MLS Waiver Draft History

UPDATE, Post-2008: Latest draft now included. MLS usually has two waiver drafts during the year, one just before the season starts and another just after the season ends. When searching for info online, I found that there wasn't one place to find out the results of each edition. So that's the rationale behind this post. A few notes. As you can see, there are several drafts for which I cannot find any information. They may not have taken place at all. I also want to point out this link at the American Soccer History site, which mentions four players taken (probably in the pre-1997 draft). So if you have any info on that or any of the missing years, please post it here. In early 2002 there were two drafts, while in 2003 a supplemental draft was held (where Brian Ching was selected by SJ). That's not the same thing as a waiver draft though, because while those players were without a team, they had signed with the league and were not waived recently (even though two of them had been previously). I must also mention that the way the MLS waiver system used to be was that there was a specific order for teams to claim players based on the recent records of the teams. If you claimed a player off waivers, then you went to the back of the line. That happened when you selected a player in the waiver draft as well. So really, it could be said that technically there were many, many waiver drafts throughout the years. But I don't have the patience to figure all that out. The team listed is the one that picked the player listed. Definitely the best pick would have to be Waibel IMO. I've provided sources for the results, except in a few cases where I forgot to record the link. 11/8/1996 Greg Lalas New England Link Pre 1997 ??? 11/17/1997 Mark Dougherty Columbus Link Bill Harte Columbus Pre 1998 ??? 11/2/1998 Shawn Medved New England Link Joey Martinez San Jose Harut Karapetyan Tampa Bay Garth Lagerwey Colorado Kris Kelderman New England 4/4/1999 Leighton O'Brien San Jose Tony Kuhn New England more??? 11/24/1999 Nino Da Silva New York Link Gabe Eastman San Jose Mario Gori Columbus 3/16/2000 Mark Dougherty New England Link Adam Frye Los Angeles 11/3/2000 Francis Okaroh San Jose Link Steve Armas Tampa Bay Seth George Chicago 3/29/2001 Andy Williams New England Link Ben Stafford DC United 11/19/2001 (no selections) Link 1/17/2002 Imad Baba Colorado Link Chad McCarty Columbus 2/14/2002 Ivan McKinley DC United Link Eric Wynalda Los Angeles 11/6/2002 Craig Waibel San Jose Link Luchi Gonzalez Columbus Billy Sleeth Colorado Pre 2003 ??? 11/25/2003 (no selections) Link 3/4/2004 (no selections) Link Post 2004 ??? Pre 2005 ??? 11/16/2005 (no selections) Link 11/21/2006 Eric Denton New York 3/5/2007 Jon Busch Toronto Link Post 2007 (no selections) 3/4/2008 Brandon Prideaux Chicago Jeff Curtin DC United Kyle Brown Houston 11/26/2008 Mike Petke New York