John Henry, Lies & Tale of the Tape

[Wolf Hopper]

How come so many claim that John Henry is a stand-up guy?

Henry tries to create revisionist history in Florida
By Mike Berardino - Baseball America
April 25, 2003

FORT LAUDERDALE–It was bad enough the Tigers brass had to sit through one of the worst starts by any major league team . . . ever.

Then club executives flipped through the April issue of Money magazine and really felt awful.

During his three seasons as Marlins owner, John Henry often made comments that had his top lieutenants scratching their heads. Henry, now managing partner of the Red Sox, struck again with his recent statements in a three-page Money article.

Looking back on his Marlins period, Henry voiced regrets at following the advice of his baseball people.

"We had a general manager in Dave Dombrowski who’s one of the best in the game and had won a World Series," Henry is quoted as saying. "I thought it was my role to support the general manager."

According to the article, "By the time he sold the Marlins . . . Henry was convinced that baseball was putting too much emphasis on tools . . . and not enough on performance."

Henry, who made a strong push to hire Athletics general manager Billy Beane last winter, remains a huge believer in the Oakland Way. In fact, Henry held up the previous Marlins regime as sort of the anti-A’s in terms of player evaluation.

"The Marlins would draft athletes while the A’s would draft baseball players," Henry said in the article.

Incongruous Commentary

Not surprisingly, this caused some consternation in Detroit, where Dombrowski and many of his former acolytes now run the rebuilding Tigers.

"We all saw it," Tigers assistant GM Al Avila said. "Dave saw it. (Baseball legal counsel) John Westhoff saw it. We were a little shocked by it. We were dumbfounded, actually, as to why he would make those comments."

For Avila, who as Marlins scouting director supervised all three amateur drafts under Henry (1999-2001), the criticisms struck close to home. What made Henry’s comments stranger still was his apparent enthusiasm with Avila’s work at the time.

"We thought he was very proud of the guys we took," Avila said. "I remember how excited John Henry was when we signed Miguel Cabrera, when we signed Josh Beckett, when we saw Jason Stokes putting the ball in the upper deck. When he was with us, he was happy about those players."

That, apparently, has changed.

"Like Dave said, ‘That’s just John Henry,’ " Avila said. "He has to justify the Bill James thing and all that."

While the Red Sox give themselves over to James and his statistical-based theories, while Boston scouting director David Chadd is forbidden to consider even the most talented prep player with his first-round pick, the record shows Henry’s memory is a little fuzzy when it comes to his Marlins-era drafts.

Defensible Draft

In 1999, for instance, the Marlins took Beckett with the second overall pick and also turned up middle-infield prospects Josh Wilson (third round) and Kevin Hooper (eighth). The A’s hit a fortuitous jackpot with Southern Cal’s Barry Zito at No. 9 overall and did little else after getting Ryan Ludwick in the second round.

"We liked Zito, but to be perfectly honest we didn’t think he’d be the kind of pitcher he’s turned out to be," Avila said. "We thought he’d be a major league pitcher but lower in the rotation maybe. He always had that hammer of a curveball, but to say he’d be the guy we saw last year, nobody in our organization felt that way at all."

In 2000, while the A’s were turning up little beyond righthander Rich Harden (now their top prospect) in the 17th round, Avila had what Baseball America proclaimed one of the best drafts that year. In addition to taking first baseman Adrian Gonzalez with the top overall pick, they also grabbed Stokes in the second round, lefty Rob Henkel (third), outfielder Will Smith (sixth) and infielder Josh Willingham (17th).

If the Marlins were really about drafting "athletes" over "baseball players," Avila said, they would have taken Stanford outfielder Joe Borchard first instead. Borchard went to the White Sox, who have 36 big league at-bats to show for their $5 million investment.

"You talk about athletes, Joe Borchard was an athlete," Avila said. "He had to learn how to play the game because he’d played so much football. Gonzalez is not a tremendous athlete, but he’s a pure hitter. Stokes is no athlete. He’s just a masher. Beckett is not an athlete; he was the best pitcher, we felt, in the (1999) draft."

In 2001, the edge goes to the A’s, but they had three first-round picks (shortstop Bobby Crosby, righthander Jeremy Bonderman and lefty John Rheinecker) while the Marlins’ top pick (Garrett Berger) was No. 60 overall. Berger blew out his elbow and is on the comeback trail, and the same holds true for third-rounder Allen Baxter, another righty.

In all, eight of the Marlins’ top 15 prospects came from Avila’s three drafts. During that same period, the A’s produced seven of their top 15 prospects.

Just two A’s drafted in that span made the Top 100 Prospects list this spring, while the Marlins had three of BA’s top 31.

"The Florida Marlins did not go after athletes," Avila said of his era as scouting director. "They went after baseball players."

Some pretty impressive ones, as it turns out.

[cubfan33]

Mike Berardino is probably the best beat writer out there and he's had a lot of great articles lately. Tough to do with a team like the Scalies, but I guess if you can't be good, be interesting.

[sweaver]

Henry is remembering history in a light that is most favorable to himself, which we all do. We are the heroes of our own stories. However, the article bothers me in one sense. It chastises the White Sox for drafting Borchard, and getting 36 major league at-bats from him. Well, that's so far 36 more than the Marlins pick of Gonzalez! I don't understand the criticism in this case.

[Fuzzy Bear]

John Henry appears to advocate the L. A. Dodger road to ruin. Draft lots of guys who are great athletes, but only fair baseball players and try to teach them the game.

His new employee, Bill James, has said, over and over again, that baseball is harder than that.

[GGC]

Ya know, every time I see the name John Henry I think of Ted Williams's son .

I've recently subscribed to Baseball America and my only regret that it is a bi-weekly instead of a weekly.

Henry is a man who has done very well in the financial markets. I hope, as a Bosox fan, that he learned from his mistakes in Florida. I also think that he is only going to be around a few years before flipping the Red Sox to another owner.

[KCBOOMER]

It seems to me that this article is also a shot a James. Being a stathead James, of course, is driven by performance. But the writer and other James' critics seem to think that this also applies to the drafting of new talent. All James has ever talked about is the risk in drafting certain types of players (e.g. high school pitchers) and the need for weak organizations to concentrate on what they do best. To my knowledge he has never taken a position vis a vis the best athlete versus the best baseball player.