San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
A’s exec artist of scouting reports
Owens could be candidate for Giants’ GM job
MESA, Ariz. — When it comes to his career advancement, A’s executive Billy Owens is presented with something of a dilemma.
Owens is widely recognized as one of the best talent evaluators in the game, and he’s considered a strong candidate to be the Giants’ next general manager. But if he wants to make the leap, whether it’s with San Francisco next season or elsewhere, he might have to take a step back from his true passion, scouting, and gain some more administrative experience.
“Billy likes being out watching players, that’s the catch-22,” A’s vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane said. “But he might not need that extra time in the office. He’s a smart guy. He’s the best around at the things he’s good at, and the rest he could backfill with the people he hires.”
When it comes to any of the nitty-gritty baseball stuff, Owens’ resume sparkles. He is known for his relentless enthusiasm and energy, and for what colleagues describe as a photographic memory.
“Billy is like Rain Man,” said former A’s first baseman Scott Hatteberg, now a special assistant in the A’s front office. “He’s an encyclopedia. The guy knows everything about everyone.”
Oakland special assistant Steve Sharpe, who considers Owens a mentor, said the A’s assistant general manager and director of player personnel “will start a conversation about a player like, ‘It was a clear, bright day, it was 85 degrees,’ and then he’ll tell you all about the guy’s mom and dad. I’m like, ‘Dang, are you his uncle?’ He knows every little detail.”
At the team’s meeting with Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray the day before Murray declared for the NFL draft last
month, Owens had what Beane described as “a classic BO moment.”
“We’re in the room and BO gets so passionate talking about players — it’s all genuine, there’s never anything contrived about it — and all of a sudden, he says, ‘Kyler Cole Murray!’ And Kyler’s mom, Missy, came out of her shoes, looks at her husband, Kevin, and says, ‘He knows his middle name!’ ” Beane said. “It just rolled off his tongue. It was a beautiful moment. Not only does he know these kids, he knows their middle names.”
Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ new president of baseball operations, said, “That’s probably just the tip of the iceberg of what Billy knows.
“I was joking the other day about what Billy O’s scouting report on Kyler Murray must have looked like and had to laugh,” Zaidi said. “Probably the most interesting prospect of the past decade being written up by the person who can make a 37th-round draft pick sound like the most interesting player in the world. That would be the epitome of a scouting report.”
Owens is renowned for his scouting reports. He wants readers to be able to close their eyes and picture players, so he doesn’t stick to the standard “average, above average” formula. An avid reader himself, he turns his work into art. He’s been known to refer to standout players as “regal.”
“The beauty of BO is you look forward to these really long, detailed emails on all the players he’s seen and all these great descriptions,” Beane said. “His reports are colorful and entertaining, he invents his own cliches, he’ll nickname players.
“Imagine if Liberace could write a scouting report, it’s just incredibly colorful and flamboyant and humorous. He’s one of a kind.”
Owens spends most of the year on the road, seldom taking time off. He can be found anywhere and everywhere.
“He’s a man of mystery with his schedule,” Sharpe said. “It’s so hard to know where he is and what he’s doing; it could be amateur, pro, international, something for the draft, a free agent. Someone will say, ‘I saw Billy O in Seattle yesterday,’ and I’ll say, ‘I’m in the Dominican Republic and he’s sitting right next to me.’ How does he do it? Does he have a Lear jet?
“Everyone in baseball knows him. You can go around the globe, and if you’re at a game in the middle of the jungle, someone would say, ‘Hey, how’s Billy O?’ I’ve been in rinky-dink little fields in the Dominican, and there’s Billy plopped down behind home plate talking to seven guys.”
Two of the greatest pitchers of the 1990s unwittingly helped shape Owens’ career.
In 1996, Owens was 26 when his Triple-A Rochester, N.Y., team faced Curt Schilling, who was on a rehab assignment at Scranton Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
“Schilling really liked to challenge guys, and I was kind of on a roll,” Owens said. “The late, great Jim Fregosi was in the stands scouting and I was thinking, ‘This is going to be my day,’ I’m thinking I’m going to take Schilling deep. I punched out three times.”
During a spring training game in 1998, Owens had a similarly humbling experience facing Greg Maddux in Kissimmee, Fla.
“I’m telling guys on the bus, ‘There’s no way he’s throwing that two-seamer at me that comes back over the plate. I don’t care what else I do, but that’s not going to happen to me.’ I’m kind of boisterous on the bus about it,” Owens said. “Sure enough, second at-bat, it’s a 2-2 count and Maddux throws that two-seamer right at me. I buckle and move out of the way and the ball goes back over the inside of the plate.
“The bench, after what I said on the bus, was pretty boisterous back at me. They didn’t let me forget it.”
Just as Owens was beginning to realize he might not have much of a big-league future, another pitcher helped redirect his path toward a bright frontoffice career. The A’s were considering trading closer Billy Taylor, and the Astros had interest, so scout Ron Hopkins spent two weeks evaluating prospects on Owens’ Double-A Jackson, Miss., team. While there, he spent some time chatting with Owens, a first baseman and designated hitter Hopkins had seen play with Bellarmine High School in San Jose and the University of Arizona.
“It was one of those honest talks,” Hopkins said. “Billy had been playing awhile and was stuck in Double-A, his body was breaking down and at that age, you have to hit 30 bombs, not 18, to have a chance. I knew he was a college guy and I asked him, ‘What are you going to do when the bell winds down?’ ”
That fall, Owens met up with Hopkins at the Arizona Fall League to see if scouting might be a fit. He was a natural. “I could tell Billy had a feel for it,” Hopkins said. “He had good insights into players, he had opinions, he knew what it takes to make it.”
Hopkins recommended Owens to then-scouting director Grady Fuson, who needed help with amateur coverage in Georgia and the Carolinas. Owens took the job, ascended to national cross-checker, then moved into the front office.
“I remember the first time driving around the country talking to players and their families about the opportunity to play baseball, and thinking, ‘Man, this is awesome!’ ” Owens said. “It was pretty exhilarating to know after your playing career you could find something you love just as much, if not more.”
Owens’ pure love of scouting may be the only thing holding him back from helming a front office. He has little administrative experience, something the A’s would like to rectify to help Owens advance.
“I’ve said, ‘If we need to fill in your resume, we certainly will,’ but he can’t stay away from seeing players,” Beane said. “Listen, Billy would be a great leader. People would love working for him, they’d want to succeed for him. He’s accomplished enough, he’s done enough, he should go to the top of the list of the next generation of general managers.”
One top major-league executive said he’s tried to hire Owens away from the A’s every year, “but Billy Beane knows what he has. Billy O is one of the most dedicated, talented baseball people I know.”
Owens interviewed for the Phillies’ GM spot in 2015, and he was an obvious choice to move into that role with the Giants under Zaidi, a former longtime A’s executive. Zaidi chose not to fill the spot when he took over this winter, and he’s an unabashed Owens fan.
“I would work with Billy again in an absolute heartbeat, not just because of his experience and knowledge of the game, but because he’s a great guy to be around,” Zaidi said, adding, “There’s no doubt, for people who are in decisionmaking positions, having passionate views and opinions around is so important, especially in this day and age where you just have mounds and reams of information. Someone who can synthesize that and take a position, when you have no doubt where that guy stands on a player — that’s Billy Owens in a nutshell. You’ll always know how he feels, and the takes are as well researched and nuanced as anyone I’ve ever been around. That has immeasurable value in this day and age.”
“Moneyball” is, in part, about multisport star Beane’s failure to fulfill his promise as a bigleague player, and Owens is in the same mold. He is one of the great multisport athletes in the history of the West Catholic Athletic League, which also produced Tom Brady, Fregosi, Gregg Jefferies, Mitch Haniger and former A’s outfielder Eric Byrnes.
Byrnes, who played at St. Francis, was several years behind Owens, and as an eighthgrader he attended all of Owens’ football games because he had friends on the Bellarmine team.
“Billy was one of the most incredible athletes I’ve ever seen,” Byrnes said. “Agile in the pocket, and I thought he could throw a ball 100 yards. He was so fun to watch. And in baseball, he was incredible. When he was at U of A, Stanford still had those big trees in right field, and Billy hit a ball that cleared the trees, the longest home run I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Byrnes was such a fan, he said, that when he made it to the big leagues with Oakland, “I approached Billy O the same way I approached Will Clark when I first met him, the same way I approached Ronnie Lott. He was that much of an icon to me.”
Owens grew up in San Jose playing football, basketball, baseball and soccer. He avidly followed sports, especially the great Reds teams of the 1970s and the Giants, and he memorized lineups as he played StratO-Matic. He comes from a sports-centric family — his mother, Beatrice Johnson, was a high school athlete, and his father, Levi, was a running back at Fresno State, along with his uncle, T.J. Owens. Another uncle, John, was a receiver at San Jose State, and a third uncle, General, survived the 1960 plane crash that killed 16 members of his Cal Poly football team.
“Billy was an unreal talent,” former Bellarmine baseball coach Gary Cunningham said. “He had the physical stature, his maturity was well beyond his age, and he could flat-out hit. It came so easily and naturally for him.”
“Baseball is his vocation and it’s just a matter of how far he’ll rise. His future is very bright. He takes it very seriously and gives it 24/7, 12 months a year. Wherever he lands, he’ll do a great job.”
The next step could come as soon as this year; though he received an extension with Oakland last fall, the A’s allow employees to depart for jobs that are promotions.
“I’m ready for any challenge out there,” Owens said. “I’m hungry, I’m thirsty for the next challenge. I’ve had a passion for this since I was a toddler. To be in baseball is a thrill, I have to pinch myself every day. I’m excited to see what happens this year and I can’t wait to find what’s next.”
Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser