We’re continuing our “running diary” of commentary for the second half of the 2025 Major League Pickleball draft process. On Monday 3/3/25 the six teams in Challenger for 2025 did a dynamic bidding process for the eleven slots available on their teams.
Unlike the 3+ hour marathon for Premier, this one went relatively quickly.
Here’s the draft with my running commentary.
– 1st overall pick: The Bay Area Breakers grab the top spot for $9,000, which is a bit less than the bench spots started going for yesterday in premier, which makes sense. The Breakers, who need three players today, take North Carolinian Eric Roddy, a very solid doubles player who trains a ton with Jack Sock and has gotten some under-the-radar results in doubles. Solid pick.
– 2nd overall: Nashville, recently taken over by Jared Paul, snagged the second pick and took the underrated Anderson Scarpa. Scarpa was prematurely dropped last season but filled in well as a sub, and Nashville grabs a solid player.
– 3rd: Nashville strikes again, grabbing the 3rd pick for $7k and pairing Scarpa with Marshall Brown. This makes for a solid men’s pairing for the soon-to-be-renamed Pandas.
– 4th: Las Vegas, searching for a left-sided male to pair with the lefty Tellez, grabs another North Carolina product in James Delgado, recent UPA signee and stalwart of the mid-Atlantic tournament scene (he’s played multiple events at my home club in Richmond). He’s up and coming, committed to the tour, and is an upside pick here.
– 5th: Florida grabs the 5th spot for $5k and grabs Sarah Ansboury. With all due respect to Travis and Graham (and Sarah, who I’ve chatted with a couple of times) … I don’t like this pick. Florida proved last year that a team full of players in their 30s and 40s wasn’t going to be able to compete with the kids on tour, and Ansboury would be better served coaching this team versus playing on it. Last year Florida drafted and then dropped a similarly older player in Pat Smith (now 41) and I suspect they may end up doing the same with Ansboury.
– 6th: Florida turns right around and grabs the opposite of Ansboury in 18-yr old Cason Campbell, better known as “raggedy hat kid” from Florida. Now, this is the kind of pick that I would have expected for the premier bench players, an upside player who’s got some singles results but not much on the doubles side. I like this pick, and I like the fact that all four of this team’s players are in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area for practice purposes (a clear choice from Rettenmaier).
– 7th: Brooklyn pops in for $2000 to grab lefty Stefan Auvergne, to pair with De La Rosa, who has been paired with a lefty in MLP for a year. I had thought Auvergne was still rostered on Nashville before the draft started, but instead Brooklyn grabs him to finish their roster.
– 8th: California pops up for the minimum $1000 bid to grab Stephen Madonia, the 27-yr old Florida native. The only thing I have notable about Stephen is that I constantly attempt to type his last name like the European country Macedonia.
– 9th: Nashville finishes off its roster with a $1000 bid for Michelle Esquivel, not a bad pick for the minimum, getting a MLP experienced player.
– 10th: After grabbing the first pick, Bay Area stayed out of the bidding and now gets the last two players for the minimum. At No 10. they get the teenaged Texan Wyatt Stone, who has been improving with reps against the Austin pro crew and is a solid upside pick who could draw some trade interest later in the season.
– With the final pick at No. 11, Bay Area fills out its roster with the underrated Lingwei Kong, a nice pick for the minimum.
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With only 11 picks and 6 teams, and with so much talent sitting on the benches of the premier league teams, it’s hard to give highly critical draft grades to these teams. But, here goes anyway.
– Bay Area: B: I like what they did here, getting three decent players.
– Brooklyn: B. Auvergne and DLR should pair well, and this team with Koop and Humberg is probably the most talented in Challenger.
– California: C: Madonia doesn’t have a ton of results, so not much to judge here.
– Florida: D: I don’t like teams getting older when the entire sport is getting younger.
– Nashville: B+: I like their aggressiveness getting three players with MLP experience.
– Las Vegas: C: Did they need to spend this much on Delgado? Or are we talking about so little money in the grand scheme of things that it doesn’t matter?
Quick predictions for 2025: Based on the completed challenger rosters, here’s a very fast prediction on 2025’s finish … which of course will be likely decimated by trades and waiver moves mid-season.
1. Las Vegas: Probably has both the best Male and Female in Challenger right now.
2. Brooklyn: I have to think Humberg is getting traded, but she elevates Brooklyn to near the top on her own.
3. Nashville: Ewa gives them a solid female base, and I like what Scarpa can do.
4. California: I like their two women Sleeth and Lina.
5. Bay Area: might be too much to ask three new players to gel so quickly.
6. Florida Smash: I think they’ll be making trades or waiver wire moves soon.
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