Ten Worst: Draft picks
September 29, 2005
Sometimes it's pretty hard to come up with a "Ten Best" list, so we're bringing to you "Ten Worst", an upside-down look at Metro. Until Bob Bradley was hired as Metro coach, Metro history was polluted with one horrible draft pick after another, starting with the inaugural draft on. Draft position counts; as much as we all agree that Martin Klinger was a horrible player, he was drafted 46th overall, so nothing was ever expected of him.
10) Joe Munoz: 15th (College), 1998
The MetroStars had two straight picks, and did a little better by taking Billy Walsh 16th. Munoz played all of 12 forgettable minutes for the Metros. Behind him were drafted: Daniel Hernandez (18th), Tyrone Marshall (23rd), and Troll Franchino (30th).
9) John Wolyniec: 7th (College), 1999
Although Wolyniec had some success in his second stint with the team, he was cut by Bora Milutinovic in 1999 early into the season, before stepping onto the field, and this was for the team's highest draft pick that year! Bora obviously did not understand how a draft worked. Wolyniec did come back as a call-up from the Rough-Riders later that year, scoring on his debut.
8) Kerwyn Jemmott: 26th, 2001
We don't know how good the Trinidadian international was, as he never got a visa and a chance to play for the team. What we do know is that with the next pick, Columbus nabbed Long Island product Edson Buddle, someone local scribe Michael Lewis had raved about for the previous year.
7) Scott Lamphear: 12th (College), 1996
The Metros dealt out of the first round of the original college draft, a move that cost them Eddie Pope. So Lamphear became the first college pick in Metro history... and didn't report in 1996 and didn't make the team in 1997, when he came back to try out. Metro had the next pick as well, taking Miles Joseph. But it is the picks that came afterward that make this selection so horrible: Diego Gutierrez (15th), Greg Vanney (17th), Steve Ralston (18th), Jesse Marsch (21st), Eddie Lewis (23rd), and Ante Razov (27th).
6) Diego Serna: 4th (Allocation), 2002
Although not a traditional draft pick, Serna belongs on this list as the man Octavio Zambrano had to have during the Tampa and Miami dispersal Allocation draft. The Metros traded Mark Chung for a chance to select the talented but heartless Serna, who played all of eight games for them before being shipped to New England. Two picks later in the draft, the Revs grabbed Steve Ralston.
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