A Historical Look at KC's Draft Spots

We're about a week and a half away from the MLS Superdraft in Kansas City. It's the first of two drafts for the league, with a supplemental draft following a week later. KC have their natural 16th pick in the 1st round of the Superdraft, and then have the 30th selection in the second round. That selection came from FC Dallas in the trade that sent Kevin Hartman to Dallas. KC's natural selection, the 35th pick, went to Philadelphia as part of the trade that brought Shavar Thomas to KC.

In the Supplemental draft, KC have 5 picks, the 16th (54th overall), 35th (73rd), 43rd (81st) (that was received from Chivas as part of the Ryan Smith trade), 54th (92nd), and 73rd (111th).

That's one pick in every round of the two drafts, except for 2 picks in the third round of the supplemental draft. But really at this point, when looking at the history of the draft, the rounds are meaningless, specifically because this is going to be only the third MLS draft where the 16th pick has even been considered a first round pick, or the 30th pick, which in 1996 was the last pick of the 3rd round is now a mid-second round pick, so it's better to look at the draft from the pick number instead of the round. For a look at what type of talent KC can get in each spot, let's take a historical look at who has been drafted at each spot throughout the league's history.

SIXTEENTH PICK
1996 - Imad Baba - New England
1997 - Alan Branigan - Dallas
1998 - Billy Walsh - New York
1999 - Kevin Knight - New York
2000 - Justin Evans - San Jose
2001 - Brian Ching - Los Angeles
2002 - Danny Jackson - Colorado
2003 - Scot Thompson - Los Angeles
2004 - Adrian Cann - Colorado
2005 - Ryan Pore - Kansas City
2006 - Lance Watson - Kansas City
2007 - Robbie Findley - Los Angeles
2008 - Eric Brunner - New York
2009 - Evan Brown - Seattle
2010 - Michael Stephens - Los Angeles
2011 - Paolo Cardozo - Los Angeles

Not exactly a who's who of talent, but there is some out there in the history of the draft. Brian Ching and Robbie Findley both had pretty successful MLS careers, Findley used it and a World Cup to get a move to England. The rest is fairly uninspiring, although there are a few decent starters and depth players in this spot, including Adrian Cann and Eric Brunner. KC has even picked twice at this spot before, drafting GA player Ryan Pore in 2005 and Lance Watson in 2006. Combined the two made 94 league appearances for KC.

THIRTIETH PICK
1996 - Todd Miller - Columbus
1997 - Brandon Leib - DC
1998 - Joe Franchino - Los Angeles
1999 - Andrew Parrish - Dallas
2000 - Kerry Zavagnin - Kansas City
2001 - Kevin Adams - Columbus
2002 - Sam Forko - New York
2003 - Tim Glowienka - New York
2004 - Lindon Pecorelli - San Jose
2005 - Victor Arbelaez - San Jose
2006 - Ray Burse - Dallas
2007 - Steven Curfman - Salt Lake
2008 - Mike Zaher - Toronto
2009 - Paul Gerstenberger - Columbus
2010 - Steven Beitashour - San Jose
2011 - Tyler Lassiter - New York

Slimmer pickings here, Kerry Zavagnin is the cream of this pick, although Joe Franchino had a decent MLS career. Steven Beitashour has been a solid contributor recently for San Jose, and Ray Burse is a starter in the NASL. Other than that there's not a lot of sustainable talent in this pick.

FIFTY-FOURTH PICK
2000 - Brian Waltrip - Tampa
2001 - Shaun Tsakiris - New England
2002 - Jeremy Piette - Dallas
2003 - Ryan Futagaki - Chicago
2004 - Edwin Miranda - Dallas
2005 - Jason Hernandez - New York
2006 - Christopher Joyce - Dallas
2007 - Desmond Brooks - Chivas
2008 - Austin Washington - Chicago
2009 - Raphael Cox - Salt Lake
2010 - Dane Saintus - Dallas
2011 - Alan Koger - New England

Jason Hernandez is about the only consistent MLS player on this list, he's played almost 150 league games for New York, Chivas, and San Jose. Every other player at this pick has had little more than a few token appearances in league play.

SEVENTY-THIRD PICK
2005 - Noah Palmer - Salt Lake
2006 - Lawson Vaughn - Chivas
2007 - Osei Telesford - Chicago
2008 - Tino Nuñez - Salt Lake
2009 - Joe Anderson - Vancouver

All but Anderson have made some league appearances for their club, Lawson Vaughn is probably the most well known of the 5 previous players drafted at this spot, making about 50 combined appearances with Chivas and DC.

EIGHTY-FIRST PICK
2005 - Easton Wilson - New England
2006 - Keith Cauldwell - Colorado
2007 - Chris Konopka - Kansas City
2008 - Vicente Arze - Kansas City
2011 - Yannick Salmon - Chicago

None of these players made much of any appearances, Konopka's first league appearance came this past year as a league keeper playing for New York. Overall Vicente Arze's probably been the best talent at this pick and all his success has been outside MLS with Vancouver in the USL, Bolivia, and Hungary.

NINETY-SECOND PICK
2005 - Chris Lee - Columbus
2006 - PASS - Houston
2007 - Tyler Hemming - Toronto
2008 - Ben Shuleva - Dallas
2011 - Taylor Mueller - Portland

Hemming made a handful of appearances for Toronto in their first few years in the league. He's also bounced around the lower leagues. Not much at all at this pick, evident by the fact that Houston passed on this pick in 2006.

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH PICK
2008 - PASS - New England

The only other time there's been a 111th pick in the drafts was in 2008 and the Revolution passed on that pick. So very good chances this player doesn't make the team, if KC even uses this pick. They could pass like New England.