There’s no doubt that out of the two, Bruin is more capable of starting in March 2011. But which player has the higher ceiling? Bruin is capable of having a rookie season similar to Zach Schilawski, but I’m not confident that he’ll ever turn into a 10-goal scorer like Conor Casey or Wondolowski. I feel like picking Salgado could be high risk / high reward. Are we willing to take the risk and wait though? The answer probably depends on the likelihood of United acquiring a proven scorer from overseas.

Now that would be interesting to see

Gonzalez came out of college a better player than Valentin or White are today. More importantly, he walked into a vastly different situation. LA nestled Gonzalez in a back four that was going to be very strong with or without him (Franklin, Berhalter, and Dunivant). We don’t have a single veteran defender with Dunivant’s experience, much less Berhalter. Gonzalez is now in the national team conversation, whereas without the guidance and support he got he’d probably be no more than a solid MLS center back.

I like the idea of not being satisfied with our current defense, but it’s not a problem we can fix quickly via the draft. If we’re looking to draft our way to a solid defensive record, we’ll be bleeding goals this year and next year, even if Onstad is able to get the team to play better defensively from front to back. In the short term, we still need at least one finished product in the back serving as a leader. I think that’s why Payne and Olsen both said we’d take an attacking player at #3.

I have no problem with the idea of drafting a defensive player this season (I still think that if Kitchen falls to us, we should take him no matter who else is available), but with White coming in via the academy I think we have enough youth and potential there. It’s been a long, long time since we had a center back that teams are envious of.

Let me put it this way: I’d trade the #3 pick for a proven MLS center back that would start on over half of the league’s teams.

There’s a little piece of me that really wants United to wheel and deal in this draft, especially if it means getting somebody like Sarkodie or Tetteh (him later in the 1st round than Sarkodie, likely). The problem is always what you have to give in the dealings.

Not that you are interested in Tetteh, but that you think that there aren’t 11 weakest points on your roster. Sorry, that was mean. I do think that DC has to deal with either their defense or offense, I would think a good solid center back or one of the wealth of forwards would be the most beneficial to United. Hertzog is fairly local, and sounds like a real deal at forward.

But what about next week? I know the Timbers need an offensive threat. You know the Timbers need an offensive threat. But is Spencer comfortable enough with the defense to start worrying about scoring goals yet?