Helltown Beer MLS Player of the Year

This marks the 9th MLS Player of the Year Award for Helltown. It's the same rating system I've been using since 2011. It's a simple system that looks at basic "box score" statistics and then weighs how well the team did during the regular season. It's not meant to split hairs, it's purpose since day one has been to give me a general idea of who is playing well.

LAFC took over my rating system this year. Six of my top 10 players are on that team. Similar to WhoScored's team of the year (where there are four on the starting 11). MLS's age of "super-teams," comparatively speaking, is here.

You can see the complete FINAL list HERE.

2019 WINNER: CARLOS VELA

Past Winners:
2018: Josef Martinez
2017: Nemanja Nikolić
2016: Bradley Wright-Phillips
2015: Bradley Wright-Phillips
2014: Robbie Keane
2013: Darlington Nagbe
2012: Chris Wondolowski
2011: Todd Dunivant

Goal scoring players have dominated my winner's list SIX years straight, which lines up with MLS's focus on increasing goals.

Since 2011 I've had 7 forwards, a midfielder and a defender win Player of the Year. I have not changed my methodology since 2011.

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Top NPS Performer, LAFC: Vela

After yesterday's look at Columbus Crew players using what's called a Net Promoter Score, I decided to take a look at the best team in the league and apply the same math to their players. Here's what happened.

Net Promoter Score : Player Name

+94 : Carlos Vela
+87 : Eduard Atuesta

+63 : Diego Rossi
+56 : Latif Blessing
+50 : Mark-Anthony Kaye

+47 : Walker Zimmerman
+45 : Steven Beitashour
+38 : Eddie Segura
+33 : Adama Diomande
+33 : Danilo Silva
+33 : Tristan Blackmon
+29 : Jordan Harvey
+14 : Christian Ramirez
+6 : Tyler Miller

0 : Javier Pérez
0 : Mohamed El-Munir
0 : Niko Hämälainen
0 : Peter-Lee Vassell
0 : Shaft Brewer

-14 Lee Nguyen
-17 Adrien Pérez
-20 André Horta
-50 Josh Pérez

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Some quick callouts:

1. Columbus didn't have any players above +53 (Pedro Santos).

2. When looking at individual game performances, LAFC has 17 of the top 20 spots (8 are Carlos Vela).

3. 16% of all individual Crew player performances have resulted in a badly rated game. That number is only 7% for LAFC.

4. Crew have 10 players in the negative, LAFC only 4.

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I'll run this by a few more teams, but it's looking like a solid way to measure player performance once the season gets going. Again, I love this metric because it tells me who is having bad outings. In retail, it told me what products were performing poorly with customers in the same way. It got to where I wanted, quickly. From there I can spend valuable time on those, instead of chasing one or two bad reviews/customer experiences.

Same thing with players. It's the old "you're only as strong as your weakest link" line. Columbus, thus far in 2019, just have too many players getting outplayed. That doesn't always mean it is the player's fault, but it is concerning for them.

If Anthony Precourt, Gregg Berhalter and the Columbus Crew SC...

Are serious about turning our beloved Crew into something which transcends anything that has come before on the Columbus sports landscape, then...

Alan Pulido

and 

Carlos Vela

(pictured above: left and right)

are the kind of attacking players they should be breaking the bank

to offer Black and Gold jerseys

Spending the kind of money needed to grab hold of young attacking quality, such as the two above, must carry with it the real possibility of seeing a return on investment. As I mentioned in my previous post  Berhalter Spotted in the Heart of Gold Spaceship Mexico is a logical and prudent direction to look for the kind of players who can both greatly improve the quality and marketability of the club.

There are thousands of Mexican ex-pats living in Columbus. Anyone who has gone to a Crew game in the last few years knows that the number of those ex-pats showing up to games on Hudson Street is a small sliver of the overall Mexican and Mexican-American population in our town. 

If Anthony Precourt and Greg Berhalter want to extend the reach of the newly rebranded Crew, they have to begin including ALL the soccer fans in Columbus. The only meaningful way to achieve this is player personnel. These players would cost millions. You're looking at $1.5 million/year for each of these players. But they are the kind of players who have a damn good chance of selling enough tickets and jerseys to more than cover the financial risk.

The ball is in our owner's end of the field. The television money is beginning to skyrocket. There will be a new Collective Bargaining Agreement before the 2015 season kicks off. NOW is the time to make this sort of move. Engaging  Columbus' futbol loving Mexican-American residents (and just for the heck-of-it, let's make some front office moves that open doors for the soccer fanatic Somali residents who call Columbus home) would be a game changer of epic proportions. The resulting cosmopolitan feel to a night in Crew Stadium would be sublime.

PS: I realize Vela's transfer fee would be silly big.