MLS SuperDraft Week At HTIOT

Although many see the MLS draft particularly as a very hit or miss affair, the Fire have always done a great job of drafting players that end up being major contributors to the team. The list is really a who's who of Fire teams, both past and present. Carlos Bocanegra (2000), Damani Ralph (2003), Logan Pause (2003), Chris Rolfe (2005), Sega (2005), Bakary Soumare (2007), Patrick Nyarko (2008), Sean Johnson (2010), Jalil Anibaba (2011), and Austin Berry (2012) is a pretty star studded lineup to have as a draft history. So who will continue this trend with the #11 pick in 2013? Well, we will find out soon enough, and HTIOT is your source for coverage up until then.

First up, James will present the SB Nation mock draft sometime tomorrow, so make sure you are looking out for that. As in years past, SB Nation editors participated in a mock draft and James represented HTIOT this year. While I won't spoil the results, let's just say I would be happy with the pick that the mock draft turned up should it happen in real life. Now, the Fire have a few needs, that being winger and back line depth. The Fire have a well publicized practice of taking the best available player, regardless of position. It just so happens that has worked out to be a defender the past few years. And, this year our back line needs are well know, and depth is think behind the starters,a s we all know.

Also look out for a roundtable post from us, with picks from all the editors in terms of who we would take if we had our say. I am sure many of us have read mock drafts. This will most likely hit Wednesday or early Thursday While it's always fun to debate and engage in scenario analysis, unfortunately no one can predict what will happen. Even teams with solid plans can have that thrown into a hectic state when a player they were planning on drafting goes off the board sooner than expected. Conversely, many teams are forced to change up their strategy if a player they thought would be gone suddenly falls in their lap. The only thing we can say with certainty is that the Fire won't really have a good idea of who the pick will actually be until pick #11 is close Thursday. Despite this anything goes affair, some of us at HTIOT will take a stab at playing Frank for a day.

Finally, this will all culminate in HTIOT's live (yes, we will be in Indy again) draft day coverage. As you may recall, rather than just live-blogging the draft, our own James Coston and Ruben Tisch will be on hand in Indy to bring us up to the minute news. There should be a good sprinkling of photos too (it's always good to see all the Fire fans representing every year). We should have a live thread up with up to the minute news, analysis, and picks. We will be your one stop Fire site to keep up to date with everything happening on Thursday. Please join in the fun and hopefully another hugely successful draft pick.

The only unfortunate thing about the draft is that it is not on tv as in years past. The action starts at 11 AM CST on ESPN3. Simply put, the draft in MLS is not nearly the ridiculous, over-produced spectacle that the NFL draft is. It's my hope that tv coverage will again get picked up in future years. Until then, HTIOT will be there to bring home all the news. Here's to Thursday cf97 nation!