Rapids Add Three More Giants In Second Day Of Draft

Today was the second two rounds of the draft.  The Rapids had no picks in the 3rd round but had 3 picks in the 4th and final round.  They had their natural 5th pick, the 16th pick in the trade that sent Rivero to Chivas USA, and the 21st pick from RBNY.  It was a conditional Supplemental Draft pick from the Andre Akpan trade but with the elimination of the Supplemental Draft there were two picks tacked on to the final round of the draft for us and Portland due to prior trades.

Just a reminder, on Thursday we picked a 6'7" and a 6'6" defender.

With our first pick today we took Dominique Badji, striker, out of Boston University.  Badji is 6' tall and came to BU from Senegal.  Reports are he dominated all the physical tests at the combine but needs work on his technical skills.

For our second pick we took 6'4" defender Matt Jeffery out of Monmouth.  Jeffery is the two-time defending MAAC defensive player of the year.

Our final pick was Brandon Fricke from Butler University.  He's a 6'1" defender that has already faced off against our first round pick Axel Sjoberg in college play.

So total in the draft we took 5 players, all 6' tall or more, 4 of which are defenders.  If we get beaten on a defensive header in the box this year somebody is going to have some explaining to do.

Here's an updated roster.  I've now separated out the unsigned players and include two (Alvarez and VDC) who's options weren't picked up and who's names have not come up this offseason, but who still appear on the Rapids roster, despite other players in their situation being removed.  I think that's an indicator that they've at least been invited to camp to earn a contract, or possibly that they're already working on a new contract with the team.

(* = international):

Goalkeepers:
John Berner
Clint Irwin
Zac MacMath

Defenders:
Marc Burch
Bobby Burling
Michael Harrington
Drew Moor
John Neeskens
Shane O'Neill

Midfielders:
Sam Cronin
Marlon Hairston
Dillon Powers
Marcelo Sarvas*
Dillon Serna
Jared Watts

Forwards:
Deshorn Brown*
Caleb Calvert
Charles Eloundou*
Vicente Sanchez*
Gabriel Torres*

Unsigned:
D Brandon Fricke
D Joseph Greenspan (on Naval duty through 2017 probably)
D Matt Jeffrey
D Zat Knight*
D Axel Sjoberg*
D Grant Van de Casteele
M Carlos Alvarez
M Nick LaBrocca
F Dominique Badji*