Possible 2008 SuperDraft Lineup

I love it when I track something for a while like this and then someone else beats me to the punch. But that is good and done because even with tracking trades and allocations and what nots around the MLS, you always seem to miss out at least one or two deals that slipped under the radar. So it is alright that I was beat the punch on this kind of post. I wasn’t exactly planning on releasing this until a week or two from now because I was waiting on the trade/deal/transfer deadlines to all pass and to be able to double check some trades.

I will give the hat tip to Climbing the Ladder, a great blog of stats and information by the way that is really useful and interesting. Also, I will kinda use some of the pretext info that he used over there just to keep things in order and all. But again, check out that site if you haven’t before, loads of topics and very well researched in my mind.

Anyways, just some info to keep in mind when thinking of the draft. This may not be the actual list that will go down in next springs draft but it could be pretty darn close.

• The final order of the eight clubs that reach the playoffs is determined by their exit in the playoffs. Say Chivas wins the Cup this season, they will draft in the 14 spot and the club that is runner-up will be in lucky number 13 and so on and so on. Tiebreakers are also based on regular season performance for the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, the better you did the lower you will draft in other words.

For this projected order we will go on the current standings and order of what the playoffs should turn out to be and having the better clubs advance.

• Also, six of these picks are conditional and actually mention a certain round (which really helps figure some things out)

MLS SuperDraft Projected Order:

Round 1:

1. San Jose Earthquakes
2. Los Angeles Galaxy
3. Real Salt Lake
4. FC Dallas
5. Columbus Crew
6. Colorado Rapids
7. Chicago Fire
8. Kansas City Wizards
9. New York Red Bulls
10. FC Dallas
11. Toronto FC
12. New England Revolution
13. Real Salt Lake
14. Toronto FC

Round 2:

15. San Jose Earthquakes
16. Kansas City Wizards
17. Real Salt Lake
18. New York Red Bulls
19. Columbus Crew
20. FC Dallas
21. Chicago Fire
22. Los Angeles Galaxy
23. Los Angeles Galaxy
24. FC Dallas
25. Los Angeles Galaxy
26. Los Angeles Galaxy
27. Kansas City Wizards
28. DC United

Round 3:

29. San Jose Earthquakes
30. Los Angeles Galaxy
31. Real Salt Lake
32. Toronto FC
33. Los Angeles Galaxy
34. DC United
35. Chicago Fire
36. Kansas City Wizards
37. Colorado Rapids
38. Toronto FC
39. Houston Dynamo
40. New England Revolution
41. Chivas USA
42. DC United

Round 4:

43. San Jose Earthquakes
44. DC United
45. FC Dallas
46. New York Red Bulls
47. Columbus Crew
48. Colorado Rapids
49. Chicago Fire
50. Kansas City Wizards
51. Los Angeles Galaxy
52. FC Dallas
53. Houston Dynamo
54. New England Revolution
55. Chivas USA
56. Chicago Fire

Lots of notes to take away from this:

• Dallas, Toronto and RSL all have two first round picks
• Houston, DC and Chivas have none
• LA has a lot of picks in the first couple rounds…7 to be exact…so I expect a lot of trades really from them unless they are (finally) looking for a youth movement to improve their club
• Chivas and Houston don’t draft until late, talking third and forth round and they each only have a pair of picks. Partly due to trades during the season this year. Again, this could all easily change with a couple trades for salary cap reasons in the off season

Tracking the trade movement for the picks (please if you see one that is missing or wrong, let me know):

Round 1:

• Dallas has Toronto’s pick (Mulrooney trade)
• Toronto has Houston’s pick (Mulrooney trade)
• Toronto has Chivas’s pick (Nagamura trade)
• RSL has the second highest of Toronto’s pick (Cunningham trade)
• Toronto has DC’s pick (Dyachenko trade)

Round 2:

• New York has Toronto’s pick (Wynne trade)
• Los Angeles has Houston’s pick (Jaqua trade)
• Kansas City has Los Angeles’s pick (Thomas trade, conditional)
• Dallas has Colorado’s pick (Vanney trade)
• Los Angeles has Kansas City’s pick (Hartman trade)
• Los Angeles has New York’s pick (Wolyniec trade)
• Los Angeles has New England’s pick (allocation/1st rounder trade)

Round 3:

• Toronto has Colorado’s pick (presumably one of the two listed next (Casey trade))
• Colorado has New York’s pick (Freeman trade)
• Colorado has Dallas’s pick (Vanney trade)
• DC has Colorado’s pick (Prideaux trade)
• Los Angeles has Columbus’s trade (Miglioranzi trade, conditional)

Round 4:

• Los Angeles has New York’s pick (Quaranta trade, conditional)
• Dallas has Real’s pick (4th rounder trade)
• New York has Toronto’s pick (Ibrahim trade)

Other deals/plus trades for the Supplemental draft:

• Chicago has DC’s pick (Monteiro trade, conditional)
• Kansas City has Chivas’s pick (Zotinca trade, conditional: 2nd or 3rd round)
• DC has Los Angeles’ pick (Quaranta trade, conditional)
• Colorado has Real’s 1st round Supplemental pick (Wingert trade)
• New England has Dallas’s 1st round Supplemental pick (salary cap considerations trade)
• Chicago has Columbus’s 4th round Supplemental pick (Griffin trade)

Again, a lot of this could change in the next few months. Deals always seem to happen but this is a good possibly outlook at what could be the draft order. I highly doubt that LA will have that many picks and that DC, Chivas and Houston will have that few picks. But again, a lot could change that in the next few months with more big name signings or trades and whatever else could possibly happen in the winter transfer window (not to mention the expansion draft before this draft). Also, again, the hat tip to Climbing the Ladder for beating me to the punch on all of this, I was only missing a couple things that he had so good work.

This will be something that will be tracked up until the draft itself I hope. See a hole in it or a missing deal…let me know!