Superdraft Results and Messi Game Moved

As expected there were a couple of trades with today's Superdraft and a last-minute wrinkle impacting our first pick.  With that first pick the Rapids selected forward Mamadou Billo Diop from...Rapids 2.  Yeah, strange.  It turns out sometime in the last few days another MLS team found a loophole in the rules that due to the fact that Diop went to high school in Florida but did not enroll in college he matches a precedent that he has to go through the draft.  Because he came to R2 from Florida and is not a homegrown the only way the Rapids could keep a player already under contract was to draft him, and they didn't want to risk him falling any further.

After that we selected forward Mitchell Baker out of Georgetown at #10.  Mark Kelkenberg expected him to go in the 20's and says:

Young complete center forward with a big frame. Took over for Jacob Murrell and recently had a 14 goal season for the Hoyas. Attended Northwood School/Black Rock FC where he had a lot of success prior to college

At this point the Rapids traded the 19th pick to SKC for $50K in 2026 GAM and the #44 pick.

At number 26 they took forward Wahabu Musah out of Clemson.  Yes, three forwards in a row.  Again from Kelkenberg who had him at 35 overall:

Musah could go earlier based on being the youngest player in the draft, so if he wound up available, I’d be surprised if they passed on him. He has shown great ability at Clemson already, and it’s rare that he played two collegiate seasons before his 18th birthday, which was earlier this month.

In the second round the Rapids traded the 40th ant 44th picks to Dallas for $75K in GAM.  All told they traded a 2025 international slot and the #44 pick and got back $325K in GAM, when you consider the #19 pick came as part of that international slot trade that also got $200K in GAM.  Nice funny-money business, but we'll see what they spend it on.

At #56 was my favorite pick of the draft, defender Asher Hestad from the National Champion Washington Huskies (Go Dawgs!).  We are now far enough down that I haven't found any MLS writeups on these players but Hestad did start at right back for every game in the Huskies run in the NCAA tournament.

In the 3rd round the Rapids took midfielder Koven Johnson out of High Point at #70 and defender Jabari De Coteau out of Xavier at #86.

One interesting note is that De Coteau is a junior and all of our other picks (other than Diop obviously) are sophomores.  So any of them could decide to return to school and the Rapids would hold their rights for two seasons.  So we'll have to see how many of these players actually show up in camp next month.  I would bet Baker will, he is the highest rated of the group and would be expected to be able to contribute at the MLS level in the near future.  The rest might stay in college.  I think beyond Musah anyone else is a long shot right now, as much as I would like to see Hestad have a bit impact.

After the busy Superdraft day the Rapids made a significant announcement.  The April 18th, 2026 game against Miami will be played at Empower Field in downtown Denver and not at the Dick.  This will be the game where the Rapids celebrate their 20th anniversary by returning to where it all began (almost).  On April 21st, 1996 the Rapids played their first ever home game at old Mile High, which was situated in what is now the parking lot of Empower Field.

Season ticket holders will be moved to to seats with similar sight lines in the lower bowl at Empower.  No word yet on parking, tailgating, or the supporters section.  Centennial 38 has a meeting with the Front Office next week to discuss those things, including where C38 season ticket holders in the supporters sections will end up, so more information should be available after the holidays.  Remaining tickets after the season ticket and flex pack holders are covered will be put on sale on January 15th.

Honestly, I hate this.  They can couch this in the terms of "celebrating are origin" as much as they want but we all see this for what this is.  A cash grab with Messi.  Its a betrayal of long-time fans who have worked hard, sometimes with no support or even active opposition from the Front Office, to make the Dick our home.  This is even the 20th season in the Dick and we could be celebrating that, but instead the FO is going for the quick buck and giving away what home field advantage we have so they can get all the Messi fans in the stadium.  My hope is that they announce the week before the game that he's not coming.

This is another log on the fire of disrespect I'm feeling from the Rapids and the league this offseason but honestly its been a long few months for me professionally (in a good way) and I'm pretty fried and I know that's probably driving my reactions lately.  So I'm going to take a couple of weeks off, see family, play some video games and watch bowl games and the African Cup of Nations, and see how I'm feeling come the New Year.  If I still feel this way then I'll write something up about how (IMO) the fans are being treat.  If not then it will be good I cleared my head.  Baring significant news tomorrow (like announcing Wells as coach or the trade for Sealy) this will do it at least until after Christmas and possibly 2025.

I hope everyone has a a happy holiday season and a great New Years!

Superdraft Preview

All quiet in Commerce City.  No official coach announcement yet.  Rumor of a significant trade for Dante Sealy from Montreal.  I'm waiting for it to be official to get too much into it, but the reported $2M of GAM we're trading is a significant overpay if its accurate.

One thing I never commented on here was that we did exercise the purchase option for Noah Cobb.  I have mentioned that this was something I was in favor of so I'm glad it got done.

The Re-Entry Drafts came and went with the Rapids doing nothing, so its on to tomorrow's Superdraft.  Colorado has 8 picks in the 3 rounds, including 4 first round picks.  We have Toronto's pick at #6 in exchange for us allowing Toronto to hire Neil Emblem to join Robin's staff in Toronto.  e have our natural pick at #10.  We have Columbus' pick at #18 in exchange for an international slot in 2025, and we have Philly's pick at #26 (along with #56 and #86) due to the trade of GAM for all their draft picks in 2025, 2026, and 2027.  In addition to Philly's picks in the 2nd and 3rd round we have our natural picks at #40 and #70.

The reality is with all those picks we'll be very lucky if we get tow players who contribute in the next couple of seasons.  The player who would likely be the top pick, Grand Canyon University striker Junior Diouf, is a freshman and would only be eligible with a GA contract.  Today there were 4 GA contracts announced and he wasn't one of them.  There was also a senior contract announced (a senior who's signed with the league pre-draft) and its my personal favorite pick in the draft, Washington midfielder/striker Richie Aman.  I'd love to see him drop to 6 and have Colorado take him, but I have my doubts.

Anything more I could tell you about the picks is better summarized by American Soccer Analysis' great Superdraft writeup.  Work will probably prevent me from doing any live updating tomorrow but I will have a recap of whatever happens, which will probably involve Smith trading picks, tomorrow night.

Wrapping Up 2024

Well as I was busy with the holidays two big things happened, the SuperDraft and the schedule drop.  We'll get through those two today and then I'll circle back to reviewing my 2024 Predictions hopefully no later than New Year's Day so we can move into 2025 and look forward.

Starting with the schedule the big change this year is that San Diego joins the league, so its 14 home and away against the West and 6 against the East, split 3 and 3 home/away.  No 3-game Rocky Mountain Cup anymore.  Speaking of, we defend the Cup at home on May 17th and then finish our road slate in Salt Lake on October 4th.  We start the season in St. Louis on Feb. 22nd before the home opener against Dallas on March 1st.

Unfortunately for all of us who wanted a new road trip, or away day at San Diego is midweek right before the RMC home game which makes it a difficult road game for most of us, since we all want to be back in time to support the boys against FSL.  (Specifically for me I'll likely use that week for my spring work trip to the UK and fly back Friday night so I can be at the game on Saturday).  San Diego comes to the Dick on April 12th.

There was hope that Apple would spread out the game times this year and they have, but not so much for Rapids home games.  All but two home matches kickoff at 7:30, the season finale is at 7pm and Charlotte's visit on March 29th is at 2:30pm.  The Galaxy's visit on June 25th (Wed.) and KC's visit for the annual 4th of July match (Fri.) are the only home games not on Saturday.  We have two Wednesday road games in May, one in July, and a Sunday away game in August, the other 13 road games are also on Saturdays.

May is going to be tough with 7 matches.  We start the month in DC and then come home to San Jose the next weekend.  Then the rest of that week is the trip to SD and the FSL home match.  Then after 7 days off we get St. Louis at home before a midweek trip to Portland followed by a trip to SoCal for LAFC on the weekend.  Those are our only two 3-game weeks (at least for league play) though.

In June we have 3 straight home games before finishing the month in New England.  We only have one home game between Vancouver at home on July 12th and Houston at home on September 13th, that's Atlanta in mid-August.  Otherwise we play in Seattle, Philly, and Minnesota before the ATL game and at the Galaxy and SKC after.  That's going to be a tough stretch.  But that's the only times we have more than two home or away games in a row.  We finish the season at home against, you guessed it, LAFC.

Now, onto the Superdraft.  We already covered the trade for all of Philly's picks but we were busy trading on the day of the draft.  Summing it all up we traded $287,500 in 2025 GAM, a 2025 International Slot, and the #8 pick for the #4, #6, and #12 picks and $50K in 2026 GAM.  That left us with 5 first round picks and nine picks total.  So we went to town on the draft,  The full list:

Round 1: Alex Harris (No. 4) - F, Cornell

Round 1: Matthew Senanou (No. 6) - D, Xavier

Round 1: Efetobo Aror (No. 12) - M, Portland

Round 1: Sydney Wathuta (No. 16) - F, Vermont

Round 1: Joshua Copeland (No. 26) - F, Detroit Mercy

Round 2: Charlie Harper (No. 38) - D, UNC Chapel Hill

Round 3: Donovan Phillip (No. 62) - F, North Carolina State

Round 3: Shawn Smart (No. 68) - D, Las Vegas Lights

Round 3: Matthew Van Horn (No. 75) - M, Georgetown

Most reviews of our picks were positive, with the caveat that we shouldn't expect much from this group in 2025.  Specifically Aror could return to school for a year before coming out.  Also Smart is already signed and playing for Las Vegas but Colorado retains his MLS rights now.  Reports are that we're happy to let him play out his contract in Vegas (he has one year left) before negotiating with him and we're not looking to pay a transfer fee to get him here this season.  He's also being scouted by Sparta Rotterdam and a couple of Championship clubs so this seems more like a flyer on somebody we might be able to flip quickly than any expectation he will have a notable impact on results.

We'll see how many of these guys join camp next month and how many of them make the team.  I expect most of them to be on Rapids 2 if they're not back in school (or in Las Vegas).

Pre-Holiday News Dump

I take a day off and in the 48 hours since I last posted the Rapids sign 3 players, draft 6 others, drop the 2024 schedule, and Burgundy Wave announces info about Armas' contract.  Oh, and the USSF says no to MLS's idea to skip the Open Cup.  So buckle in, this is going to be a large post going over all of it that will likely wrap up 2023 for Rapids news (I hope!).

Lets start with the singings.  First Colorado re-signed homegrown players Seb Anderson and Oli Larraz to one year deals with team options for a second season.  Anderson's deal also has a team option for a third season.  Pretty clear that this is a make it or break it season for both of them, I'm really hoping to see Larraz get some time with the first team after a strong season in MLS Next Pro in 2023.

Then last night the Rapids signed free agent winger Omir Fernandez,  He came up through the RBNY Academy and has made over 110 appearances for the Red Bulls in the last 5 seasons.  Fernandez is 24, making him one of the youngest free agents in MLS history.  He is likely to become the starter ont he right wing but he can also play more centrally or up top.

Yesterday Colorado drafted 5 players and traded for a 6th draftee.  They started the day with the #2 and #4 picks which the club used to select sophomore midfielder Wayne Fredrick out of Duke and Generation Adidas forward freshman Kimani Stewart-Baynes out of Maryland.  Fredrick has the option to return to school while the Rapids keep his rights while Stewart-Baynes, as a GA player, has already signed a contract with the league and will be turning pro.  Both of these picks are long-term picks, though you would hope that Stewart-Baynes could contribute a little in 2024.

Then the wheeling and dealing started.  By the end of the first round the Rapids had acquired $300K in GAM, an additional second round pick and the rights to the #5 pick in exchange for their other two first round picks and moving down in the second round.  The #5 pick was defender Nate Jones out of my alma mater, the University of Washington.  Jones is a junior and is the most likely of our six picks to get notable playing time in 2024.

With their two second round picks and their third round pick we selected sophomore forward Palmer Ault out of Butler, senior defender Anderson Ross out of Central Florida. and junior forward Gunnar Studenhofft out of Manhattan College.  Studenhofft has also debuted for the Cayman Islands National Team, playing in a World Cup qualifier already.

Since none of these players are seniors they can all return to school if they want, other than Stewart-Baynes.  I expect Jones at least to come out of school and the others may depend on what kind of feedback they get from the Rapids on their chances of making the team vs. making Rapids 2.  I assume there's already a plan of what they want to do with Fredrick as you wouldn't use the #2 pick on him otherwise.

If you combine the trades last season with the trades made yesterday, the Rapids traded Michael Barrios, Anthony Markanich, a first round pick in last year's draft, and the #31 pick this year.  In exchange they got the #4 pick, the rights to the #5 pick, the #34 pick, the #42 pick, and $300K in GAM.  No matter how you look at it, that's good business.

Today started with the U.S. Soccer Federation telling MLS that their plans to play MLS Next Pro teams in the Open Cup instead of the first teams was not allowed.  MLS responded that they could continue to work with the USSF on their Open Cup plans.  In the end what will likely happen is that teams will play in the Open Cup but they'll be given more liberal rules for calling up '2' players for those games.  Still its a positive step by the USSF to protect the Open Cup.

Then this year's schedule dropped.  For the first time the Rapids will face Inter Miami, but in Miami.  Messi is not coming to Commerce City.  That will be April 6th in Florida.  Colorado will start the season on February 24th in Portland and then have their home opener a week later on March 2nd against Gary Smith's Nashville side.  They then jump across the Divide for the first of three Rocky Mountain Cup matches the next week.  The second RMC match is in Sandy on May 18th, and the competition will finish on July 20th in Commerce City.

That's also the last match before the Leagues Cup break, and Colorado won't have another league home match for almost two months, when Portland comes to town on September 14th.  We have our home finale on October 5th against Seattle before finishing the regular season the next week in Austin.

Along with Miami we travel to NYCFC and Cincinnati, while welcoming Nashville, Montreal, RBY, and Toronto at the Dick, along with home and aways against all the Western opponents, plus the extra 3rd match with FSL.    We never have more than two road matches in a row, but 3 of our first 4 are on the road.  We have one run of three home games in early July, starting with the 4th of July home match against SKC and then St. Luis and RBNY over a total of 9 days.  We do have multiple 3-game weeks, but only one of them involves two road matches.  Memorial Day week we play at home on Memorial Day Saturday and then go to Houston midweek and Vancouver the following weekend.

Last, but not least, tonight Burgundy Wave is reporting that Chris Armas' contract is a two year deal.  Unless we have an Anthony Hudson situation I expect him to essentially see out that deal even if we don't see great improvement in 2024.  Coincidentally, or not, Robin Fraser's contract was also through the end of the 2025 season so one way or the other by 2026 there will be no legacy contracts on the books.

And with that, I'm calling a wrap on this post and hopefully 2023.  If anything happens over the holidays, unlikely as that is, I'll be back but I'm expecting everything to be pretty quiet for the next week and a half.  Happy holidays to all of my readers and I'll be back after New Years with hopefully enough time to do a piece on Soccernomics and the Rapids I've been hoping to do before the start of camp.

SuperDraft Tomorrow!

Before we get to tomorrow's SuperDraft a word on MLS's decision to pull the first teams out of the Open Cup and play only MLS Next Pro rosters.

Disappointing

I understand the realities of the schedule and the fact that its a financial loser, especially compared to the Leagues Cup, but the USOC is the one competition all American teams play in and MLS bailing on it is short-sighted.  If I weren't already not renewing my season tickets this decision would push me towards not doing it.

Now, on to tomorrow's SuperDraft which may be more significant than most for the Rapids.  As of tonight the Rapids hold 5 picks in the 3 rounds:

2nd Pick in the 1st Round - Natural pick

4th Pick in the 1st Round - Barrios trade with Galaxy

12th Pick in the 1st Round - GAM/pick trade with Charlotte

21st Pick in the 1st Round - Markanich trade with St. Louis

2nd Pick in the 2nd Round (31st overall) - Natural pick

2nd Pick in the 3rd Round (60th overall) - Natural pick

Three picks in the top 12, 4 in the top 21.  Even in a SuperDraft that's lost a lot in recent years, that's significant.  And the league made a change to the draft rules this year, for the first time sophomores and juniors are eligible to be drafted.  Those players can choose to return to school rather than enter the league but they can't re-enter the draft until their rights expire (after two seasons).  So there are approximately 400 players eligible for selection tomorrow.

Recent history has shown Padraig Smith targeting one player in the draft, making moves to get him, and then really letting the rest of the draft go.  This year, with so many high picks and the added depth in the draft, I'm expecting to get at least two solid players, either two draftees or a draftee and trading a combination of picks and xAM for an already established player.

Normally I'd try to update here in real-time on draft day and a recap tomorrow night, but my work schedule and the fact that I have tickets to Godzilla Minus One means I might not get it all written up until Wednesday.

Trades and Draft Picks

The Rapids added 3 players today, 2 from the draft and 1 through a trade, and traded away a draft pick as well.

They started the day trading with Cincinnati for forward Calvin Harris.  They sent FCC $100K GAM this year and another $100K next year, plus up to $175K in conditional GAM based on performance.  Cinci also retains a percentage of any transfer fee if the Rapids sell him.  Harris was drafted #2, right in front of Mayaka, in the 2021 draft.  Its always been a rumor that the Rapids were targeting Harris or #1 pick Pereira when they traded up to #3 in that draft, as Mayaka was widely expected to go #1.  They've now got Harris, just 2 years later.  In that time Harris hasn't done much, but maybe a change of scenery will help.  He has one year left on his Generation Adidas deal, and he does require a international slot at the moment, though he's "close" to his green card so if that gets done in the next two months he wouldn't need one when the season starts.

Then at the draft this afternoon Colorado took central defender Moise Bombito out of the University of New Hampshire with the #3 overall pick.  Bombito is a Canadian citizen but will not require an international slot as he came through an accredited Canadian academy.  Tall and good in the air, he'll compete with our other young CB's for backup playing time.  The Rapids then traded their natural first round pick (#12) to Charlotte for $50K in GAM and Charlotte's first round pick next season, plus up to $50K of conditional GAM based on how their pick does.

With the 12th pick in the 2nd round we selected goalkeeper Oliver Semmle from Marshall University.  Semmle is a German citizen who will give Abe Rodriguez competition for the backup spot behind Yarbrough.

The Rapids, as is their ilk, passed with their third round selection.  As we've seen under Padraig Smith Colorado tends to target one player in the draft and get him, and then trade their remaining picks for value.  What they can't move they then only use if they see a player worth their time.

So all in all today we added three international players with potential but all of them are unlikely to contribute much in 2023.  We still need some significant moves to be competitive this year and the clock is ticking.  We open camp the week after the holidays end.

Rapids Add 3 Players and $125K In GAM

As expected, the Rapids did not stand pat on draft day.  However, as I did not predict, we did pass on our last two picks.  I expected us to use them all to help stock Rapids 2, but there was some talk today that drafting players did not mean you had rights to sign them to a MLS NEXT contract so that may have played into it.

Back to our actual picks though.  Not surprisingly the Rapids made a trade with their first pick (#10 overall), sending it to Nashville in return for $125K in GAM and their first round pick (#26).  Getting over $100K for the #10 pick is a solid move by Padraig Smith and depending on how well Nashville's pick does there is $50K in conditional GAM that may also come our way.

That was our only move of the day, so with the #23 pick we chose defensive midfielder Mohamed Omar out of Notre Dame.  He's Canadian and spent time in TFC's system before going to college, so he may qualify as domestic under MLS's rule for academy players.  He appears to be a solid understudy for our crowded midfield and will likely get plenty of time with Rapids 2.

With the #26 pick Colorado took left-footed central defender Anthony Markanich out of the University of Northern Illinois.  He has a twin who was drafted by FC Cincinnati with the 2nd pick in the 2nd round.  Until then there was some hope among the fans that the Rapids might be able bring both of them in by choosing Anthony's brother in the second round.  Markanich will have a shot to provide youthful depth to the backline, who currently only has Moor and Edwards as reserves behind the big 3.

In the second round the Rapids took forward Roberto Molina, most recently with the USL Las Vegas Lights, with the 17th pick.  Under MLS rules he signed a contract with them that left him eligible for the MLS draft.  Before that he was in college at UC-Irvine.  Molina is Salvadoran and had 3 caps for the El Salvador National Team in 2021 against Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Chile.  He appeared 30 times for Las Vegas, netting 2 goals and 5 assists.  Because he would count as an international (I assume) he'll have a higher mountain to climb to make the team.

After that we passed with our last two picks.  I don't expect any of these 3 players to have an immediate impact in 2022 but there is the possibility they'll grow into contributing members of the team in future years.

Superdraft 2022!

Well the Superdraft is here.  Starting at 12:30 tomorrow there will be three rounds this year and all three will take place tomorrow.  This draft is said to be strong in keepers, central defenders and wingers and decent in strikers.  Its weaker in outside backs and defensive mids, and no Superdraft is ever strong in attacking mids.

The Rapids' pattern under Padraig Smith has been to target one player in the draft and the make moves to acquire them, and basically ignore the rest of our picks.  I think you'll see a change in that strategy this year, because we're going to have Rapids 2 next season and we'll want to stock it well enough to serve its purpose.  With two first round picks tomorrow I can see us packaging them together to move into position, but we'll use the rest of our picks on players we will hope can make Rapids 2.

We have 5 picks in total:

1st Round, pick 10 - From LAFC in the Kaye trade

1st Round, pick 23 - Natural pick for 2022 finish

2nd round, pick 17 - From Minnesota in the Kamara trade

2nd round, pick 23 - Natural pick for 2022 finish

3rd round, pick 23 - Natural pick for 2022 finish

If possible tomorrow I'll update as we make our picks  Regardless I'll have a recap tomorrow night.

Welcome Philip Mayaka!

With their only exercised draft pick today the Rapids chose Clemson midfielder Philp Mayaka as the 3rd pick of the draft.  Mayaka was considered by many as the clear number 1 pick in the draft, with some saying he was the most obvious number 1 since Cyle Larin or maybe Steve Zakuani.  I'm not sure why Austin and Cincinnati passed on him, but their loss is our gain.  Clemson's coaches called Mayaka the most MLS ready player they've ever had.

Mayaka played more of an attacking mid for the Tigers two seasons ago and last season shifted into more of a defensive midfielder role.  Colorado projects him as a d-mid in MLS.  He'll give us cover for absences of Acosta and Bassett on national team duty this year, not to mention Price's occasional suspensions.  He also appears to be a natural replacement for Bassett whenever we inevitably sell him to Europe.

As an added bonus Philip Mayaka signed a Generation Adidas contract with the league already.  That means he won't count against the senior roster or salary cap, and he's automatically protected in next year's expansion draft.  Plus we don't have to convince him to sign a contract.  It also means he's a lock to make the team.

In order to land Mayaka the Rapids made a deal just as the draft started.  They traded $200K of GAM, with an additional $50K in incentives, and the #6 pick to Houston for the #3 pick.  They had already traded $125K of GAM to Chicago to get the #6 pick.  Its unclear if the Rapids knew Mayaka was going to fall to 3 or if they had targeted somebody like Bartlow but took Mayaka as the best player in the draft when he fell.  $325K is a lot of allocation money to spend on a draft pick.  However when combined with the other moves made in the last week it looks much better.

Later today we traded the 21st pick for $50K in GAM from Austin.  That 21st pick was gotten in the trade for Barrios where we gave up the 15th pick and an international spot.  If you combine that move with the other moves above:

• Rapids give up the #15 pick, an international slot, and $275K of GAM
• Rapids receive Michael Barrios and Philip Mayaka

That's a pretty solid piece of work by Padraig Smith and the Front Office.  We get a top 3, maybe top 1, draftee and a guy with some of the most dangerous touches in the league last year for our first round pick, an international slot we don't currently need, and less than $300K in GAM.

The Rapids passed with their second and third round picks.  Mayaka will be their only draftee this year.

Superdraft Live

Superdraft is just starting and the Rapids made a move.  They traded the #6pick and $200K of GAM to Houston for the #3 pick.  I'm guessing we're going after Bartlow.

Philip Mayaka surprisingly falls to the Rapids at #3 after Periera is taken #1 and Harris is taken #2.  Mayaka was considered the most obvious #1 pick in a while so a great get for the Rapids, even if he doesn't have an obvious starting spot right now in central midfield.  Clemson considers him the most 'MLS-ready' player they've ever had.

The Rapids traded their #21 pick to Austin for $50K of GAM.

The Rapids passed with their second round pick, and will presumably do so with their third round pick.  If something changes I'll post but otherwise I'll get into more detail about Mayaka tonight.

Superdraft Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the annual Superdraft where the Rapids look like they're going to pick up at least one player we can expect to make the 2021 roster.  I say that because they traded $125K in GAM to Chicago last month to move up to the 6th overall pick.  Scuttlebutt is that they have their eyes on a player they recommended for a Generation Adidas contract and 5 such players were signed this year, including 2 this week.  Reportedly one player turned down the offer, hopefully that wasn't the Rapids target.  Colorado also holds the #21 pick in the first round after the trade last week for Barrios as well as their natural 15th picks in the 2nd and 3rd round (the draft was shortened to 3 rounds this year).

Looking at the 5 GA players there's a center back, a right back/center mid (most experts see him as a RB in MLS), two center mids, and a winger.  The biggest need for the Rapids is center back, so Ethan Bartlow would be the best pick, but most mock drafts don't see him getting past 5, some have him a top 2.  As much as I would like to see the Rapids take the Washington player (Go Dawgs!) it seems unlikely.

Taking Bret Halsey as a right back doesn't fill a need given Rosenberry, Kelly, and Seb Anderson so unless we really think he can make it as a center mid that would be surprising.  Center mid Philip Mayaka is expected to be the #1 pick for Austin.  That leaves center mid Daniel Pereira and winger Calvin Harris.  Pereira's downside is that he requires an international slot, which we don't have at the moment.  That can be solved but I'm not sure Colorado spends a pick on him in an area of the field that's a bit bloated at the moment.

My money is on Harris being our target, but we'd take Bartlow if he somehow falls to us.  Our formation is well suited for wingers and Smith has talked a lot about competition and having the next set of players ready to go as the current set of players moves on to (hopefully) bigger things.  As a GA he wouldn't count against the cap and would be automatically protected in the expansion draft so its a low-risk/high payout  move.

If, somehow, all 5 GA's are taken with the first 5 picks which isn't likely I'm not sure what the Rapids will do.  My bet is that they have their eyes on LB Josh Drack out of DU but he's considered the 3rd best LB in the draft and Colorado is probably hoping he'll fall to them with the 21st pick.

As I'm able to tomorrow I'll update the blog with any news (draft day is always a busy trade day for the league) and our picks, with a wrap-up of the day tomorrow night.

Rapids Pass On Rest Of Superdraft

The Rapids passed with all three of their picks in rounds 3 and 4 of the Superdraft today.  Not a shock, more than half the teams passed on at least one pick.  There's just not value any more this low in the draft.  MLS should reduce it to two rounds for now and eventually phase it out in favor of another allocation list style ranking when the league gets to 30 or so teams.

Superdraft Results

It didn't come as expected, but the Rapids got their man today.  We said yesterday that it appeared Colorado was zeroing in on North Carolina RB/DM Jeremy Kelly, apparently Montreal knew that too.  After an on-again off-again trade with Minnesota for the 9th pick Montreal kept it and selected Kelly, two picks in front of the Rapids.  Padraig Smith and his team then decided there wasn't anyone else of interest at #11 and traded the pick to Gary Smith and company in Nashville for $75K of GAM.

But wait, maybe (well, probably) they knew something we didn't.  They the immediately turned around and traded $75K of GAM to Montreal...for Jeremy Kelly.  Somehow the Rapids essentially traded up from #11 to #9 at no cost to them.  Well done by the Front Office on that one.

With the 11th pick in the 2nd round the Rapids took defender Robin Afamefuma out of Virginia.

Both Kelly and Afamefuma were born in Europe (Czech Republic and Germany respectively) but Kelly moved to the States when he was 10 and is an American citizen.  I believe Afamefuma would require an international slot, which me's he's got a hill to climb to make the team.  Right now I project him to sign with the Switchbacks, not the Rapids.

MLS Superdraft and Young DP

Two big areas to cover today.  First, tomorrow is the MLS Superdraft.  It kind of snuck up on us with the holidays and the lack of a combine this year.

The Rapids have the 11th pick in all four rounds, as well as the 9th pick in the fourth round (from the Azira trade).  I'm hearing that the Rapids are focusing on Jeremy Kelly, a DM/RB out of North Carolina with their first pick.  He would be good cover for Rosenberry and allow Anderson more time to mature into the role as well as providing extra flexibility in the midfield if needed.

The rest of the picks are unlikely to amount to anything given the track history of recent drafts.  There certainly could be a diamond in the rough out there but the odds are against it.  Likely we'll find some good players to stock the Switchbacks with and maybe in a couple of years we'll look back and see we found a solid MLS player.

On the Young Designated Player front, we seem to have our player, if reports out of Argentina are accurate.  We have apparently signed Brian Galvan from Athletico Colon, a 19 year old midfielder.  The situation seems to be that Galvan is out of contract in June.  Players are allowed to sign future contracts once they're within 6 months of the end of their current contract.  Colon seems to have lost track of Galvan's contract status and allowed him to get into that 6 month window without locking him down for the future.  The Rapids apparently swooped in and got him signed before Colon realized their mistake.

Needless to say their fans are not pleased.  There is currently negotiations going on between the Rapids and Colon to buy him now and get him here in preseason instead of waiting for the summer transfer window.  It would be great to get him in now but that has to be balanced against how much its worth paying to get a young DP for the first half of the season when you know he;s showing up in July.

Galvan has only made 8 appearances for Colon in his career so far.  He suffered a knee injury 9 months or so ago that's kept him out but he's made 4 appearances in the last month and a half or so, according to Transfermarkt.  I expect that this is a move like Barco was for Atlanta, not expected to be an immediate impact but a long-term move.  Either he becomes a star for the Rapids or he becomes an asset we can sell on for more money than we paid for him.

Draftee Today, Homegrowns Tomorrow

The 3rd and 4th round of the draft was held today, by teleconference.  Enjoy it while its here because if today was any indication, those rounds won't be along much longer.  Of the 48 picks, 21 of them were PASS.  The Rapids had one pick, the 4th in the 4th round, and took midfielder Robbie Mertz out of Michigan, teammate of one of our 2nd round picks Marcello Borges.  Our four draft picks will join the team at training camp when it opens a week from today.

They're going to be joined by two new homegrown signings who will be announced at a press conference at 11am tomorrow.  One of them is expected to be midfielder Matt Hundley out of UCLA, there have been rumors of his signing for a week or so.  The second signing is kind of up in the air, nobody is real sure who its going to be.

Regardless, with their signings and the fact that Shinyashiki signed a contract before the draft the Rapids will enter camp with 26 signed players.  That might be an all time high.

Recapping A Busy Day

Ok, lots of stuff happened today.  Lets break down the details, then we'll talk end result.

• Made the Beeny Feilhaber signing official
• Traded Marlon Hairston for $175K in GAM ($125K this year and $50K next year)
• Traded the #15 pick and $100K of GAM to Chicago for the #5 pick
• Used the #5 pick on DU forward Andre Shinyashiki
• Used their two second round picks on defenders Marcello Borges and Jacob Hauser-Ramsey

So at the end of the day we ended up with two signed players, two trialists, and $75K in GAM.  We did had to lose Hairston to do it.

All in all, a really good day.  We covered Feilhaber last night.  Shinyashiki comes to us from across town at DU where he played with Kort Ford and Sam Hamilton.  He had 28 goals and 4 assists in 21 games last year and 51 goals with 15 assists over his four years with the Pioneers.  He plays a bit in-between attacking mid and full striker.  As a Brazilian he does require an international slot (more on that later) but he already signed a deal with MLS so he's pretty much assured of making the roster.  It will be interesting to see how much time he spends in Commerce City compared to Colorado Springs, given that he has Kamara, Rubio, Feilhaber, Jackson, Gashi, Nicholson, and Mezquida battling for minutes in similar positions.

Borges is an outside back that, if he makes the roster, I expect to spend most of the season in the Springs and be an emergency backup behind Rosenberry, Vines, and Wynne.  Hauser-Ramsey is a tall centerback that's probably a long-shot to make the roster but given that we're a little thin there he'll have a shot.

One interesting point with the roster right now is that we've got a bit of an issue with international slots.  Right now we've traded for one and traded three away, leaving us with 6.  We currently have 8 internationals though.  Blomberg, Gashi, Mezquida, Nicholson, Price, Shinyashiki, Smith, and Wilson.  I'm not particularly worried about this, we've got plenty of time to figure it out.  There are a few options.  The most obvious one is Ena Patel's work getting green cards for some of these players.  Shinyashiki has been here for at least four years going to school, Blomberg and Nicholson are entering their third season in MLS, and of course Gashi has been here since 2016, though he may not be too interested given that he's probably leaving at the end of the season.  Other than that there's the always the unlikely possibility of trading one of them away, or the more likely scenario that we trade for an international slot or two.  They tend to go for around $100-$150K of GAM.  Lastly, we could always buy somebody like Blomberg or Boateng out of their contract before the season starts (that would only work for one of our two extra internationals).  Regardless we have 7 weeks to figure it out so no need to panic.

Live-ish Superdraft Post

I will update this as soon as my work allows as news breaks.

11:00am MT - Sources report that Cicago has dealt the #5 pick to Colorado for $100K of GAM and the #15 pick.  Moving up for Sinyashiki?

11:45am MT: The Rapids and Fire make the trade official and the Rapids select Andre Shinyashiki out of DU.  A great get for the Rapids.  Now its a long run until our next pick, the 4th pick in the 2nd round.

1:30pm MT: More on Shinyashiki here.

1:40pm MT: Not draft related, but Marlon Hairston was just traded to Houston for $175K in GAM.  $125K this year and $50K next year.

1:50pm MT: With the 4th pick in the 2nd round the Rapids select defender Marcello Borges out of Michigan.  Next pick (and last currently scheduled for today) is at #18.

2:45pm MT: With the 18th pick in the 2nd round the Rapids select defender Jacob Hauser-Ramsey out of U Conn.  That's our last pick for the day barring another trade.  Rounds 3 and 4 will be held on Monday but the Rapids only pick, currently, is the 4th pick of the 4th round.  Later tonight or this weekend I'll post a better recap of today's moves.  If we do make another move in the 2nd round I'll update this post.

Superdraft Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the annual Superdraft which has been less and less meaningful in recent years.  I wrote an article about the Rapids recent draft history for Burgundy Wave earlier this week so I'm not going to spend a ton of time here rehashing the same article.  I'll quote the end of it though as it sums up what I expect to happen tomorrow, with one caveat:

So where does that leave the Rapids this year? We traded the 4th pick in the draft to Dallas as part of the Acosta/Badji trade and got their 15th pick in exchange. I don’t know about you but I’d rather have Acosta and the 15th pick than not have Acosta and hope to find a quality player with the 4thpick. Beyond that, we have the 28th, 42nd, and 76th picks (for now at least). That’s two in the 2ndround and one in the 4th round. Our best-case scenario is probably finding a diamond in the rough like Jackson. We should not expect to pick up an MLS-ready player on Friday.

The caveat that I didn't cover is the possibility of trading up to acquire DU's Andre Shinyashiki, a forward from Brazil.  He played with the Rapids U-23s in the 2017-18 season so presumably the Front Office has a pretty good scouting report on him.  I would not be shocked to see the Rapids move into the top 5 to get him, especially since there are rumors that the Crew are willing to trade their spot for $100K in GAM/TAM.  Some combination of Hairston, draft picks, and $$$ should get the Rapids high enough to get him, if that's what they want.

As much as possible I'll try to update here in real-time during the draft tomorrow, with a full recap tomorrow night.

Rapids Take 2 Forwards In Draft

The Rapids made no trades yesterday, leaving them with the 2 picks they had going into the day, the 2nd and 4th in the second round.  They took a forward with both picks, first Alan Winn out of UNC followed by Frantzy Perroit out of Coastal Carolina U.  Rounds 3 & 4 are via conference call tomorrow at noon, Colorado has the 4th pick in the third round and the 3rd and 4th picks in the fourth round.

Winn is a wide player that scored 11 times for UNC last season.  Perroit is more of a traditional #9 who put up 10 goals last season for Coastal Carolina.  He is Haitian by birth but has an American passport so he won't count as an international.

Also yesterday American center back Cameron Carter-Vickers was loaned from Tottenham to Ipswich Town, freeing up Tommy Smith to make a move.  No word yet about a signing here but all the pieces are in place.

Tommy Smith Incoming and Superdraft "Preview"

So those posts last week where I downplayed the likelihood of Tommy Smith joining the Rapids?  Oops.  Its looking like he'll be in camp at least in time to go to Arizona with the team next Wednesday.  At least, if the reporting from his current team is to be believed.  This morning we woke up to a report from an Ipswich paper that the deal to sell Smith to Colorado was done pending Ipswich Town singing a replacement.  Tonight there's a report from the same source that Ipswich is expected to announced a defender joining on loan tomorrow.  That would leave Smith free to come to Colorado and go through the formalities to be announced early next week before the team goes to Arizona.

So what do we know about Tommy Smith?  He's a 27 year old New Zealand center back that has spent his whole career with Ipswich Town (he has 29 appearances with 3 different teams on loan).  He's made 245 appearances for The Tractor Boys since he joined the squad in 2007.  Hes also a New Zealand international and he has been capped 32 times for the All-Whites including playing for Anthony Hudson a few times though most of his callups were before Hudson took charge.

Smith has dealt with a back injury recently and has only appeared 13 times for Ipswich over the last season and a half as he's fallen out of favor.  Transfermarkt lists his value as $2 million but hopefully with him being out of favor we could get him for a lower number than that.  Obviously he is an international so acquiring him will require us to make another move before the roster deadline day to free up an international slot.  He would fill a the hole at CB, leaving us a back 3 likely of Ford-Smith-Sjoberg, but there's a rumor that Sjoberg might be on the trading block so there may be more changes to come.

We could see those changes tomorrow as Superdraft day always ends up with wheeling and dealing around the league.  There isn't much to preview for the Rapids as they have two second round picks tomorrow, the 2nd and 4th picks of the round, having traded their first round pick for Eric Miller.  Over the last few years any pick outside the first round has been a crap shoot, the last player to be picked outside the first round and notably more than an average MLS player was Joao Plata who was drafted in the second round in 2011 by Toronto.  Other than that there are some decent MLS players who have been drafted in later rounds but nobody who's become a leading player for their club.  With our current picks I expect Colorado to draft somebody who sticks with the team out of camp tomorrow (like Sam Hamilton has from last year's draft) and a goalkeeper on Sunday the be the 3rd keeper on the roster, but nobody who's going to make a significant difference to this team.