mistakes, but without the flash, the Wizards center of midfield didn't have much to it.

Kei Kamara - B - Brought something to the Wizards lineup that they didn not have. He brought the size that the Wizards forward line was lacking throughout the season, while also bringing speed that wasn't as prevalent in the older legs of Wolff and Lopez.

Michael Kraus - INC - Kraus didn't make a single appearance in the second half of the season after appearing 11 times earlier in the season. He, like Cristman may fall victim to the numbers game at forward with the Wizards. Not enough time overall to give him a full season grade.

Eric Kronberg - INC - Out injured all year.

Jonathan Leathers - C- - Had a poor beginning to the season, but redeemed himself a little bit after getting the right back starting role back under Vermes.

Claudio Lopez - B+ - Lopez played a role in 15 of the Wizards 33 goals this past season, a good production amount for the Wizards former designated player, for his salary this year that's good production.

Matt Marquess - INC - 85 minutes in league play, 120 in the Open Cup, not enough for a full grade for the second year defender.

Rauwshan McKenzie - C- - Improved his performance while Conrad was away inn the Gold Cup, but still was a major drop in talent level from Conrad and more of a drop from the team's other two center backs that played this season.

Kurt Morsink - INC - 154 minutes for Morsink in league play this season a far drop from his first two seasons with KC.

Chance Myers - INC - Came back from injury and started to look like he may not be a bust but then got hurt again. Needs to get healthy and stay that way.

Boris Pardo - INC - Only played in the first Open Cup game of the season.

Nelson Pizarro - INC - Waived way back in May now.

Kevin Souter - INC - Only played 61 minutes all season, spent much of the late season in the broadcast booth providing color commentary on Wizards broadcasts.

Abe Thompson - INC - Played very minimally before he was finally traded to Houston for Kamara. Overall his performance in KC had been one of missed chances.

Lance Watson - B+ - Watson lost his spot late in the season after Vermes took over, but before that point, Watson was having a career year, he seemed to have found a place at right back and had plenty of good games there.

Josh Wolff - B - Wolff was hot and cold all year, but it's hard to give a guy a low grade when he sets a career high for goals in a season.

Graham Zusi - C - Zusi had a decent season showed some good moves and some ability for the future but still made many rookie mistakes.

2 comments:

Reepicheep said...

Other than rating Espinosa too highly :) , I really can't quibble with your grades

MOUFWASH said...

Per your ratings, the center of our midfield was our weakest spot, which I fully agree with. This needs to be addressed in the off season, we need to find at least 1 CM, I think Zusi is a better option than either that started most games last season, move Jewsbury to RB.