Major League Pickleball Season 2 Premier Draft Results And Analysis

Major League Pickleball (MLP) held its draft on July 12th, 2023 in NYC for the “Season 2” of 2023. The player pool of registered, eligible players is here. Here’s the Premier
PINC
League draft results with some round-by-round analysis, then some discussion of the teams.

There are more than a few notable names from the first season who are not registered for season 2: Matt Wright and Lucy Kovalova were both early 2nd round picks and are taking this season off. Lindsay Newman is not registered, perhaps an acknowledgement of her stepping back from touring that we’ve seen over the past months. I see no other major names missing from the pool.

The live blog of the draft results at MLP’s site is online, with pick by pick updates.

Premier Round 1. Here’s how the 1st round went:

1. Chicago Slice: Johns, Ben
2. Utah Black Diamonds: Waters, Anna Leigh
3. DC Pickleball Team: Newman, Riley
4. Brooklyn Aces: Parenteau, Catherine
5. Orlando Squeeze: Bright, Anna
6. Columbus Pickleball Team: Johnson, JW
7. AZ Drive: Arnold, Julian
8. Texas Ranchers: Frazier, Dylan
9. Dallas Pickleball Club: Ignatowich, James
10. Atlanta Bouncers: Todd, Parris
11. Bay Area Breakers: Jansen, Lea
12. Miami Pickleball Club: Staksrud, Federico

Immediate reactions.

• As expected Johns and ALW go 1-2, though in the reverse order of last draft. It’s picking nits, since both Chicago and Utah are now well positioned to win with these two players, but I’d have gone ALW #1 overall, given my prior arguments related to the depth of women.
• No real surprises in picks 3-6 either; the top 6 players picked here were the exact same top 6 players picked in December (albeit in a slightly different order).
• DC and Orlando switched spots with a trade here, enabling DC to get Riley and Orlando to drop down to take Bright. I like this trade for Orlando, under my theory that I’d rather have a top female than male in round 1.
• Picks 7-12 were all players who were 2nd or 3rd rounders in the first season, showing just how quickly tides can turn for these players. The biggest riser was Staksrud, picked 12th today, up from 34th in the first season.
• Parris Todd is the outlier; she did not play the first MLP season, and now is the fourth female picked, ahead of a slew of established PPA stars. Some have claimed Todd is no longer a top-quality player because she primarily plays the APP right now; well, we’re about to see.
• Biggest “steal” of the first round? Probably Bay Area getting Jansen.
• Biggest “reach” of the first round? Frazier plays the right-side in gender doubles generally with J.W. Johnson (though he’s reportedly switching up to start playing with Matt Wright and may be moving back to the left); is it wise to take a right-side male in the 1st round? Staksrud’s exploits on the PPA are mostly in singles, and we’ve discussed in this space how little relatively speaking singles exploits matter; is this an overdraft?

Premier Round 2. Here’s how the 2nd round went:

• 13. Miami Pickleball Club: McGuffin, Tyson
• 14. Bay Area Breakers: Wright, Etta (mistakenly put in Matt initially)
• 15. Atlanta Bouncers: Jardim, Simone
• 16. Dallas Pickleball Club: Smith, Callie
• 17. Texas Ranchers: Johnson, Jorja
• 18. AZ Drive: David, Vivienne
• 19. Columbus Pickleball Team: Dizon, Meghan
• 20. Orlando Squeeze: Daescu, Andrei
• 21. Brooklyn Aces; Koop, Andrea
• 22. DC Pickleball Team: Kawamoto, Jackie
• 23. Utah Black Diamonds: Tereschenko, Irena
• 24. Chicago Slice: Irvine, Jessie

Immediate reactions.

• Ten of the twelve picks in the 2nd round were Females. It feels like a Fantasy Football Draft, when suddenly there’s a run on Tight Ends in the 5th round of drafting and everyone gets in on the action.
• As expected, the DC/Orlando trade enabled Orlando to move up 2 spots in the 2nd round and they nab the under-rated Daescu.
• Two players really slipped from where they were drafted in the first season: David went from 9th overall to 18th here, and Irvine fell from #8 in December to #24 here.
• At the end of round 2, there are still two 1st rounders available from the first season’s draft: Jay Devilliers (who went 7th overall in December), and Zane Navratil (who went 12th overall). Devillier’s slipping is especially curious, given his PPA medal history in all three disciplines within the last few months.
• Which teams followed my advice and went two females in a row? Utah, Brooklyn, Atlanta, and the Bay Area Breakers (who drafted so well last season and nearly ran the challenger table).
• Who is tempting fate and drafted two males in a row? Just Miami, who took McGuffin and Staksrud back to back. They will have to hope for some luck getting two solid females in rounds 3 and 4.
• Atlanta selects Jardim with their 2nd pick to pair with Todd; these two have dominated the APP so far in 2023, winning every single Women’s pro doubles event thus far, and will make for a formidable team here.
• ALW gets none other than the MLP-killer in Tereschenko as her second female. Reminder: Teams with Irena have won half the MLP competitions held thus far.
• Biggest “steal” of the 2nd round? I’d probably say Callie Smith to Dallas at #16, or Irvine dropping from a mid-1st rounder all the way to the end of the 2nd to pair with Johns for Chicago.
• Biggest “reach” of the 2nd round? Perhaps Daescu moving up from a late 3rd rounder last draft to mid-2nd round. Not too many reaches here with all the top females getting drafted.

Premier Round 3. Here’s how the 3rd round went:

• 25. Chicago Slice: Schneemann, Lacy
• 26. Utah Black Diamonds: Wilson, Thomas
• 27. Atlanta Bouncers: Tellez, Pablo
• 28. Brooklyn Aces: Patriquin, Hayden
• 29. DC Pickleball Team: Kawamoto, Jade
• 30. Columbus Pickleball Team: Brascia, Maggie
• 31. AZ Drive: Bar, Dekel
• 32. Texas Ranchers: Stratman, Lauren
• 33. Dallas Pickleball Club: Jones, Allyce
• 34. Orlando Squeeze: Navratil, Zane
• 35. Bay Area Breakers: Hewett, Rafa
• 36.Miami Pickleball Club: Tyra Black

Immediate reactions.

• Orlando makes their 2nd trade of the draft, again opting to switch around draft spots opportunistically. We’ll see how this plays out at the end of the draft, but they moved well down in the 3rd to move well up in the 4th by trading with Atlanta.
• Speaking of Atlanta, in drafting Lefty Pablo Tellez they pick the first player from outside of Season 1’s premier league rosters. Tellez was the 5th overall pick in the Challenger draft for the prior season and led the Bay Area Breakers to easily being the best challenger team.
• Dekel Bar drops from being an early 2nd rounder to a mid-3rd rounder, a significant drop, and a possible huge opportunity for the AZ drive to get value here.
• Navratil drops from the end of the 1st round to nearly the end of the 3rd round in this draft, and goes to the same Orlando team that purposely drafted down to take him. If Navratil plays to his capabilities, this could be a huge difference maker in this season.
• Tyra “Hurricane” Black becomes the first player picked that was outright undrafted last season (she was picked up in the challenged shuffle draft), and represents a huge rise in visibility for the up-and-coming player.
• My “look for lefty” strategy was followed this round by both Atlanta and … the same Bay Area Breakers team that showed so much draft acumen last season, nabbing Rafa Hewett with the 35th pick.
• At the end of the 3rd round, there still remains a 1st rounder from last season on the board: the well-traveled Jay Devilliers. I had to double check the draft pool; he’s definitely eligible, but is curiously dropping. I wonder if there’s a known scheduling issue with him that’s causing him to drop.
• Biggest “steal” of this round: I’m going to say Dekel Bar.
• Biggest “reach” of the round: there’s not a ton of reaching in round three, but I am surprised Black was taken here over some of the available talent. Did Schneemann go too soon?

Premier Round 4. Here’s how the 4th round went:

• 37. Miami Pickleball Club: Brascia, Mary
• 38. Bay Area Breakers: Garnett, Connor
• 39. Orlando Squeeze: Rohrabacher, Rachel
• 40. Dallas Pickleball Club: Devilliers, Jay
• 41. Texas Ranchers: Rettenmaier, Travis
• 42. AZ Drive: Glozman, Vivian
• 43. Columbus Pickleball Team: Johns, Collin
• 44. DC Pickleball Team: Alshon, Christian
• 45. Brooklyn Aces: Loong, Tyler
• 46. Atlanta Bouncers: Johnson, Hunter
• 47. Utah Black Diamonds: Koller, A.J.
• 48. Chicago Slice: Lange, Erik

Immediate reactions.

• Round 4 is where we really saw the turnover between players in premier versus challenger: 5 of the 12 picks in this round were challenger players last league. Challenger players Garnett, Glozman, Alshon, and Hunter Johnson move up to the big time.
• The Orlando Squeeze took Rachel Rohrabacher, the sole player on this list (besides Todd, who did not make herself eligible) who was not on any MLP team last season.
• Jay Devilliers falls from #7 pick last league to #40 this season, easily the biggest faller.
• At the end of the 4th round, there’s five players from premier last league left off a premier roster this time around: Yana Newell, Padegimaite, DJ Young, Tardio, and Yates.
• Texas drafts Rettenmaier, who owns a challenger MLP team, thus avoiding a direct conflict of interest, but still raising questions for a player basically competing against himself for one of the coveted 2024 premier spots.
• Biggest “steal” of the draft: Devilliers and AJ Koller, who was a 2nd rounder last league.
• Biggest “reach” of the round: Rohrabacher.

Here’s some “way too soon” draft analysis of the teams in general.

• I really like Atlanta’s team: Todd & Jardim, then a solid lefty in Tellez, then they got Parris’ boyfriend in Hunter Johnson. This team may be “APP-heavy” but they have great chemistry together.
• AZ got Mr. MLP in Arnold, got great value with Dekel, and an up and comer in Glozman.
• Bay Area definitely went for potential, getting fast risers Etta Wright and Connor Garnett and followed most of my draft rules (two females first, get a lefty, etc.).
• Brooklyn got great value in Koop, got a lefty in Loong, and is playing the odds picking Patriquin.
• Chicago got the GOAT in Johns, but will need a big step-up from Schneemann to succeed.
• Columbus got a nice left/right side male pairing for JW in Collin, but may have some intensity issues here.
• I like Dallas’ team; two solid length players in Ignatowich and Smith, the intensity of Jones, and a real value pick and super glue-guy in Devilliers. Good luck getting ball through James & Jay in men’s doubles.
• DC gets a couple of “talkers” in Riley & Alshon, and then pairs the lefty/righty sister Kawamoto pair. A sleeper.
• Miami rolls the dice with two men in a row, and with Hurricane showing up and making a statement.
• Orlando featured trades for all four of its spots and features one of the top 3 females in Bright, but takes the relative unknown in Rohrabacher and will need Navratil to play with a chip on his shoulder for the draft snub.
• Texas’ roster depends heavily on Frazier being the alpha male he was drafted to be, and Stratman will have to reverse some of her results as of late to succeed.
• Utah was already a juggernaut with ALW, then they got the player who can’t lose in MLP in Irena, and then they picked cousins Wilson & Koller to pair together. You have to like the chemistry on this team.

Season 2 favorites: Utah, Dallas, Bay Area, Chicago

We’ll follow this post up with one for the Challenger draft later tonight or tomorrow.