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A look back at the 2012 MLS Draft

AndrewWengerDraft (ISI)

When people look back at the 2012 MLS Draft, they will surely look at it as the first draft that didn't feature a multitude of trades. What they might wind up really recalling of the draft, however, is the amount of solid MLS talent that was available.

There were no draft pick trades in this year's draft, but teams still came away with some good talent throughout the league after picking from one of the deeper draft classes in recent memory. No, there wasn't the star power or high upside talent of previous years, but there was definitely a strong collection of players who should go on to have solid MLS careers.

In cased you missed them, here are my MLS Draft Team-by-Team grades, as well as some other juicy tidbits from the MLS Draft.

Give those stories a read and feel free to tell us what you thought of the draft. Happy with your team's picks? Disappointed with who they passed up?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. You were way too kind to San Jose, they completely blew it. Garza is not an elite player he did not warrant a #6 pick… there were way better players still on the board. Garza only had 8 goals as a forward last season that is horrible for a college forward getting drafted in the top 6. What a mess.

    And a keeper in the 2nd round when they already have Busch and Bingham makes zero sense. They should have just waited until the supplemental draft.

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  2. I hear you dude. A lot of people rated the Rapids pretty low because they didn’t pick up Dwyer or Martinez. But the Rapids didn’t need Dwyer or Martinez.

    If you ask me, the Rapids should have gotten the same grade as Dallas. Dallas saw a need at Centerback, and took the best prospect there. Rapids had a need out wide, so they took the most versatile guy available in that position.

    Very happy with the Cascio signing, he will be able to contribute right away as Jamie Smith is recovering from injury and Sanna Nyassi was lost to Montreal.

    If the Rapids had picked Martinez, I bet dudes would be criticizing them for not going for Cascio…

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  3. I’m happy with the Rapids’ pick of Tony Cascio. Wing depth was the biggest need. He was one of the best fits for the team that I thought might be available at #14. He will play as a winger, backing up and providing cover for Jaimie Smith and Brian Mullan.

    Ives criticized the Rapids for not picking up Dom Dwyer or Enzo Martinez, but the Rapids don’t need another forward, and Cascio played forward at UConn, anyway.

    Martinez is a GA, but the negative I’ve read about him is “small, and one-footed,” which means he’s perfect for RSL 😀 For whatever reason, Pareja didn’t rate Martinez, though he could have been good depth.

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  4. Moving Jalil Anibaba out to rightback is a mistake. Hopefully the Fire are planning on using Anibaba/Berry as a pairing in central defense.

    Anibaba isn’t a pure RB nor does it suit him, frankly.

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  5. RBNY had one pick and they filled their most glaring need. How does that rate such a low grade. The fact that they traded away a draft pick in the DeRosario fiasco doesn’t mean they drafted poorly. Conversely, if Dax hasd a great year in 2012, does that make this great draft for them????????????????

    I give this piece a “D” grade.

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  6. Agree that RBNY didn’t have a great draft, but the guy they did get seems like a good pick for #31. Isn’t it a bit unfair to lower their draft grade because of the pre-draft decision to trade the first-round pick? Granted, that decision deserves lots of criticism, but shouldn’t you judge a draft based on the picks that a team makes, and not on a pick the team no longer even has?

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  7. No way is the Fire’s grade an A if they actually drafted the same guy with their first and second pick like you show!! 🙂

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  8. Maybe neither guy is good enough to replace Gonzalez and Juninho? I mean those were two of the best players in all of MLS, so I’m not seeing how late draft picks will fix those holes…

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  9. I’ve heard from others that Duran was the reason why Polak had such a good college career. I don’t know if that’s true but the combine showed exactly that. Polak was consistantly beat and Duran was the best defender overall.

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  10. Polak was solid all season for Creighton, so what if he had an off performance at the combine. Ives has downgraded him significantly because of a couple of performances. Its obvious that other teams began rating him lower because of his poor showing at the combine but he was consistently one of the best backs in the NCAA.

    The Revs stole him.

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  11. Yeah, it’s definitely a challenge to rate these drafts. I looked back at some of the old grades prior to this draft and found that Ives gave Houston an F for their 2008 draft for not trading up for a new goalkeeper and drafting two players who would struggle to make the team. The old goalkeeper? Pat Onstad, who led the league in GAA and Houston had the best defense in the league. One of the two picks? Geoff Cameron, two-time All-Star and one-time Best XI in 4 seasons.

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  12. someone needs to compile all these draft grades (ives/matt doyle/etc etc) collate ’em and put ’em in a time capsule to be opened in 10 years to see who was more correct. grades are all over the map (comparing with others).

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  13. Only real question I had on your grading was the Galaxy….. a C? They lost Gonzales and Juninho and picked up each time the best pospect in that position (CB and a defensive minded CM). Just curious.

    I couldn’t really care either way. As an RSL fan, I am stoked we got and amazing talent in Enzo who is ALSO a GA. SS 2012!

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  14. Wow, a D for The Crew. The nice thing is that since the HG signings they could play conservative with the later picks. It’ll be nice to see what they do with Perry since he played on the youth Crew team that Bliss coached.

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