ESPNMAG.com - SuperDraft surprises?

UPDATE: Don't expect too much wheeling and dealing around draft time, but Boot Room has learned this little gem, as of Friday afternoon: The Dallas Burn have traded Ariel Graziani to San Jose for Ronald Cerritos. Stay tuned for more info.

Maybe it's because it's so understated, so unhyped, I don't really know. But for some reason, the MLS Draft has always exceeded expectations on the excite-o-meter.

It's one of those events where you go in with so few expectations. Unless you're someone who can travel the country watching college and elite youth club soccer games, most of the players are a mystery. You hear "so-and-so" is a good player, but do you really know? I admit every year that I don't. And that's why I won't do a mock draft.

But then draft day comes and, in years past, teams have started wheeling and dealing. Trading big-salaried players for draft picks. Trading two picks for one pick, three current picks for five picks spread out over the next decade. Your head starts to spin. Your tally sheet turns into something resembling a cheater's golf scorecard. Your "cap projections" for teams turn out to be useless because, in MLS, so many of these draft day trades involve salary-swaps, and terms like "future considerations" and "conditional draft pick" come into play, leaving you further mystified.

But when the dust settles ... usually a couple of months into the season ... you realize there were some pretty good players selected, and the whole day was pretty meaningful.

So, will Sunday's SuperDraft (it's been Super for three years now ... remember there used to be college and supplemental drafts?) bring us more of the same fun and games?

Sorry to say, I kind of doubt it.

When MLS contracted by two a month ago and held those allocation and dispersal drafts (now known as the New England Project), I got the feeling teams pretty much set up shop for the 2002 season, dealing what they had to deal, taking their best shots right there. The fact that no team selected the reigning league MVP, ex-Fusion star Alex Pineda Chacon, until everyone had passed on him gave us an idea of how tight teams are against the cap.

So, Sunday, I look for a pretty straightforward draft. You'll see some teams trying to fill needs, and others going for the always popular "best player available." I do not think you'll see the customary barrage of trades.

But, like I said above, draft day in MLS has been known to surprise us.

In Tight Space

Got a lot of reaction to my "hoping" for an MLS players strike in 2002 in my last column. Thanks to all who littered my inbox with "You Idiot" e-mails. Let's just say, the comment was my way of saying it's time for the players and investors in MLS to truly become partners, which was supposed to be the backbone of the single-entity structure.

The players should withdraw the appeal of their lawsuit -- even though they have no faith that the investors will play fair with them -- and get a collective bargaining agreeement. Take the league into the next five years with some good faith on both sides of the ball. I'm not saying it's time for across-the-board raises. Not when so many in MLS (in the league offices, in the front offices of the two Florida clubs, and on the playing field) have lost their jobs in the past month. I'm saying the players should get the ball rolling on a 401k and some form of limited free agency, so veteran players can have some say in where they play.

It's pretty clear now that the teams in MLS with salary cap problems are those who've built their core of American players over the years. Take the Chicago Fire as an example. Back in their championship year of '98, they were able to spend large on their foreign slots. But as once low-salaried Americans like Chris Armas, Ante Razov, C.J. Brown, Zach Thornton and Diego Gutierrez have worked their way up the ladder, the Fire have found there's not a lot left over for foreign talent. It's not unlike the old D.C. dynasty that had to break up when players like Eddie Pope and Ben Olsen started working their way up the salary scale.

Please go to www.mlsnet.com for an explanation of the new player designations in MLS. I'll boil it down to this: The league seems to be setting up so there will not be a lot of marquee allocations in the future. American veterans and young international players will be the wave of the future league-wide.

When the boards at BigSoccer.com went down for a few days last week and the e-mails started coming my way, I was this close to setting up a suicide hotline. I hope some of you guys applied sunscreen before stepping outside, away from your computers, for the first time in months.

The soccer offseason has afforded me time to rent and watch The Sopranos from Episode 1 through the end of the third season. Pretty cool that the first guy whacked said he went to West Essex High School, my alma mater, while the second guy to take a bullet, a character named Brendan Filone, was played by Anthony DeSando, who actually went to West Essex. Talk about school pride.

Another barrage of e-mail came from those who didn't like that I wrote I'd prefer to see the U.S. play good soccer and not advance in the World Cup than play like garbage and grind out positive results. Hey, I'll be the first to admit when it comes to the World Cup, it's hard to adhere to the "no cheering in the press box" rule. We all want to see the U.S. win. But, look no further than Morocco in the last World Cup for a team that made a big impact with its positive, at times breathtaking play ... yet did not advance. That's what I'm talking about.

No, I was not the guy who decided the U.S.-Italy match would not be televised on ESPN ... in case you were thinking about sending me an e-mail.

Eric Wynalda has been training with the Galaxy, but unless L.A. can move one of its young forwards, you have to wonder where he could fit in there. And, it says here, John Harkes finds his way to the Meadowlands and plays for the MetroStars in '02.

Finally, kudos to Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney for his most excellent "Confidential." If you do not subscribe to this e-mail service and you're an MLS fan, you are really missing out. Go to www.SoccerAmerica.com and take care of that ... and order the mag while you're at it.

Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at jeff.bradley@espnmag.com.