MLS Waiver Draft

This is my first full season as an MLS fan, so I’m still struggling to understand some of the concepts. Like the MLS Waiver Draft.

As I understand it, the Waiver Draft is a little bit like a garage sale. You gather up the stuff you’re going to get rid of anyway, package it up real pretty, stick it out on a card table for display purposes, and hope somebody takes it off your hands so it doesn’t end up in the landfill. Or on Hollywood United with Alexi Lalas. Have I got it right?

And here are the guys who were sitting on our teams’ respective card tables:

CHIVAS: David Arvizu, Desmond Brooks, Carlos Llamosa, Rodrigo Lopez, Laurent Merlin, Justin Myers, Ramon Nunez, Orlando Perez, Eder Robles, Erasmo Solorzano

COLORADO: Zach Thornton

COLUMBUS: Ben Hunter

DALLAS: Juan Botero

D.C. UNITED: Shawn Crowe, Mira Mupier, Brad North, Kiki Willis,

HOUSTON: Kenneth Hoerner, Jordan James

KANSAS CITY: Edson Edcock, Aaron John Godbolt, Willy Guadarrama, Chris Konopka

LOS ANGELES: Mike Caso, Lance Friesz, Carlos Pavon, Kyle Veris

NEW YORK: Blake Camp

NEW ENGLAND: Bryan Byrne, Miguel Gonzalez, Marshall Leonard, Chris Loftus

REAL SALT LAKE: Chris Brown, Steven Curfman, Christian Jimenez, Jean-Martial Kipre, Jack Stewart

TORONTO FC: Adam Braz, Maycoll Canizalez, Srdjan Djekanovic, David Guzman, Stephen Lumley, Cristian Nunez, Marco Reda

A lot of minimum wage guys that only team fans have ever heard of, but a few big names, too. Like Honduran international Carlos Pavon, over there on the LA Galaxy’s table. And Chicago is apparently a hoarder, having no table at all. (I’ll bet their house is filled with teetering towers of newspapers dating back fifty years, and every rubber band they’ve ever owned.) And Chivas had a fire sale despite not having a bad year. Wonder what’s up with that? (The Toronto fire sale I understand.)

From what I hear, four or five players generally get taken in the Waiver Draft. I was hoping to have info on their identities, but as with much MLS stuff, nobody seems too interested in reporting it. Stay tuned, and I’ll fill you in tomorrow.

Thanks to my brother-in-blog Dave over at Redbulls Offside for the information.

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Category: MLS, World Football