Rapids History By The Numbers: Recap

So after going over more than 350 player number assignments in Rapids history we have the complete list of the best to wear each number..  Here's the full recap of each player who's best at their number, the years they played in it, and links to the writeups.

#1 Joe Cannon 2004-2006
#2 Nick LaBrocca 2013-2015
#3 Drew Moor 2009-2015, 2020
#4 Jeff Larentowicz 2010-2012
#5 Kyle Beckerman 2002-2007
#6 Sam Cronin 2015-2017
#7 John Spencer 2001-2004
#8 Dillon Powers 2013-2017
#9 Conor Casey 2009-2012
#10 Carlos Valderrama 2001-2002
#11 Terry Cooke 2006-2009
#12 Matt Kmosko 1996-1997
#13 Wolde Harris 1998-1999, 2005
#14 Omar Cummings 2007-2012
#15 Chris Carrieri 2001-2003
#16 Jason Moore 2000-2001
#17 Marcelo Balboa 1996-2001
#18 Matt Pickens 2009-2013
#19 Chris Henderson 1996-1998, 2002-2005
#20 Mark Chung 2002-2005
#21 Julian Baudet 2009-2010
#22 Marvell Wynne 2010-2014
#23 Colin Clark 2006-2010
#24 Bouna Coundoul 2006-2007
#25 Pablo Mastroeni 2002-2013
#26 Deshorn Brown 2013-2015
#27 Kosuke Kimura 2007-2012
#28 Sam Nicholson 2018-2020
#29 Scott Palguta 2009-2012
#30 Gabriel Torres 2013
#31 Clint Irwin 2013, 2019
#32 Jack McBean 2018
#33 Matt Okoh 2000
#34 Tyrone Marshall 1998, 2011-2012
#35 Rob Valentino 2009
#36 Shane O'Neill 2012
#37 Edu 2012
#39 Harrison Henao 2012
#44 Axel Sjoberg 2015-2019
#45 Josh Gatt 2015
#50 William Yarbrough 2020
#52 Braian Galvan 2020
#55 Danny Mwanga 2013-2014
#57 Carlos Alvarez 2014-2015
#77 Diego Serna 2005
#90 Mohammed Saeid 2017
#94 Marlon Hairston 2014-2018
#99 Andre Shinyashiki 2019-2020

Not surprisingly eleven of them are from the Cup winning season in 2010, with an equal number from 2009.  The big surprise is thirteen from 2012, though when you start looking at the singles & doubles you see that year is getting a lot of help from numbers that had no other choice (Edu, Henao, Marshall, etc.).  The weakest year is 1999, with only Balboa and Harris, but that was apparently enough to get us to the USOC final that year.

The big missing name from this list is Paul Bravo, who appears on most of the top 10 lists in the record book.  He was just unlucky to play in the same number as probably the third best player in team history, Conor Casey.  Other notable names missing are Ross Paule, Adrian Paz, and Dominque Badji, while Tim Howard is the biggest keeper missing, though keepers have it hard because they all wear #1 pretty much, so they have limited chances to make a list like this.

I hope you've enjoyed the trip through Rapids history over the last couple months of lockdown.  Its starting to sound like MLS is trying to get their plans for playing in home markets out there in the near future, so there may be some discussion to be had about the current team soon.  We'll see how the ongoing MLB debacle affects that though.

Rapids History By The Numbers: Singles & Doubles Part 2

And we finally reach the end of this trip through history.  The last group of eight numbers.  Six singles and two doubles.

#50
Andrew Dykstra (2018)
William Yarbrough (2020)

A pair of backup goalkeepers.  Dykstra never played a league match for the Rapids.  Yarbrough has played the last two.  Makes the decision as to which one was the best Rapid in #50 fairly easy.

#52
Braian Galvan (2020)

Only one appearance so far, but high hopes for him in the future.

#55
Danny Mwanga (2013-2014)

7 starts and 19 appearances over two seasons, recording one assist.  Not exactly great numbers for a forward.

#57
Carlos Alvarez (2014-2015)

Picked up after Chivas USA folded, he made 11 appearances in 2 seasons and I can't remember any of them.

#77
Diego Serna (2005)

Signed in August, subbed in to one regular season game and one playoff game for a grand total of 24 minutes, recording one shot and getting one yellow card.

#90
Mohammed Saeid (2017)
Enzo Martinez (2018)

Two one-season midfielders.  Martinez was a pickup from Charlotte who impressed in preseason.  Saeid was part of the Burch/Cronin/Gatt/Saeid debacle, about the only good piece of that trade.  Enzo made 22 appearances with 15 starts, picking up 3 assists.  Mohammed made 29 appearances after the trade, 27 of them starts, scoring a goal and putting up 4 assists.  He also became a bit of a fan favorite.  He was released at the end of the season to return back to Sweden to be closer to family.  I think he beats out Martinez for best #90.

#94
Marlon Hairston (2014-2018)

Maybe not as good as the fans made him out to be, but a decent player who struggled to find his position.  Best as a wingback in a 5-3-2 but the Rapids didn't play that very often during is time.  Not defensive enough to play fullback, not offensive enough to play right midfielder.

#99
Andre Shinyashiki (2019-2020)

As we all know Andre was last year's rookie of the Year.  Hopefully we see more from him once things get back to normal.

And that's it.  That's every number used by the Rapids officially over 25 seasons.  Sometime this weekend I'll post a recap with links to all the choices and some random trivia.  Next week we'll get back to looking at the current team.

Rapids History By The Numbers: Singles & Doubles Part 1

Ok, we're getting to the bottom of the barrel.  Of the 15 numbers left that have been used, 12 of them were used by only one player, the other 3 by just two.  Not much to break down or analyze there.  So we're going to split the remainder into two parts and finish the series this week.

#34
Tyrone Marshall (1998, 2011-2012)

Marshall was originally drafted by the Rapids back in 1998, and after one season and one appearance with them left on a grand circle tour of the league, playing for 14 seasons and 4 other teams before ending his career with 2 more seasons in Colorado.  He was a regular starter in 2011 and then started half the games in 2012.  He was a solid defender that made a career out of tough tackles and a never ending work rate.

#35
Rob Valentino (2009)

Valentino was drafted as a defender by New England in 2008, made one USOC appearance for them before being traded to the Rapids in may of '09 for Nico Colaluca.  He never appeared for the Rapids in a league game and asked for his release at the end of the season.

#36
Shane O'Neill (2012)

Homegrown defender Shane O'Neill was signed in 2012 and played one game before switching to number 27 the next season.

#37
Edu (2012)

The infamous Edu signing.  Brought in as a attacking signing in April of the season he managed just 3 starts in 9 appearances, never scoring.  He's up there as one of the worst recent international signings by the team.

#38
Nobody

38 is the lowest number that has never officially been used by a Rapids player.  Early on I'm sure it was just a coincidence but since the founding of Centennial 38 in 2013 I wonder if the team isn't intentionally keeping the number from being used.  Certainly at this point it would likely only be used by either a major signing or a fan favorite.  Say somebody like drew Moor announcing he will play his final season in 38 as a tribute to the fans or something.  I can't see a random draftee picking the number or being allowed to wear it.

#39
Harrison Henao (2012)

A loanee defensive midfielder brought in from Colombia.  He made one appearance before being released from his loan midseason to free up a roster spot.

#44
Gale Agbossoumonde (2014)
Axel Sjoberg (2015-2019)

This is an easy decision.  Gale made 0 appearances for the club, the big Swede was a MLS best XI member and placed third in Defender of the Year voting in 2016, eventually making 88 appearances for the club and becoming a fan favorite.

#45
Josh Gatt (2017)

Gatt was acquired as part of the disastrous Burch/Cronin/Saied/Gatt swap with Minnesota.  He managed 20 appearances and 11 starts, scoring 2 goals, before being released at the end of the season.

Rapids History By The Numbers: #33

We're at our final long list of the series.  After this the remaining numbers have only been worn by one or two players total.  33 does seem to be popular though with eight different players:

Matt Okoh (2000)
Ritchie Kotschau (2001)
Eugene Sepuya (2005)
Daniel Wasson (2006-2007)
Cesar Zambrano (2008)
Tony Cascio (2012)
German Mera (2013)
Jared Watts (2014-2017)

That's a real mixed bag.  Sepuya and Zambrano each made one appearance so they're out.  Mera only made 13 appearances, with only 6 starts and Kotschau arrived midyear and only made 11 (all starts).  He switched his number the next season.  I'll eliminate both of them as well.  That leaves us:

• Matt Okoh - Attacking midfielder that went to Regis Jesuit High and DU.  After bouncing around for a while he made it on the Rapids for a season before being traded to the Revs.  In that season he made 12 starts and 21 appearances, scoring 2 goals and racking up 6 assists.
• Daniel Wasson - Defensive midfielder that grew up in the Springs and went to the Air Force Academy and the University of Texas before being drafted by the Rapids.  He made 22 appearances over his two seasons, but only 9 starts, recording one goal.
• Tony Cascio - Winger that was a first round draft pick.  In his rookie season he made 29 appearances, with 18 starts.  He had 3 goals and 3 assists.  The next year he changed his number.
• Jared Watts - Defender that was a second round pick.  In 4 seasons, mostly under Pablo, he made 71 appearances with 61 starts, recording a goal and an assist.

Looking at that we can eliminate Wasson, considering he didn't do any more than Okoh or Cascio did.  Cascio played almost 1700 minutes in 2012, contributing to 6 goals.  Okoh played a little over 1000 minutes and contributed to 8 goals.  Hard to say Cascio deserves to be picked over Okoh given that.

Comparing that to Watts is difficult.  Watts started the majority of the games in the 2016 season, when we had the best defense in the league.  He also played a number of games for the 6th best defense in 2015.  The defense in 2014 and 2017 was woeful though.

In the end I'm going to go with Okoh, but i wouldn't disagree is people thought Jared Watts was the better choice.  Surprisingly there doesn't seem to be a picture of  Okoh in a Rapids uniform that doesn't belong to Getty Images.

Rapids History By The Numbers: #31 & #32

One roster note, right before the game  on Sunday the Rapids traded $200K in GAM next year, plus a possible $25K in GAM in 2022 to DC for an international slot for this year and next year.  That allowed them to roster Briain Galvan officially.  This is notably more than the reported $100k-$150K teams wanted from the Rapids at the beginning of last season when they made the decision to cut Gashi to get within the international limit instead of spending that much.  Now back to the history.

And that history is really getting into the weeds at this point.  We're going to cover two numbers again today, with some meh choices.  First at #31:

Sasha Gotsmanov (2005)
Steward Ceus (2009-2012)
Clint Irwin (2013, 2019)
Maynor Figueroa (2015)
Cody Mizell (2017)

This goes to Irwin pretty much by default.  Combined the other 4 made 15 appearances, less than Irwin made in 2013 alone, and 2013 was arguably Irwin's best year as a Rapid.  He had his most appearances, tied his most starts, and had his most shutouts.  He also had his best goals against average at 1.09 goals/game in his rookie season.

For #32 its not as obvious

Miguel Comminges (2011)
Brenton Griffiths (2013-2014)
Jack McBean (2018)
Collen Warner (2020)

4 starts for Comminges, 1 appearance for Griffiths, and Warner has yet to appear since he's only had one chance.  That leaves us with Jack McBean and his 22 appearances (13 starts) with 2 goals and an assist.  As frustrating as McBean was in 2018, that's better than anyone else who's worn 32.

Rapids History By The Numbers: #29 & #30

Before we get started, a slight update from the tournament.  Based on pictures the Rapids have posted and other sources it appears that every player, other than Kortne Ford (ongoing knee injury) and those already loaned out to USL sides, is in Florida.

Now, on to today's lists.  We're starting to crape the bottom of the barrel as we exit the 20's and get into numbers that aren't used very much.  First the group at 29:

Scott Garlick (2002)
Scott Palguta (2009-2012)
Kory Kindle (2013)
Caleb Calvert (2015-2018)
Matt Hundley (2019-2020)

Kindle never played in a league match and Hundley hasn't yet, so we can eliminate them.  Calvert only make 4 starts in his time, and averaged 20-30 minutes in most of his sub appearances.  Garlick started 15 games that year with a goals against average of 1.6, 8th of the 10 keepers who played 15 or more games that season (9th was Tim Howard of all people).  Which brings us to Scott Palguta.  While Palguta was never more than a replacement level player he did get 30 starts and 50 appearances in his four season here (and won MLS Cup), more than everyone else on the list combined.  He appeared in half of the games in our Cup winning season (though he only started 5, and had no playoff appearances).  While that's not great, its the best to wear 29.

Now we're into the 30s with a rather infamous list:

Zizi Roberts (2003-2004)
Amir Lowery (2005)
Thiago Martins (2006)
Gabriel Torres (2013)
Abe Rodriguez (2020)

Now I think in a few years Rodriguez will be the obvious choice, but he hasn't played yet.  Lowry had a grand total of one appearance.  So that leaves us with three somewhat infamous forwards.  To break them down:

Roberts: 17 appearances, 12 starts, 1091 minutes, 6 goals
Martins: 25 appearances, 14 starts, 1390 minutes, 3 goals, 4 assists
Torres (2013 only): 7 appearances, 5 starts, 507 minutes, 3 goals, 1 assist

To be fair to Torres, he was signed with only 9 games left in 2013 and the only two games he missed were due to National Team duty.

These three are actually remarkably close.  Roberts had roughly double the minutes and double the goals of Torres.  Martins didn't have as many goals but did rack up a few assists.  In the end I'm going to go with Torres for doing as much as he did in as little time as he had in 2013.  Too bad after that he decided he liked the training table buffet more than playing.

Rapids History By The Numbers: #27 & #28

After a break for real news we're back to our recap of 25 years of Rapids players.  We're now to the point where the lists are short enough and the choices obvious enough that I'm going to cover multiple numbers in most posts.  Tonight we get two fan favorites.  First, the list for #27.

Byron Foss (2005)
Kosuke Kimura (2007-2012)
Shane O'Neill (2013-2015)
Luis Gil (2017)
Deklan Wynne (2018-2020)

Yeah, this is obviously Koz.  The heart of the 2010 MLS Cup team and maybe the biggest difference between player value and fan love.  The only players I can think of that are more loved by the fans are all in, or will be in, the Gallery of Honor.  Honestly, Koz is probably more loved than some of them even.  He's the only player who's returned to the Dick with another team and had to take a lap of honor after the game to acknowledge the fans.  The only other candidate, O'Neill, played in about half as many games as Koz, never really fully locked down a starting spot, and left under less than ideal circumstances.

Oddly, despite his long time at the club he doesn't appear in the top 10 of any records and his only league honor, other than winning the Cup, was being a finalist for the Fair Play award in 2011.  He had the winning goal to put the Rapids into MLS Cup 2010, even it was meant to be a cross. 

Our list for #28

Alex Blake (2003)
Jordan Cila (2004)
Leo Cullen (2005)
John DiRaimondo (2008)
Davy Armstrong (2010-2014)
Sam Nicholson (2018-2020)

Ironically I was planning to post this on Thursday night, when the news of Nicholson's release pushed it down the schedule.  To show you how easy this pick is, Sam Nicholson had 48 appearances for the Rapids, and was clearly about to rack up more this season before COVID-19 and his personal issues at home led to his Rapids career ending.  The rest of the players who wore 28 had 53 appearances combined.

Rapids History By The Numbers: #26

As we get into the higher numbers our lists get smaller, which in some ways makes my life easier.  For example, this group.

Nat Borchers (2003)
Alberto Delgado (2004)
Fabrice Noel (2005)
Conor Casey (2007)
Michael Holody (2009-2011)
Deshorn Brown (2013-2015)
Dennis Castillo (2016-2017)
Cole Bassett (2018-2020)

We can quickly whittle this down.  Delgado, Holody, Castillo, and Noel aren't in the running.  Borchers and Casey had good to great Rapids careers, but their first season at the club wearing this number isn't enough to make them the best to wear this number.  That leaves us with Deshorn Brown and Cole Bassett.  While I think Cole is the future of the club and will either become a significant player or get sold for a significant price, he has not quite reached the level of Deshorn Brown yet.

Despite only playing for two seasons and one game, Brown is in the top 10 in team history in goals, shots, and shots on goal.  For most of the decade, befre Kamara joined us last year, his back to back 10 goal seasons were the highlight from a Rapids striker.  On top of that, in maybe the team's best ever "strike while the iron is hot" moment, he was sold to Norway for over $500K at the start of 2015, and immediately became a wanderer who has played for 7 teams in 6 years, including a brief stint with DC United, which cost them their spot in the allocation order.

Rapids History By The Numbers: #25

Ok, tied for the easiest decision in this series we hit 25.  The smallest list so far:

Craig Waibel (2000)
Pablo Mastroeni (2002-2013)

Waibel had a killer year in 2000 to take this award.  :D  Seriously though, there's a reason the Rapids were going to retire #25 for Pablo this Saturday, and will do it eventually when things get closer to normal.  Mastroeni is the team leader, by a lot, in Appearances, Starts, Minutes, Fouls Committed, Fouls suffered, Yellow Cards, and Red Cards.  Drew Moor would have to start every game that was planned for this season plus four games next season to pass him.  He'd then need to appear in another seven games next season to pass him in appearances.

Pablo was also a six-time All-Star, earned 63 of his 65 caps, including multiple World Cup appearances,  and captained the team to the 2010 MLS Cup.  He is one of two players to wear green, black & blue, and burgundy for the Rapids (Beckerman is the other, if you count Fraser wearing burgundy as coach now that would be three).  Mastroeni is still the face of this team and will be for years to come.

Rapids History By The Numbers: #24

I'm not sure why, but 24 seems popular with goalkeepers.  Our list:

Ian Feuer (1999)
Adin Brown (2000-2001)
Scott Garlick (2001)
Scott Vallow (2003)
Bouna Coundoul (2006-2007)
Kohel Yamada (2012)
Nathan Sturgis (2013)
Sean St. Ledger (2015-2016)
Kortne Ford (2017-2020)

So here's something unexpected.  Bouna Coundoul and Kortne Ford have played exactly the same number of games wearing number 24, 35.  Bouna played an additional 17 games wearing #1 in 2008.  Not surprisingly, Bouna shows up in most in the top 10 of most Rapids keeper records, but he has the best all time Goals Against Average in team history.  In fact, his 1.16 GAA is 4th best in league history among keepers with 50 or more starts, behind only Kasey Keller, Jimmy Neilsen, and Pat Onstad.  Ford only having a season and a half before his knee injury derailed his career so far doesn't really hold up to that.  For the rest, well Adin Brown only played 22 games, Sean St. Ledger was injured at least half of his time here, and none of the single-season players are particularly notable.

So you know what time it is?

Rapids History By The Numbers: #23

Ok, we're starting to get into the weeds when it comes to players at these numbers.  A real mix of players on this one.  The list:

Wolde Harris (1997)
Kevin Anderson (1999)
Joe Cannon (2003)
Antonio de la Torre (2004)
Martin Morales (2005)
Colin Clark (2006-2010)
Sanna Nyassi (2011)
Jaime Castrillon (2012-2013)
Joe Nasco (2014)
Bobby Burling (2015-2017)
Kip Colvey (2018)
Kei Kamara (2019-2020)

So only four players that played for more than a season in number 23.  I can't see any of the single season players matching up to them, so lets look at those four.

• Clark - 84 appearances, 70 starts, 10 goals, 10 assists, was traded to Houston for Brian Mullan in 2010,  Received his only Nats cap in 2009
• Castrillon - 41 appearances, 31 starts, 9 goals, 4 assists
• Burling - 50 appearances, 46 starts, 3 goals
• Kamara - 31 appearances, 31 starts, 15 goals, 1 assist, retired from international duty with Sierra Leone in 2019

That doesn't make it much easier.  I think we can eliminate Castrillon but beyond that there are arguments to be made for the other three.  Obviously you're comparing a forward, midfielder, and a defender so goals/assists aren't a great comparison point.

I was keeping Burling on the list because of the tight defense that was played in his period at the club, particularly in 2016, but Burling only played in 16 of 34 games in 2016, so that's less impressive now.  The one season he played in the majority of games the team was 6th in goals allowed, and in his other season we were in the bottom half.  I'm going to eliminate him.

At the end of his Rapids career, depending on how this season goes, Kamara might be the obvious choice.  Right now though, one season plus two games, even as good as he's been, isn't enough to overcome Clark's work.  Not only was he a regular starter most of the time he was healthy (blew out his ACL in both 2009 and 2010) he was the Rapids original "homegrown" signing, coming up from the Boulder Rapids Reserve before homegrown signings were a thing in this league.  Of course, we lost Clark last year at the far to young age of 35.  Rest in Peace Colin.

Rapids History By The Numbers: #22

Ok, after that mess of a list yesterday we're back on some firmer ground at 22.

Raimo de Vries (1996)
Joey DiGimarino (1998-2000)
Raul Palacios (2002)
Casey Schmidt (2003)
Alain Nkong (2005)
Nick LaBrocca (2007-2009)
Marvell Wynne (2010-2014)
Lucas Pittinari (2015)
Micheal Azira (2016-2018)
Sebastian Anderson (2019-2020)

This is, clearly, a three way battle.  LaBrocca, Wynne, and Azira are the only considerations.  I do wonder how good Nkong could have been for the team had he gotten more than one season here.  LaBrocca is already the best player to have worn #2, and he doesn't stand up to the other two who wore #22.  So lets make it a two way battle.

Both players were regular starters for most of their time in Colorado and both were let go at low value to the club.  Azira was one of the early victims of the Anthony Hudson era, being traded for a 4th round pick while Wynne was allowed to leave for free after Pablo's first season.  Azira was a key component of the successful 2016 team, and his trade is seen by many fans as removing the lynch pin that made the teams of that era work.  Certainly the team didn't get any better after he left.

That said, his numbers and role don't hold up to what Wynne did.  He was the regular starter alongside Drew Moor in our 2010 Cup winning season, playing all 120 minutes of MLS Cup.  He has the 5th most Starts and Minutes and 7th most Appearances in club history, those numbers are almost exactly double Azira's.  He provided the speed to Moor's rock in the center of defense during their pairing, and I can't count the number of times an attacker thought he had a path at goal only for Wynne to come out of nowhere to end the threat.  Plus, as you can see, he loves cats.

Rapids History By The Numbers: #21

Here we reach 21, and a number where I kind of throw my hands up and say "pick one".  Because I'm not sure a strong case can be made for any of these guys.  Note, its also the first number to not be used in the inaugural season.

Tote Castaneda (1997)
Chris Martinez (1997)
Andre Nunley (1998)
Paul Dougherty (2000)
Marvin Quijano (2002)
Matt Crawford (2003-2005)
Nico Colaluca (2007-2009)
Julien Baudet (2009-2010)
Caleb Folan (2011)
Luis Zapata (2012)
Steward Ceus (2013)
Grant Van De Casteele (2014)
Luis Solignac (2015-2016)
Nana Boateng (2017-2018)
Younes Namli (2020)

Yeah.  That's quite a list.  If you're wondering 7 of these guys played a combined total 6 starts and 23 appearances (including Namli).  Of the remaining 8, only Crawford and Boateng had more than a season's worth of starts.  Folan's 6 goals are by far the most of anyone on the list.  Needless to say, outside of Baudet's MLS Cup win, none of these guys appear on any MLS honor lists or in the Rapids record book.

Given that I'm going to give the nod to Baudet.  For no other reason than his MLS Cup win in which he came in as a sub.  If somebody has a better argument for another player I'm happy to hear it.

Rapids History By The Numbers: #20

We're finishing off our first score of players and a lot of the big names have already shown up.  There are a few more left though, including a couple at #20.

Josh McKay (1996)
Ross Paule (1997-1999)
Henry Zambrano (2000)
Neathan Gibson (2001)
Mark Chung (2002-2005)
Nicolas Hernandez (2006-2007)
Tom McManus (2008)
Jamie Smith (2009-2013)
Joseph Greenspan (2015-2016)
Ricardo Perez (2017-2018)
Nicolas Mezquida (2019-2020)

There are three obvious choices on the list are Ross Paule, Mark Chung, and Jamie Smith.  They all played similar positions, mainly winger (though Paule moved around a bit more), so that makes comparisons somewhat easy.

On the national level, Paule was a two time All-Star in '98 and '99 and was the league player of the month in June of '98.  Chung was also a two time All-Star, in '02 and '03, he was also named to the MLS Best XI both those seasons, and was league player of the month in July '03.  He was also a league MVP finalist in 2002.  Smith's only national recognition was starting and winning MLS Cup 2010.

At the team level Smith only appears as having the 10th most corner kicks in team history.  Paule is third all-time in assists, ninth in corner kicks, and second in game-winning assists, though those numbers are split between his 3 seasons wearing 20 and his 2 seasons wearing 6.  Chung is 7th all-time in goals, 9th in assists, 8th in shots, 7th in shots on goal, ties for 7th in game winning goals, tied for 8th in game winning assists, and 6th in multi-goal games.

As far as longevity, Chung played in 84 games (starting all but 2 of them) and score 26 goals along with 20 assists.  Paule played 75 games wearing #20, starting 62 times, with 15 goals and 18 assists, and Smith started 39 of his 62 appearance and had 7 goals and 13 assists.

I think its clear that Smith is not the choice.  Paule suffers from splitting his Rapids time between two numbers, if he had played his whole career in Denver in one number he'd likely have been the best in that number.  Looking at just the time in #20 though, Mark Chung clearly had the best run.  Its appropriate to decide this today as Chung is celeb rating his 50th birthday.  Happy birthday Mark!

Rapids History By The Numbers: #19

Its nice when the easy ones just keep coming.

Chris Henderson (1996-1998)
Russel Payne (1999)
Kevin Anderson (2000)
Scott Vermillion (2001)
Chris Henderson (2002-2005)
Dedi Ben Dayan (2006)
Roberto Brown (2007)
Ciaran O'Brien (2008)
Andre Akpan (2010-2013)
Charles Eloundou (2014-2015)
Conor Doyle (2016)
Jack Price (2018-2020)

All but two of these players played a season or less in a Rapids jersey, and no offense to our current captain, but Price doesn't hold a candle to what Chris Henderson has done for the club.  Henderson was a two time All-Star (1997, 2002) and was the league's Humanitarian of the Year in 2004.  He's third all time in team history in Appearances, Starts, and Minutes, and 5th in Goals.  He's still the team's all time leader in Assists with 53, 19 more than Terry Cooke in second place.  He's also the team leader in Shots, Shots On Goal, Corner Kicks, and Game-Winning Assists.  And, of course, he's in the Gallery of Honor.

Rapids History By The Numbers: #18

At 18 we come to the last of the most-often used numbers.  Along with 2, 6, 7, and 10, 18 has been used a total of 16 times in club history.

Dusty Hudock (1996)
Paul Grafer (1997-1998)
Guillermo Jara (1999)
Jeff DiMario (2000)
Danny DeVall (2000)
Steven Herdsman (2001-2003)
David Castellanos (2004)
Guy Melamed (2005)
Aitor Karanka (2006)
Ugo Ihemelu (2007-2008)
Matt Pickens (2009-2013)
Marvin Chavez (2014)
Zat Knight (2014)
Zac MacMath (2015-2018)
Sam Raben (2019)
Jeremy Kelly (2020)

Yeah, this is another easy one. While Karanka has probably the best post-Rapids career out of anyone, the best Rapid to wear 18 is clearly Matt Pickens.  He's also worn it the longest.  He's the all time team leader in starts, appearances, and minutes in goal (and tip 10 overall in all of them).  He has the most wins (and losses) in goal in team history, as well as the most shutouts.  He's 4th all time in saves, and 3rd in goals against average, 0.01 behind Joe Cannon for second (Bouna Coundoul is 0.1 ahead of Cannon).  He also has the most important save in team history, saving a sure tying goal in the 120th minute of MLS Cup 2010 while shielded on the shot by Julian Baudet.

While I believe Joe Cannon is the best keeper in team history, a strong argument could be made for Matt Pickens.

Rapids By The Numbers: #17

This is, tied with #25, the easiest one of these to write.  The list:

Marcelo Balboa (1996-2001)
Preston Burpo (2008-2009)
Ian Joyce (2010-2012)
Dillon Serna (2013-2019)

The photo:

We're done here, right?  Ok, ok, one additional 17 photo:

Rapids By The Numbers: #16

We come to first number where there is no real stand out, and very few good players..  Most of them haven't even been decent.

Brian Bates (1996-1997)
Darren Sawatzky (1999)
Jason Moore (2000-2001)
Jeff Stewart (2002-2003)
Eric Denton (2005)
Chris Wingert (2006-2007)
Daniel Osorno (2007)
Herculez Gomez (2008)
Gregory Richardson (2009)
Ross LaBaeux (2010-2011)
Atiba Harris (2013)
John Neeskens (2014)
James Riley (2015)
Alan Gordon (2017)
Will Vint (2020)

That is certainly a list of players who had MLS contracts.  Its not much more than that though.  Its no surprise that the only honor, either league-wide or in team history, this group has is LaBaeux being a part of the Cup winning team in 2010.  If Herculez hadn't changed numbers between his two years here he might be the best option, but his year in #10 was better than his year in #16 (though in #16 he scored the first goal ever at the Dick).  Alan Gordon had some highlights but he was really a super-sub in his one year.

That leads me to Jason Moore, who had over 50 appearances, almost all of them starts, for the team, and 9 assists for a pretty low-scoring side both years.  There is no image of him in a Rapids uniform that isn't a Getty Image apparently.  Despite that he is, surprisingly, the best player to wear #16.

Rapids By The Numbers: #15

As we get into the mid to higher teens were entering the realm of lesser used numbers and, honestly, mostly lesser players as well.  We certainly see this at #15:

Scott Cannon (1996)
Tahj Jakins (1997-2000)
Junior Agogo (2000-2001)
Chris Carrieri (2001-2003)
Jacob Peterson (2006-2009)
Wells Thompson (2010-2012)
Chris Klute (2013-2014)
Juan Ramirez (2015)
Sam Hamilton (2017-2018)
Andre Rawls (2019-2020)

You can easily remove Cannon and everyone who came after Klute from the running.  Not surprisingly, the only league honer any of these players have is Thompson winning MLS Cup, and as far as team records go only Chris Carrieri appears, being ties for 7th in game-winning goals and 8th in game winning assists.  He also had the second hat-trick in team history, on Independence Day 2002.  Junior Agogo (RIP) would be my sentimental favorite but if we're being as unbiased as possible he's not in the same category as the other options.

Peterson had the most appearances for the club, at 92, but just under half of them (43) were coming off the bench as a sub.  Similarly 35 of Wells Thompson's 75 appearances were as a sub as well.  Jakins started just over half of his games (34 of 60) while Chris Klute was the most regular starter, with 54 starts in the 68 games of the 2013 and 2014 seasons (and one start at the end of 2012).  Meanwhile Carrieri started 56 of his 69 appearances, the most starts of anyone on the list, but spread over 3 seasons of 84 games.

In the end I think the nod has to go to Carrieri over Klute.  Klute started for a borderline playoff team and a truly awful team, and in a position that has less competition.  Its hard to find a left back in this league, so a decent one can lock down a position without much effort.  Carrieri was getting his starts alongside Paul Bravo and John Spencer, and getting goals while playing with Henderson and Chung on the wings.  That's both a great help, and a bit of a hindrance as people fight for opportunities in front of goal.

Rapids By The Numbers: #14

Always nice when we get to an easy choice.  It should be obvious when you read the list:

Scott Benedetti (1996-1997)
Chris Martinez (1998-2001)
Musa Shannon (2002)
Rey Angel Martinez (2004)
Terry Cooke (2005)
Fabrice Noel (2006)
Omar Cummings (2007-2012)
Tony Cascio (2013)
Dominique Badji (2015-2017)
Abdul Rwatubyaye (2019-2020)

2010 MLS Cup champion, 2011 All-Star, Sept 2010 MLS Player of the Month, tied for 2nd all-time in team history in goals. 4th in assists, tied for 3rd in game winning goals and assists, 5th in games played, 10th in starts, 7th in minutes, and 2nd in shots and shots on goal.

Omar Cummings is clearly the best 14 in team history.