While commenting on MLS Superdraft, I mentioned that almost all future stars of MLS played at least 1000 minutes in their first two seasons. The only notable exceptions are Chris Wondolowski and a handful of goalkeepers - who anyway are usually late bloomers. I got the idea that such a rule might exist from Malcom Gladwell's book Outliers - The story of success. The second chapter of the book "10,000 hour rule" tells us that in any field, from music to ice hockey to computer programming, there are no "natural"s, most successful people have actually practiced much harder to their peers during their formative years. Here is a look at the number of minutes played for drafted players who later became successful in MLS, using the top 100 Castrol Index for 2013 as the success criteria.
| Player | Castrol Index rank | Year of joining MLS Number of minutes played in first two seasons |
|---|---|---|
| Mike Magee | 3 | (2003) - 3238 |
| Chris Wondolowski | 5 | (2005) - 203 |
| Jack McInerney | 6 | (2010) - 1026 |
| Nick Rimando | 7 | (2000) - 4302 |
| Eddie Johnson | 9 | (2001) - 611 (Started at age of 17) |
| Graham Zusi | 10 | (2009) - 1064 |
| Ryan Johnson | 15 | (2006 + 2008) - 1733 (Did not play in 2007) |
| Will Bruin | 18 | (2011) - 4731 |
| Drew Moor | 19 | (2005) - 3433 |
| Dominic Oduro | 22 | (2006) - 1638 |
| John Busch | 23 | (2002) - 3900 |
| Zac MacMath | 26 | (2011) - 3555 |
| Shea Salinas | 27 | (2008) - 1850 |
| Brad Davis | 32 | (2002) - 3154 |
| Nathan Sturgis | 33 | (2006) - 2393 |
| Rodney Wallace | 34 | (2009) - 3189 |
| Chad Marshall | 36 | (2004) - 5101 |
| Matt Besler | 37 | (2009) - 3252 |
| Dilly Duka | 40 | (2010) - 1624 |
| George John | 41 | (2009) - 3600 |
| Deshorn Brown | 42 | (2013) - 2169 (only first year) |
| Omar González | 43 | (2009) - 5851 |
| Amobi Okugo | 51 | (2010) - 1248 |
| Patrick Nyarko | 52 | (2008) - 2254 |
| Chance Myers | 53 | (2008) - 846 (Had an injury in second year) |
| Bernardo Anor | 54 | (2011) - 1133 |
| Ike Opara | 55 | (2010) - 1399 |
| Matt Hedges | 57 | (2012) - 4815 |
| Dan Kennedy | 63 | (2008 + 2010) - 1293 (Did not play in 2009) |
| Dillon Powers | 64 | (2013) - 2457 (only first year) |
| Stephen McCarthy | 65 | (2011) - 3746 |
| Todd Dunivant | 66 | (2003) - 4258 |
| A.J. DeLaGarza | 69 | (2009) - 3482 |
| Warren Creavalle | 72 | (2012) - 2504 |
| Darlington Nagbe | 75 | (2011) - 4428 |
| Michael Farfan | 76 | (2011) - 4262 |
| Kelyn Rowe | 78 | (2012) - 4630 |
| Justin Mapp | 84 | (2002) - 1476 |
| Seth Sinovic | 85 | (2010) - 3582 |
| Ricardo Clark | 94 | (2003) - 4355 |
| Jeff Larentowicz | 95 | (2005) - 1975 |
