The Dynamo and the Superdraft: Missed opportunities to build a winner.

There is one clear-cut spot that the Dynamo front office has to improve: Finding gems in the SuperDraft.  It's a place to find young talent that's cheap, and....just like in other drafts from other leagues, if you know how to use your assets you can build a competitive team.  The Dynamo have not done that.  In fact, since the Dynamo selected Will Bruin with the 11th pick in 2011, the only player they've drafted that's had any sort of impact on their roster is Sam Junqua.  Some played a handful of games before being shipped out after a year (Cochran, Holland, Steeves). Most never made an appearance.  While the Superdraft is ALWAYS a crapshoot, what hurts is looking back players that were on the board that are currently All-Star Caliber players when the Dynamo made their selection.  That's not even to mention the players that have become role players, bench guys, or guys that simply fill in from time to time.  With only one Home Grown (Memo), and nothing from the draft for a decade, the Dynamo front office (more importantly their scouting department) has failed miserably in two vital building blocks to creating a quality roster on a budget.  

While I don't agree with everyone that Matt Jordan is THE reason the Dynamo have been soo bad over the last decade, I will say this: he should probably be fired for his draft performance alone.  The Dynamo haven't drafted well since Kinnear was roaming the sidelines here, and a decade of pulling absolutely nothing out of the draft has completely killed them.  With no draft hits, and nothing coming out of the academy, the Dynamo have had to result to veterans willing to come here on free transfers.  While I love Maynor Figueroa, convincing a 36-year-old to come play for the league minimum (which is less than a teacher in HISD makes) probably isn't going to make you a viable long-term winner.  If you look at teams like Portland, Seattle, and even newcomers like Atlanta, Minnesota, and Nashville have had some hits in the draft.  Austin looks like they have a pretty solid player in Daniel Periera, in their first-ever pick.  And if we are comparing teams in Texas, the team in Frisco has a really long list of SuperDraft hits to go along with their productive academy.  

Player Taken						Players Missed On:
Drafts	MLS MInutes Played		Round	Pick			Round	Pick:	By:
2014	1887	A.J. Cochran	1	16		Tommy McNamara	2	20	Chivas
	462	Mark Sherrod	2	32		Chris Duvall	2	22	NY Red Bulls
	0	Michael Lisch	3	54		Daniel Lovitz	2	24	Toronto FC
						Jared Watts	2	33	Colorado Rapids
						Aaron Long	2	36	Portland Timbers
total	2349
2015	31	Zach Steinberger	1	8		Tim Parker	1	13	Vancouver Whitecaps
	0	Oumar Ballo	2	30		Axel Sjöberg	1	14	Colorado Rapids
	364	Rob Lovejoy	2	36		Christian Roldan	1	16	Seattle Sounders
	90	Taylor Hunter	3	49		Amadou Dia	1	20	Sporting KC
						Tyler Miller	2	33	Seattle Sounders
	485
2016		Traded to Philedelphia-> drafted Fabian Hebers	1	6		Richie Layea	1	7	Orlando City
	0	Ivan Magalhães	2	26		Andrew Tarbell	1	8	San Jose Earthquakes
	0	T.J. Casner	3	47		Tsubasa Endoh	1	9	Toronto FC
						Tony Alfaro	2	27	Seattle Sounders
						Matt Turner	undrafted
	0
2017		Traded to Timbers for $100k in allocation money,->draft Jeremy Ebobise	1	4		Jackson Yuell	1	6	San Jose Earthquakes
	25	Joe Holland	1	10		Julian Gressel	1	8	Atlanta United
	0	Jake McGuire	2	30		Chris Odoi-Atsem	1	12	D. C. United
	0	Danilo Radjen	2	36		Jacori Hayes	1	18	FC Dallas
	0	Robby Sagel	4	70		Nick DePuy	1	19	Montreal Impact
						Stefan Cleveland	2	26	Chicago Fire
						Shamit Shome	2	41	Montreal Impact
						Brandt Bronico	3	47	Chicago Fire
						Jack Elliot	4	67	Philadelphia Union
	25
2018	0	Michael Nelson	1	20		Alex Roldan	1	22	Seattle Sounders
	28	Mac Steeves	2	43		Daniel Musovski	2	30	San Jose Earthquakes
	0	Pablo Aguilar	3	59		Tom Barlow	2	39	NY Red Bulls
	0	Sheldon Sullivan	3	66		Luis Argudo	3	67	Columbus Crew
	0	Manny Padilla	4	89
	28
2019	1043	Sam Junqua	1	8		Tajon Buchanan	1	9	New England Revolution
	0	Andrew Samuels	2	33		DeJuan Jones	1	11	New England Revolution
	0	Brad Dunwell	3	56		Chase Gaspar	1	15	Minnesota United
						Kamal Miller	2	27	Orlando City
						Hassani Dotson	2	31	Minnesota United
						Amar Sejdič	2	34	Montreal Impact
	1043
2020	0	Garrett Mclaughlin	1	8		Alistair Johnston	1	11	Nashville SC
	0	Luka Prpa	2	34		Tanner Beason	1	12	San Jose Earthquakes
	0	Kyle Edwards	4	84		Joey Dezart	2	31	Orlando City
						Jon Bell	2	38	San Jose Earthquakes
	0					Zach McGraw	3	68	Portland Timbers
	3930

I see it on Twitter every year, the Eurosnobs mocking the MLS SuperDraft. You can absolutely build a winner through the draft if you know what you're doing.  Take New England for example.  Andrew Farrell, #1 in 2013.  Brandon Bye was taken #8 in the 2018 Draft.  In 2019, they got both Tajon Buchanon and DuJuan Jones, and they selected Henry Kessler #6 in 2020.  Add to that the fact that Matt Turner was signed as an undrafted free agent out of college.  Matt Polster for $363,000 from Rangers, Charles Gil for $1.65mil and you have a pretty solid lineup for not much money.  Of course, it also helps if you have $11mil to throw at Buska and Bou in one offseason. The draft has built the backbone of their roster, and transfers built the glitz.  And before you scream "It's one season!" or "It's Bruce Arena!" realize the amount of starters and key players they got straight from the draft.  DeJuan Jones, drafted #11 in 2019, has played almost the same number of MLS minutes (3,804) as all the Dynamo players drafted from 2014-2021....combined (3,930).  New England had gotten a lot of flack for the way things had been run in recent years, but one place that has set them up for being first in the Eastern Conference is the draft.

Seattle got both Roldans (Christian - 2015, Alex - 2018) through the SuperDraft.  In 2015, they traded a conditional first-round pick to Toronto for Stefan Frei.  The pick ended up being involved in a myriad of trades, resulting in Colorado getting Axel Sjöberg.  Seattle, in effect, came away with Christian Roldan and Stefan Frei in the first round of 2015.  That's a draft that makes any MLS teams for the better.  In 2016, Seattle signed the winner of the MAC Hermann Trophy and Pac-12 player of the year Jordan Morris to the biggest Home Grown Player contract at the time. They got Stefan Cleveland for a conditional first-round pick in 2020.  Does Seattle splash money on high talent attackers?   Yes. Raul Ruidiaz and Nicolas Lodeiro came with a nice price tag, but Seattle has also pulled some really nice players out of the draft. You add the draft, homegrowns, and the ability to go spend $3-$7 mil on a player every year, and you've got a consistent winner.  The main reason is if you are drafting and producing Homegrowns, you can spend that money on one player instead of 5.  Seattle has provided a roadmap to do this and has done it better than anyone.

In 2017, Atlanta United hit on both Miles Robinson (2nd pick) and Julian Gressel (8th pick). The next year, the found John Gallagher who made 16 appearances scoring 4 goals before they got $225,000 in Allocation money from Austin for him.  He's made 7 starts for Austin this year.

Minnesota United has landed two starters (Hassani Dotson, Chase Gaspar), and also picked up Mason Toye (7th overall) in 2018. Toye was flipped for $600,000 in General Allocation Money.  Minnesota may have given up on Toye a little too early, as he's scored 7 goals in 799 minutes so far this year, and he's only 22 years old.

Philadelphia traded midfielder Cristian Maidana and forward Andrew Wenger to us for an undisclosed amount of general allocation money, targeted allocation money, and the #6 pick in 2016. Philadelphia used that pick to snag Fabian Herbers.  While Herbers hasn't had a spectacular career, he's a solid MLS vet who's logged over 5,600 minutes between Philadelphia and Chicago.  Maidana played one season for us before leaving on a free.  He pitched in 3 goals and 4 assists in 1700 minutes. While Maidana was the player we were after, Wenger made a longer impact. Wenger made 56 starts (75 appearances) and plugged in 4800 minutes tallying 10 goals and 5 assists.   Wenger was out of pro soccer by 2018, but Herbers is still plugging along at Chicago.

In 2017 Portland gave us #10 selection in the 2017 SuperDraft, an international roster slot for the 2017 season, and $100,000 in general allocation money in exchange for #4 pick, and got Jeremy Ebobisse.  While the speedster has been inconsistent at times, he logged 26 goals and 6 assists and made 54 starts for Portland.  His 89 appearances and 5,144 minutes in MLS are more than every Dynamo draft pick going all the way back to 2011.  He could have looked really nice with Quioto, Elis, Erick Torres, and Mauro Monatas in Wilmer Cabrera's system.  Instead, we picked up Joe Holland who accumulated a whopping 25 MLS minutes and was out of professional soccer after 4 years.  Holland last played for Birmingham F.C. in USL during the 2019 season, amassing 474 minutes over 15 appearances.

What will Ethan Bartlow be?  Who knows, but with signing Parker and Hadebe through the next three years he won't be anything important here.....unless he can play full back.  Bartlow looks like he has upside, but to date hasn't made an appearance for anyone, or played a single professional minute.  One thing is for sure, the Dynamo need to find direction.  Honestly, they need a scouting department overhaul. I don't know how you go a decade without drafting a single viable player, but the Dynamo have managed to do it.  In today's MLS, can you build a championship team through the draft alone?  No, absolutely not.   However, there is a lot of talent picked up in the draft every year, especially in recent years.  I wrote earlier about how the front office lacks creativity, this is part of it.  The Dynamo need to be able to mine talent from every available resource, and ever since Kinnear left Houston, this has been the worst talent acquisition resource.  The draft has actually been worse than our academy if you can believe it.  If we are ever to be anything here, we need to fix both.

Thanks again for reading, 

#HoldItDown and stay #ForeverOrange.