Looking at Sporting KC's Draft Picks

We're less than two days away from the 2016 MLS Superdraft. Sporting KC has three picks, just one of them in the first two rounds, the 11th overall pick. The club also has the 52nd and 72nd picks as well. To look at what Kansas City could be getting with those picks, below is a list of players who were taken at each spot in every MLS draft so far.


11th
1996 - Scott Lamphear - NY
1997 - Ross Paule - COL
1998 - Tyrone Marshall - COL
1999 - Evan Whitfield - CHI
2000 - Sasha Victorine - LA
2001 - Isaias Bardales - LA
2002 - Daouda Kanté - DC
2003 - Brian Carroll - DC
2004 - Leonard Griffin - CHI
2005 - Scott Sealy - KC
2006 - Leandro de Oliveira - NE
2007 - Bryan Arguez - DC
2008 - Roger Espinoza - KC
2009 - Jeremy Hall - NY
2010 - David Estrada - SEA
2011 - Will Bruin - HOU
2012 - Matt Hedges - DAL
2013 - Dillon Powers - COL
2014 - Patrick Mullins - NE
2015 - Skylar Thomas - TOR



Up and down the 11th pick there has been plenty of talent through the years, from the likes of Tyrone Marshall and Sasha Victorine to more recent successes like Will Bruin, Matt Hedges and Dillion Powers, with the likes of Roger Espinoza and Scott Sealy sprinkled in between. So there is certainly the chance to find some good talent with this pick. Certainly the more recent history has been good with four of the last five (Skylar Thomas being the lone exception still being consistent contributors to their MLS club. Unlike Houston, Dallas, and Colorado when they made their selections though I don't think KC is looking for an immediate high impact guy in the team for 2016.

52nd
2000 - Ian Russell - SJ
2001 - Teofilo Cubillas Jr. - MIA
2002 - PASS - NE
2003 - Andy Rosenband - DAL
2004 - Matthew Haefner - CLB
2005 - Kevin Wilson - DAL
2006 - Anthony Noriega - KC
2007 - Eric Ebert - HOU
2008 - Tony Schmitz - DC
2009 - Jokull Elisabetarson - CHI
2010 - Ofori Sarkodie - KC
2011 - Jarad Van Schaik - RSL
2012 - Nick Blake - TOR
2013 - Christian Duke - KC
2014 - Aohdan Quinn - PHI
2015 - Anthony Manning - POR


Top to bottom there is really only one player on this list that made any real contribution at the MLS level, and that's Ian Russell who appeared over 130 times for the San Jose Earthquakes. Other than that the rest of these picks combined are full of players who didn't make much of an impact at the top level, but the selection of Christian Duke points out that the player could be useful at the USL level.

72nd
2000 - PASS - DC
2001 - Matthew Cross - KC
2005 - Drew Cavanagh - DAL
2006 - Daniel Paladini - LA
2007 - Erasmo Solorzano - CHV
2008 - PASS - TOR
2011 - Brayan Martinez - DAL
2012 - Jason Banton - SEA
2013 - Marc Cintron - NY
2014 - PASS - LA
2015 - Craig Nitti - VAN

If you thought the 52nd pick was bad, the 72nd gets worse. Again there is only one real contributor from this group, Daniel Paladini, who played close to 70 MLS games in his career. And spent just as much time in the USA's lower divisions. Like the 52nd pick, whoever KC selects here would be a prime candidate to go to the Swope Park Rangers.