2012 MLS Draft Defender Rankings UPDATE

January 11, 2012

**Please note that this is the opinion of Joe Mauceri. More opinions from other TopDrawerSoccer.com writers will be released as the draft nears. **

After watching 120 live college soccer games this year, supplemented by another 63 games on tape, composed of 151 different college teams, here is my Final 2012 MLS Draft Ranking.

This version includes Generation Adidas players that have signed, international players that have been reported to be attending the combine, and all seniors.

Joe's 2012 Mock Draft

Joe's 2012 Draft Rankings: Goalkeepers | Midfielders | Forwards

Players that I haven't seen are generally ranked lower than players that I have seen. I'm from the East coast - so it's easier for me to see teams in the East. However, I've seen UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Riverside, Creighton, SMU, Bradley, UCSB (3 times), Denver, New Mexico (twice), California, Bakersfield, San Jose State, Stanford, San Diego State, Washington (twice), UCLA (twice) and Drake live. I was unable to see some teams live, I've only seen on tape (e.g., Michigan State, Ohio State, UAB, Hofstra, Iona). I've reviewed a lot of tape (including the South American U20 qualification tournament. The combine will supplement my prior observations and fill the gaps where needed. I've seen every domestic combine college play live with the vast majority in 2011 and a handful in 2010.

My rankings take into account the values of Generation Adidas, international status and general assessment of the skill and how each player might fit into a MLS team. Given the 3 expansion teams in the past 2 years and the roster increase, I've made slight grade inflation and I'm considering the players with a grade of C+ have increased chances of making a roster and some of the players with higher C rankings may be able to stick, as well.

In addition to ranking each player sequentially, I'm assigning a letter grade using the following scale:

A=Can't miss prospect. Should easily make the roster and may get time with the first team in 2012. By the end of the year, could be an impact player.

B=Likely to make the team. Could make roster, may take a year or more to get to the first team.

C=Probably not going to make the team. Has significant barriers to overcome. A very select few may eventually make it, but it would need to be a perfect storm (multiple injuries, playing out of their heads, fortuitous bounces, etc.).

D=Extremely unlikely to make a team.

F=No shot.

Within each grade, I've ranked each player.

#	Pos	Grade	Name	College	Combine?
	Def		Connor Lade	St. John's	Homegrown
1	Def	A	Andrew Wenger	Duke	GA
2	Def	B+	Matt Hedges	UNC	Combine
3	Def	B	Austin Berry	Louisville	Combine
4	Def	B-	Chris Estridge	Indiana	Combine
5	Def	B-	Tyler Polak	Creighton	GA-Combine
6	Def	B-	Tommy Meyer	Indiana	Combine
7	Def	C+	Andrew Duran	Creighton	Combine
8	Def	C+	Andrew Jean-Baptiste	Connecticut	GA-Combine
9	Def	C+	Warren Creavalle	UCF	Combine
10	Def	C+	Gienir Garcia		Intl-Combine
11	Def	C	Jake Levin	Penn
12	Def	C	Charles Rodriguez	Charlotte	Combine
13	Def	C	Mykell Bates	Santa Clara	Combine
14	Def	C	James Kiffe	UCSB	Combine
15	Def	C	RJ Allen	Monmouth	Combine
16	Def	C	Ray Gaddis	West Virginia
17	Def	C	Alex Lee	Maryland
18	Def	C	Hunter Jumper	UVA	Combine
19	Def	C-	Justin Chavez	Tulsa	Combine
20	Def	C-	Jamie Finch	Washington
21	Def	C-	Chris Phillips	Liberty
22	Def	C-	Derek Prinz	Hastings
23	Def	C-	Nick Rich	VCU
24	Def	C-	Aaron Maund	Notre Dame	Combine
25	Def	C-	David Tiemstra	OSU
26	Def	C-	Roger Downes	Loyola-Marymount
27	Def	C-	Mauricio Mora	Adelphi
28	Def	C-	Benjamin Ubierna		Intl-Combine
29	Def	D+	Lance Patterson	UC Davis
30	Def	D+	David Datilus	Providence
31	Def	D+	Draymond Washington	George Mason
32	Def	D+	Stefan Antonijevic	Valparaiso
33	Def	D+	Isaac Cowles	Charlotte
34	Def	D+	Aubrey Perry	South Florida	Combine
35	Def	D+	Kevin Venegas	Cal State Fullerton
36	Def	D+	Matt Drake	West Virginia
37	Def	D+	Nickardo Blake	Connecticut	Combine
38	Def	D+	Colin Henry	Boston University
39	Def	D+	Mike Volk	UVA
40	Def	D+	Kevin Strunk	Lehigh
41	Def	D+	Kris Byrd	UNCG
42	Def	D+	Greg Monaco	UVA
43	Def	D+	Eric Zuehsow	George Mason
44	Def	D+	Jack Cleverly	Fairfield
45	Def	D+	Jack Pearson	Dayton
46	Def	D+	Mark Barone	Michigan State
47	Def	D	Shawn Singh	UCLA	Combine
48	Def	D	Chad Vandergriffe	SLU
49	Def	D	Patrick Sigler	Cal Poly	Combine
50	Def	D	Diogo de Almeida	SMU	Combine
51	Def	D	Daniel Steres	San Diego State
52	Def	D	Ryan Kawulok	Portland
53	Def	D	Cyprian Hedrick	Coastal Carolina
54	Def	D	Andrew Powell	Bucknell
55	Def	D	Gerard Barbero	Missouri St
56	Def	D	Francis Otira	Northern Illinois
57	Def	D-	Anthony Vazquez	Monmouth
58	Def	D-	Tom Brandt	Penn
59	Def	D-	Wes Feighner	Cal Poly
60	Def	D-	Sam Brooks	Kentucky
61	Def	D-	Tobias Hottner	Jacksonville
62	Def	D-	Peter O'Neill	Northwestern
63	Def	D-	Ryan Wilhelm	SIUE
64	Def	D-	Andrew Henshaw	Massachusetts
65	Def	D-	Ronnie Shaban	Columbia
66	Def	D-	Ben Slingerland	Georgetown
67	Def	D-	Greg Macnamara	Davidson
68	Def	D-	Evan Coleman	Brown
69	Def	D	Mark Fetrow	PSU
70	Def	D-	Kyle McTurk	Stony Brook
71	Def	D-	Daniel Larenius	Adelphi
72	Def	D-	Tim Pontius	UCSB
73	Def	D-	Brice Carr	George Washington
74	Def	D-	Yogi Snider	IUPUI
75	Def	D-	Blaine Gonsalves	Tulsa
76	Def	D-	Jarrett Robbins	Evansville
77	Def	F+	Darren O'Connor	Delaware
78	Def	F+	Brad Walker	Kentucky
79	Def	F+	Cameron Walters	Cal Poly
80	Def	F+	Kevin Garcia	Villanova
81	Def	F+	Rory O'Day	Sacramento St
82	Def	F+	Shane Johnson	Longwood
83	Def	F+	Nicholas Hamilton	Cal State Northridge
84	Def	F+	Nick Pappas	Dartmouth
85	Def	F+	John Raley	Providence
86	Def	F+	Greg Klazura	Notre Dame
87	Def	F+	Patrick Chin	Boston College
88	Def	F+	Tyler Krumpe	Loyola-Marymount
89	Def	F+	Aaron Henkle	Evansville
90	Def	F+	Dan Korenyi	La Salle
91	Def	F+	Uzi Tayou	West Virginia
92	Def	F+	Tommy Webb	Old Dominion
93	Def	F+	Mike Burke	George Washington
94	Def	F+	Jason Gannon	James Madison
95	Def	F+	Danny Cates	South Carolina
96	Def	F+	Joe Baker	Seton Hall
97	Def	F+	Jherrett Maroney	Hartwick
98	Def	F+	Nick Viaggio	Siena
99	Def	F+	Wei Ming-Wong	Valparaiso
100	Def	F+	Ian Kalis	SMU
101	Def	F	Christian Nogueira	Monmouth
102	Def	F	Ibu Otegbeye	Georgetown
103	Def	F	Austen King	Elon
104	Def	F	Serigne Sylla	Stony Brook
105	Def	F	Thomas Vania	Missouri St
106	Def	F	James Shupp	Virginia Tech
107	Def	F	Andrew O'Brien	Central Arkansas
108	Def	F	Nik Conklin	Long Island
109	Def	F	Nick Dundon	La Salle
110	Def	F	David Key	Massachusetts
111	Def	F	Adam Still	SMU
112	Def	F	Ryan Duffy	Appalachian State
113	Def	F	Kevin Orozco	San Francisco
114	Def	F	Mike Picinich	Eastern Illinois
115	Def	F	David Buckenheimer	Missouri St
116	Def	F	Aldo Toma	St Francis (NY)
117	Def	F	Andy Hackbarth	Yale
118	Def	F	Chris Widdy	CS-Bakersfield
119	Def	F	Christopher Peacos	Georgia State
120	Def	F	Kooten Johnson	Western Illinois
121	Def	F	Eric Wilson	Air Force
122	Def	F	Ayao Sossou	VMI
123	Def	F	Gemechu Abraham	San Diego State
124	Def	F	Raphael Martinez	IPFW
125	Def	F	Nicholas Chase	FIU
126	Def	F	RB Asenime	Centenary
127	Def	F	Demaci Roussos	Seattle

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