Sneaky Pete

Okay, so I got one player right in my mock expansion draft, but like I said at the outset, there are a number of strategies you could use going in. I didn't count on Philadelphia Union coach Peter Nowak picking almost entirely based on price. I had noted that Ives' mock draft was about $1.3 million in 2009 salary, and mine was just over $1.1 million. Nowak's actual picks, on the other hand, accounted for just $615,000.

That's one piece of the puzzle, but the other two big factors are youth and speed. Only three players out of ten are older than 25. Shea Salinas and Nick Zimmerman are both pretty darn fast. And, in my defense, Brad Knighton was one of my pool of goalkeepers, Salinas would have been my pick from San Jose had I not made a bad assumption about Bobby Convey, Sebastian LeToux was almost on my list, and Jordan Harvey wasn't too far behind Jacob Peterson for Colorado candidates.

Miglioranzi is probably a better holding midfielder option than Ubiparipovic or Stephen King, but I had at least two other players I liked better on L.A., so that didn't cross my mind.

As a Chicago fan, the David Myrie pick intrigues me, because he played exactly zero minutes for the Fire since they acquired him. Nowak may be guessing that the Fire front office was hoping the lack of playing time would hide the club's hopes that he might be a solid replacement for Gonzalo Segares at left back when Sega makes his expected move to Europe. So either he figured he's got upside for his squad based on his time at Alajuelense, or he's holding him hostage to get some sort of trade out of Chicago. Heck, maybe Denis Hamlett put in a call to Nowak after being released and tipped him off to the kid's value as a parting shot to the Fire's ownership.