Cool article about Drew Henson on Bleacher Report
For those interested (gotta have something to read during the offseason), Bleacher Report just did a big article on Drew Henson and his current job as a scout.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2487901-once-ticketed-for-2-sport-su…;
If Steinbrenner had not forced Henson's hand (dangling a huge contract offer in front of Henson on the condition that Henson forego his final year at UofM), Henson could have been great. If Henson had been at any other school than UofM, I could not see Steinbrenner (an OSU alum) offering that sort of coin to a similar prospect.
But good to see that Henson's in a good place and enjoying the new gig. Thanks for posting.
That is so far from the truth. It's laughable that you think George Steinbrenner did it just because Henson was at Michigan.
Drew Henson would have been the #1 overall pick in baseball if he wasn't going to college to play football.
Because of that the Yankees had to take on a huge financial commitment, one of the highest sign-on bonuses in the history of the game, just to get his rights. Then he wouldn't even sign.
The Yankees had the opportunity to get him back, but they were afraid that if he went back for another year of football he would pick the NFL over baseball and they would lose their investment again.
Your argument suggests that Henson displayed the potential at the time of the contract extension that he displayed when drafted. I think most observers were disappointed with Henson's baseball performance.
To be clear, it's not that Henson did not have tremendous baseball talent. But $18.5M for a guy who had not shown first-round talent in the minors? Seemed like they were overpaying.
Henson was only a part-time baseball player when he played football. They paid him a lot of money to only play in the summer, so when he lit up A ball and played well in AA ball as a 20 year old part-timer he looked worth the money.
Henson didn't start to struggle until after the Yankees signed him and he went to AAA too soon..
Henson had one good partial season in Single A (Tampa, batting .333 with OBP of .357) in 2000, followed by worsening stints at AA Norwich (.287 BA and .347 OBP) and AA Chattanooga (.172 BA and .221 OBP) that same year.
Maybe that's "playing well" in your eyes, but I find it underwhelming.
(Again, it's not like Henson was a bad prospect. But if those numbers say "sure thing" to you, we're not likely to agree on much here.)
In what world is hitting .287 as a 20 year old bad? Then he hit .172 during a stint that lasted all of 16 games.
I've acknowledged over and over (and over) that Henson was a tremendous baseball player. Those aren't "bad" numbers, but they also aren't great numbers. The question is whether he looked like a legitimate $18.5M candidate at the time NY Yankees made the 2001 offer.
All I'm doing is pointing out the data that the Yankees had to deal with. You think those numbers merited $18.5M? Good for you. /Read that in a Christian Bale melt-down voice/
The offer left a lot of the baseball world scratching its head.
When Henson was drafted in 1998, the Yankees signed him for 17 million, plus 2 for only playing summer ball and another 3 if he left early.
It was unheard of for the Yankees to sign him and let him play football in the first place. If George Steinbrenner wanted to sabotage Michigan, he would have never let him go to Michigan in the first place.
Q: If you love George Steinbrenner so much, why don't you marry him?
(A: He's dead. Yeah, I said it.)
Because coming out of high school, Henson had decided to play football first. Otherwise, he would have gone in the first round of the baseball draft. The Yankees took a flyer on Henson in the third, mostly because they had the money and could afford to throw it a part-time player on the chance, he would decide to play baseball. They never had a chance the first time around to get him to skip football. Only after he was established as a football player, did Steinbrenner throw the 18 million dollar contract at Henson. He still had great potential, but after adjusting for inflation, that's one of the biggest contracts given to a minor league player.
I will always hate the Yankees for Steinbrenner throwing a load of cash at Henson in order to undermine Michigan's season. Remember that the buzz was Michigan was a contender with a Heisman candidate QB, and Steinbrenner said "Here's a pile of guaranteed money. Quit football or you'll never see it."
(I see I'm not alone in remembering what happened)
That's quite a memory errrr imagination you have there.
http://nypost.com/2001/3/24/bombers-offer-henson-18-5m/
It happened, and Steinbrenner was an OSU alumn, big booster, and ridiculously wealthy. Irving Kane Pond's not making a leap at all here to suggest there was an ulterior motive behing the Yankees offer. That's what I thought was going on at the time, and it's what I still think was going on.
Not to suggest that Henson was not a terrific baseball player too. But a contract that big? It sure looked like a twofer from my perspective.
I lived in NYC at the time and the buzz was why the Yankees would throw that much money (I believe it was the biggest minor league deal at the time) at a guy who didn't look like anything more than a fringe player.
Every college football fan knew the reason.
Ohio State had a new coach that year too, and I remember a story where Steinbrenner talked about doing everything to help him succeed. (Nothing specific though)
He was definitely considered more than a fringe player. He would have been a top 10 MLB draft pick out of high school - if not #1 overall - if not for his unwillingness to commit to baseball full-time (and his father's insistence on a contract with a huge bonus if he did quit football).
That said, it's possible that Steinbrenner thought he was killing two birds with one stone by taking him away from Michigan.
Henson only slipped to the 3rd round of the MLB draft because he was a dual-sport athlete who made it clear he wanted to actually play at Michigan. But by the time Henson got the $18.5 offer, he had not really shown that much in the minor leagues. By a fan's eye, it seemed that his prospects went down (w/r/t his ceiling) after he spent some time in the minors, not up.
But Steinbrenner was a very loyal alumn. The Steinbrenner Band Center is where OSU hones its i-dotting expertise. He made other substantial donations to OSU. Purposely overpaying Henson for a contract extension to deprive Michigan of Henson's services is not out of the realm of reason.
I've spoke to Drew in length about this subject. Wanting Drew to leave college so OSU had a better chance of beating Michigan was certainly on Steinbrenner's mind when he offered that contract.
Family pressure was why Drew accepted. His dad basically insisted he take it. Drew has told me if he could go back and do it all over again, he would not have taken the money. He would have stayed at Michigan but only if it meant he would have still met his wife.
Regardless, the guy never has to worry about money the rest of his life.
Perhaps getting knocked out by a man with a prosthetic arm erased part of your memory.
False. I threw him down my metal staircase after he killed my wife. Then after I found his home, I kicked his ass on the train after he pulled a gun on me.
Let's ask Stephen Ross to hire Mork and Urbz for revenge..
Before he took the money from the Yankees, he was projected as sure fire Top Ten NFL pick. What a season that could have been. Argh...
The thought of what Henson could have been that season makes me incredibly sad...
One step behind Antonio Bass in terms of "what could have been?"
If he'd focused on a sport, and that sport had been football... We're looking at a ridiculous 2001 season, probably a top-10 pick...
Instead, he has a cup of coffee with the Yankees, bats his weight in AAA, and by the time he comes back to football, he hasn't taken a competitive snap in, what, five years?
I'm glad he's OK, that he got paid, and has found a way to continue in sports, but... What if?
What if indeed. Maybe it's revisionist memory, but I'm pretty sure at the time I felt like the Heisman Trophy and #1 pick in the NFL draft were well within reach...
It wasn't as much just Henson but the team around him. When you look at that offense... Much love to the much-maligned and treated-horribly John Navarre, but... Henson in that 2001 offense would have been something to behold. It was the kind of team great QB seasons are made of.
The '01 offense had to replace four OL, Anthony Thomas at RB, and David Terrell at WR. Henson could have smoothed the transition considerably, but it was not a loaded offense. 1999 and 2000 were the years we were stacked.
But keep in mind that all three regular season losses came by one score. A senior Henson vs a young Navarre tells me we probably would have scraped by. Yes, ultimately we would have been exposed in the bowl game, but we probably would have been unbeaten going in. The perception of Michigan football going forward would have been greater, which would have helped with recruiting, etc. The perception of Tressel and OSU doesn't get that monumental instant boost. I've long believed that they don't beat us in 2002 either (in a game where we held a decent-sized yardage advantage) if they don't have the confidence that came with having done it in 2001.
It's a small stretch, but I'm not sure the balance of power in the Big 10 shifts so dramatically in OSU's favor (at least for a few more years) if Henson stays and turns around just that one season.
I don't disagree with any of that. We may well have run the table in the regular season (although we definitely would have been exposed by Miami if we faced them in the title game).
I just don't quite agree that our offense was loaded. It lost a lot after 2000. Poor Navarre stepped into a pretty bad situation (relatively speaking, this being pre-2008).
The chatter was that Henson was the leadning canidate for the Heisman and the #1 pick. His 2000 season was probably the best season by a Michigan QB since Michael Taylor's days.
He was a fantastic high school baseball player. As I recall, he set records for home runs and other offensive stats while playing at Brighton. Additionally, he had a 95 mph fastball and was one of the best pitchers in the state his senior year.
The reason that the Yankees were able to draft him, as opposed to him going early in the draft, was that he indicated he was going to play college football. The Yankees took a flyer on him with a later round selection and then paid him handsomely to play baseball.
I was in grad school at Michigan at the time and recall thinking that anyone else would have just taken the baseball money that would have been thrown at him coming out of high school.
I really believe he would have been something special. I always though Brady would do well in the NFL in the type of Kramer role, where he was consistent, and wouldn't lose you games. Was really suprised he is as good as he is. On the other hand, Henson was amazing. He definitely wasn't the better QB than Brady when they split time, but when he stepped in as a junior, he was lights out amazing.
His game against Drew Breese (sp?) was an amazing specticle of QB talent where Henson came out on top. I didn't realize he played summer ball on top of his QB duties. If he had focused full time on football, he probably would still be playing in the NFL. It's hard to turn down gauranteed money though. He had I think $4 million in just a signing bonus, and I'm guessing he never expected to not make it in baseball.
Do you mean someone else? Taylor never managed to get 1500 yards of total offense in a season.
"Have patience is what I would tell the next guy in my situation," he says. "That's one of the main reasons I wanted to come back and be in player development."
I actually found that quote rather interesting, and I agree that this is a great way for him to einvent himself and still make a positive contribution to the team that originally drafted him. I know some people choose their job because to help people with things for which they didn't necessarily have the correct support or mindset, and I think that sometimes it makes one all the better at that job really. Maybe Henson is in that position now - hopefully, this avenue works for him.
Despite screwing over our football fortunes the way he did, Henson has always seemed like a great, great guy. He's still a Wolverine, and I'm glad he's finding success in his next life.
Wojo once described Henson's U-M career as getting to see the trailer for the best movie ever - and then not getting to see the movie. Perfect description. I feel the same way about Mitch McGary's Michigan career.
Wojo once described Henson's U-M career as getting to see the trailer for the best movie ever - and then not getting to see the movie. Perfect description.More like Henson in 2000 was "Batman Begins," then you learned that they were making "The Dark Knight" with Heath Ledger as The Joker, then the movie stopped filming b/c Ledger OD'd during production.
I've always enjoyed how the Yankees have a GM named Cashman.
and will never root for them. As far as my hatred meter they are a close second to Ohio St. and MSU.
Bleacher Report.
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The Yankees were done with Henson. They shipped him to Cincinnati, where he hit .172 in AA ball. Yes, Steinbrenner traded to get back a player hitting .172, then threw $17m at him. I'm sure his being a huge Ohio State booster had nothing to do with giving $17m to Michigan's starting QB to not play football in the first post-Cooper season.
IMO, blame goes to
1. Steinbrenner—an OSU booster and convicted felon. He paid Henson far more than justified by his BB performance. It was the kind of act you'd expect from a FIFA executive.
2. the NCAA. If they did not allow underclassmen to be drafted, Steinbrenner could not even have guaranteed that he could draft Henson, let alone overpay him,
3. Henson and his dad. I don't blame them for taking the money—many would do so. Also, Henson beat OSU and contributed much during his UM career. But I do blame Henson and his dad for making Lloyd Carr promise not to recruit another QB in Henson’s class or the year after. Ironically, that promise—intended to benefit Henson--- was probably harmful for him by reducing healthy competition in his Junior year.
4. maybe Lloyd Carr. It's hard to blame a principled, trustworthy role model who has won a national title. Also, he did get Henson to come to UM. But did his trustworthy, cooperative nature backfire when he agreed not to recruit other QBs? Did he also succumb to the pressure of playing an unseasoned Henson nearly half the time--even starting him over Brady at times?
Now, with the benefit of hindsight, that strategy seems to have backfired. Why? Unrealistic expectations in young people who play a lot too early can produce unwarranted disappointment when they lose the starting job. Indeed, even after a solid junior year with no real competition at QB, Henson may have recalled what happened the year before. Then, he was beaten out by a guy barely drafted in the NFL's top 200 (Brady). He did not realize how good Brady would be in the NFL. Thus, Henson had to weigh his own, sometimes unmet expectations of success in FB against the risk of injury, his love of BB and the guarantee of being a multimillionaire for life.
Henson NEVER started a single game over Tom Brady. Brady took the overwhelming majority of snaps during those two seasons that they were on the same roster.
"For half of the 1999 season, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr split snaps between Tom Brady and Drew Henson at quarterback. Henson would start the first quarter, Brady the second quarter and the hot hand would take over the second half. Drew Henson, sophomore quarterback: “After Michigan State, we had a stretch run for the Big Ten. For continuity’s sake and trying to win the league, we were just going to go with Tom to start in November." http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/michigan-alabama-flashback-teammate…
Brady started every game while he and Henson were here. Early in the season Drew subbed in the first half, usually but not always, for the second quarter. I'm pretty sure that the MSU game was the only one in which he started the secnd half.
Mgoblue.com has an archive of postgame notes if you're interested in checking that out.
Brady started the second half of the MSU game after Drew threw a devastating pick to end the first half.
I tried looking it up, but for some reason I remember Henson starting the second and third quarter and Brady coming in either late 3rd or 4th, where he threw for over 200 yards in the 4th quarter. I just remember being impressed with Brady and frustrated he wasn't inserted earlier.
Also agree, Henson never started over Brady.
No, Henson started the third quarter, and threw that pick late in the quarter. Brady came back in when we were down 17 and nearly led us back.