Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Historic Look at Sporting KC's Draft Picks

The MLS Superdraft is 2 weeks away from tomorrow, but Sporting KC isn't going to be very busy on that date.  The team has traded both of their second round picks, leaving them with only the 14th pick in the Superdraft.  The team's natural selection in the second round, the 33rd overall was traded to San Jose as part of the trade that brought Ike Opara to Kansas City.  The team also had received the 32nd pick in the draft from New York in the trade that sent Stephane Auvray to the Red Bulls.  Kansas City sent that pick to Montreal earlier this offseason that brought Josh Gardner to KC.  In the Supplemental draft, Sporting have all four of their natural selections, the 14th (52nd overall), 33rd (71st overall), 52nd (90th overall), and 71st (109th overall). 

Here's historically how the picks have gone.

FOURTEENTH PICK
1996 - Casey Sweeney - Tampa Bay
1997 - Jason Annichero - San Jose
1998 - Carey Talley - DC
1999 - John Wilson - DC
2000 - Rusty Pierce - New England
2001 - Devin Barclay - Tampa Bay
2002 - Sharlie Joseph - New England
2003 - Doug Warren - DC
2004 - Ned Grabavoy - Los Angeles
2005 - Christian Jimenez - Chivas USA
2006 - Jeff Curtin - Chicago
2007 - Abdus Ibrahim - Dallas
2008 - David Horst - Salt Lake
2009 - George John - Dallas
2010 - Austin da Luz - New York
2011 - Victor Estupinan - Chivas USA
2012 - Tony Cascio - Colorado

There's some talent here, there's also been some misses too.  Sharlie Joseph has had a good long career with New England before being traded to Chivas USA and is probably the class of this pick.  A few other players has had successful careers, Carey Talley, Rusty Pierce, and Ned Grabavoy have been solid MLS squad players throughout their career.  George John and Tony Cascio have both been recent successes in that spot, with John seemingly continually being linked with a move abroad, and having a failed loan move to West Ham.  On the other hand you have John Wilson who had a decent career in the minor leagues but not so much in MLS, and Victor "I'm going to score 30 goals" Estupinan who was 1 season and done.

FIFTY-SECOND PICK
2000 - Ian Russell - San Jose
2001 - Teofilo Cubillas Jr - Miami
2002 - PASS - New England
2003 - Andy Rosenband - Dallas
2004 - Matthew Haefner - Columbus
2005 - Kevin Wilson -Dallas
2006 - Anthony Noriega - Kansas City
2007 - Eric Ebert - Houston
2008 - Tony Schmitz - DC
2009 - Jokull Elisabetarson - Chicago
2010 - Ofori Sarkodie - Kansas City
2011 - Jarad Van Schaik - Salt Lake
2012 - Nick Blake - Toronto

Really not much here at all.  Ian Russell easily had the most successful MLS career, appearing over 100 times for San Jose.  Other than that, there's not much.  Noriega spent some time playing professionally in Trinidad but that's about it for this pick.

SEVENTY-FIRST PICK
2000 - Ali John Utush - Los Angeles
2001 - Roberto Navarro - Dallas
2005 - Aaron Pitchkolan - Dallas
2006 - John Queeley - New England
2007 - Sal Caccavale - New York
2008 - Tim Bohnenkamp - San Jose
2011 - Paul Ogunyemi - Dallas
2012 - Tim Pontius - Seattle

Easily the best pick here was Pitchkolan.  He played a number of games for both Dallas and San Jose and is still playing professionally in the NASL with San Antonio.  Other than there there's little to the pick.

NINETIETH PICK
2005 - Usiel Vasquez - New York
2006 - Idris Ughiovhe - Chicago
2007 - Chris Loftus - New England
2008 - Lukasz Tumicz - Columbus
2011 - Phil Bannister - Colorado
2012 - Kohei Yamada - Colorado

None of these guys really got much time in MLS.  Loftus spent a year with the Revolution and spent time abroad.  Tumicz also spent time playing abroad with a Polish team.  But not much at all here.

ONE HUNDRED AND NINTH PICK
2009 - Andrew Kartunen - Kansas City
2012 - Joel Helmick - Colorado

Kartunen spent a season training with KC and as a league keeper, but that's it from this pick.

Overall KC has an okay chance of getting someone that can contribute with the 14th pick, and someone to develop.  With the rest of their picks KC will do well to get a guy that can make the roster and potentially contribute a little.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

That fourteenth pick probably won't be a forward. Midfield or defender, Goalkeepers forwards are stacked. seem set. Most likely it will the best player, who knows we might even trade for a sure thing for depth.

Would like to see us go for youth, in 2-3 years this team will be very different. With only one shot at the best of who hasn't been taken yet we need to make it count. If you aren't sure if he isn't going to be on the 2015 squad then trade for depth.