Andrew Jean-Baptiste is a fairly new name being thrust into the drafting world this season, being the last member of Generation Adidas to sign. That GA status is going to give him a lot more boost than his statistics and whatnot, so he's probably a lot less likely than Austin Berry to fall to Colorado at the 14th pick. This is despite the fact that the two of them are actually pretty close to being the same player.Jean-Baptiste is another big man on campus at 6'2'' and 205 pounds. During the combine he was actually playing on the same team as Austin Berry which gave us a look at just how similar the two of them are. Austin Berry might be a bit more physical, but Jean-Baptiste was clearly not afraid to take people on in defense, always a good sign in the physical league that is MLS. His passing seemed fairly on par if not a bit better than Berry's as well. He's certainly worth a look in the top 10 of the draft and his GA status will only increase the good looking resume.
Honestly, there's really not much to say about him that we didn't say about Berry. He's likely to be gone by 14th but it's the MLS draft so honestly we don't have a clue. If he does fall to Colorado at 14th they'll likely not snub him like they did with Michael Tetteh last season. Either way, he'll be a great guy for our currently terrible center back depth. And honestly, with Jamie Castrillon style signings possibly in our future it's probably a good idea to just take the very best talent available to Colorado regardless of position.
In other news, why are two of the three picks I've chosen out for the Rapids here from UCONN?
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Matt Pollard 