A Historic Look at Sporting KC's Draft Position

The MLS Superdraft is less than a week away, and Sporting KC will be quite busy on Thursday. Sporting has six picks in the four round draft, including three in the first round, and four in the first 30 picks. Unfortunately from reading some reports from people that pay more attention to college soccer than I do, this doesn't appear to be the deepest draft, and appears to be weaker than most drafts in the recent past. Many of the top Generation Adidas talent has returned to school, and other talent for college teams have been claimed by team's because of homegrown player claims.

The other thing is that while Sporting KC have three first round picks, Robb Heineman has suggested that the team is unlikely to take all three of those picks, instead looking to trade at least one of them. So if Sporting can, it'd seem the team is going to attempt to move at least one of their picks.

So with all that in mind, I'm going to take a look at each of KC's picks throughout the history of the league as I've done in year's past.

10th pick
1996 - Mac Cozier - CLB
1997 - Danny Care - DC
1998 - Matt  Jordan - DAL
1999 - Tony Soto - LA
2000 - Alan Woods - COL
2001 - Duncan Oughton - CLB
2002 - Billy Sleeth - CHI
2003 - Shavar Thomas - DAL
2004 - Steve Cronin - SJ
2005 - Jack Stewart - CHI
2006 - Calen Carr - CHI
2007 - Andrew Boyens - TOR
2008 - Pat Phelan - TOR
2009 - Kevin Alston - NE
2010 - Blair Gavin - CHV
2011 - CJ Sapong - KC
2012 - Ethan Finlay - CLB
2013 -Eriq Zavaleta - SEA
2014 - Nick Hagglund - TOR

No real super stars in this selection, but some solid picks that have had solid MLS careers. Shavar Thomas has played over 100 MLS games (he was a solid contributor during his first tenure with the Kansas City Wizards. Calen Carr, Andrew Boyens, Pat Phelan, and Kevin Alston have had decent professional careers. Then there's CJ Sapong who won rookie of the year in 2011. And last year's pick, Nick Hagglund was a consistent contributor for Toronto FC in 2014. So while Sporting KC may not get a great player here, they should be able to find someone who can contribute to the team.

12th pick

1996 - Miles Joseph - NY
1997 - Scott Coufal - NE
1998 - Wade Barrett - SJ
1999 - Paul Broome - DAL
2000 - Bobby Convey - DC
2001 - Jose Burciaga - KC
2002 - Lee Morrison - DAL
2003 - Eddie Gaven - NY
2004 - Chris Wingert - CLB
2005 - Tim Ward - NY
2006 - Nathan Sturgis - LA
2007 - Amaechi Igwe - NE
2008 - Dominic Cervi - CHI
2009 - Jean Alexandre - RSL
2010 - Bright Dike - CLB
2011 - Rich Balchan - CLB
2012 - Aaron Maund - TOR
2013 - John Stertzer - RSL
2014 - Marlon Hairston - COL

Only two picks later, Sporting is back on the clock. And like the 10th pick there is talent here. In fact I'd say there's better talent historically selected here than at the 10th pick. Specifically with the likes of Eddie Gaven taken here. And besides him you have solid pros like Bobby Convey (forget his time here for a second and look at hi time with DC, Reading, and the US national team. Also the likes of Jose Burciaga, Chris Wingert, and Nathan Sturgis, who have all carved out decent pro careers. Last year's pick, Marlon Hairston was a consistent contributor for the Colorado Rapids in 2014.

20th pick
1996 - Ricci Greenwood - CLB
1997 - Tom Presthus - DC
1998 - Tom Hardy - KC
1999 - Tom Poltl - COL
2000 - Keyeno Thomas - COL
2001 - Eddie Robinson - SJ
2002 - Jeff Matteo - CLB
2003 - Ricky Lewis - LA
2004 - Sumed Ibrahim - CHI
2005 - Marcus Storey - CLB
2006 - Brian Plotkin - CHI
2007 - Josh Tudela - LA
2008 - George Josten - CLB
2009 - Baggio Husidić - CHI
2010 - Olukorede Aiyegbusi - KC
2011 - Michael Tetteh - SEA
2012 - Callum Mallace - MTL
2013 - Ryan Hollingshead - DAL
2014 - Thomas McNamara - CHV

This location has more misses than hits, but a few players that have been contributors for a year or two, including former KC player, Korede Aiyegbusi and Baggio Husidic, who returned to MLS last year and was a consistent performer for LA as they won MLS Cup. The class of this pick is probably Eddie Robinson who had a good long career with the San Jose Earthquakes and Houston Dynamo over the years. Unfortunately then you have he likes of Tom Hardy, Ricky Lewis, and Michael Tetteh. Last year's number 20 pick, Thomas McNamara looked to be a solid pick up for Chivas USA before he tore his ACL and missed the rest of the season.

30th pick
1996 - Todd Miller - CLB
1997 - Brandon Leib - DC
1998 - Joe Franchino - LA
1999 - Andrew Parrish - DAL
2000 - Kerry Zavagnin - KC
2001 - Kevin Adams - CLB
2002 - Sam Forko - NY
2003 - Tim Glowienka - NY
2004 - Lindon Pecorelli - SJ
2005 - Victor Arbelaez - SJ
2006 - Ray Burse - DAL
2007 - Steven Curfman - RSL
2008 - Mike Zaher - TOR
2009 - Paul Gerstenberger - CLB
2010 - Steven Beitashour - SJ
2011 - Tyler Lassiter - NY
2012 - Cyprian Hedrick - KC
2013 - Yazid Atouba - CHI
2014 - Mamadou Diouf - VAN

Reall, this pick comes down to just three players, Joe Franchino and Kerry Zavagnin both had solid MLS careers, and both made appearances for the national team. The third is a more recent pick, Steve Beitashour, who has turned out to be a good MLS player and went to the World Cup with Iran. The rest of the 30th pick has really not done much at the MLS level. So expecting much out of this is a stretch.

53rd pick
2000 - Pablo Gentile - MIA
2001 - Eric Pogue - NE
2002 - PASS - DC
2003 - Kevin Friedland - KC
2004 - Alan Gordon - LA
2005 - Brett Rodriguez - SJ
2006 - Joe Vide - NY
2007 - Jarrod Smith- TOR
2008 - Rauwshan McKenzie - KC
2009 - Henry Kalungi - COL
2010 - Joseph Nane - TOR
2011 - Scott Gordon - DAL
2012 - Karl Woszczynski - CHI
2013 - Adam Jahn - SJ
2014 - Joey Dillon - RSL

This pick actually has a few players that have been able to hang around MLS. The biggest of these names is probably Alan Gordon, who continues to play in MLS and has scored over 40 goals in MLS play over the course of his career. Rauwshan McKenzie and Joseph Nane have hung around MLS for a few years as well. And Adam Jahn had a successful rookie year with San Jose before being loaned to Sacramento in 2014. Overall though I wouldn't expect a lot from this pick long term.

73rd pick
2005 - Noah Palmer - RSL
2006 - Lawson Vaughn - CHV
2007 - Osei Telesford - CHI
2008 - Tino Nuñez - RSL
2011 - Joe Anderson - VAN
2012 - Pablo Punyed - KC
2013 - Kevin Olali - SEA
2014 - Nikita Kotlov - POR

Very little available from Sporting KC's last pick. Lawson Vaughn had a successful career, but pretty much the rest of the names are forgettable. Pablo Punyed was back with Sporting in preseason this past year, and had a very successful campaign in Iceland, winning the title and winning a few rounds in the Europa League before falling to Inter Milan.

So historically, Sporting KC won't get a game changer in the draft, but they should be able to get some talent that can contribute to the team in year won, depending on which of their six draft picks they keep. The possibility of bringing the Besler brothers together is certainly something fun to think about.