It was brought to my attention this morning that with Frank Yallop's buyout by the San Jose Earthquakes, Los Angeles has managed to amass a grand total of 9 draft picks for the 4 rounds of the 2008 MLS SuperDraft.
This perhaps is the best tool Ruud Gullit and Cobi Jones have as they start to look into the 2008 Season as it perhaps holds the key to doing that which seemed impossible: Keeping Landon Donovan without dismantling the team.
I had originally expect Galaxy to lose a 3 man package in order to keep Landon. Either Randolph, Martino and Albright, or Randolph, Harmse and Jazic [if we traded with TFC].
But why trade players we have if we can trade players that we don't have. When trading away players, most teams are willing to accept a draft pick for a draft that'll take place one or two years down the line. Here's where LA has some real strength. We're not talking about draft picks for 09, or 2010. We're talking about draft picks for January of 08.
LA should be able to make either one big trade giving away 4 or 5 draft picks in exchange for a DP spot, or a number of trades to put together a package of players that won't affect the team's core and will be attractive enough for other teams to bite.
I still fully expect us to keep and use at least 4 of those draft picks. In last year's draft LA picked up Robbie Findley, Ty Harden and Josh Tudela who have all proven to be good players with a lot of potential. Finding young guys is going to be critical in strengthening this team not just for the upcoming season, but in the long run.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment