With the 17th overall pick in the 2005 MLB draft, the Yankees drafted a shortstop named C.J. Henry. The Yankees paid him a 1.6 million dollar signing bonus. He was going to be a point guard for the Jayhawks basketball team. He had a decent year his first year in '05 at Rookie ball for the GCL Yankees, hitting .249 with 9 doubles, 3 homers, 17 RBI, 17 SB, and a .333 OBP in 48 games. For a lower level prospect, that might be okay, but with Henry being a top prospect, the Yankees were disappointed. His second year in '06, Henry disappointed even more, hitting just .240 with 19 doubles, 2 homers, 14 SB, and a .330 OBP in 77 games for Low-A Charleston. He posted just a .867 Fld% at SS. (Henry's fielding stats are not available from the '05 GCL season.) The Yankees had seen enough. On July 30th, the Yankees traded Henry with 3 other prospects to the Phillies in the deal that netted the Yankees Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle.
The Phillies knew that Henry had the potential to be a good player- he just had to put his game together. But, he just couldn't do it. He hit .253 in '06 with Low-A Lakewood, with 3 doubles, 1 homer, 16 RBI, and a .313 OBP in 25 games. He stole just 1 base. The Phillies were worried, but it was just a pretty small sample. He did improve to a .914 Fld% at SS. '07 was going to be Henry's make-or-break season. Henry went back to Lakewood in '07 and hit just .184 with 12 doubles, 9 homers, 38 RBI, 13 SB, and just a .238 OBP in 102 games. Not only were his offensive numbers disappointing, but no matter where the Phillies put him defensively, Henry could not do well. He posted a .860 Fld% in 31 games at 3B, .946 in 58 games in LF, and a .500 Fld% in 1 game in RF. After the '07 season, Henry was released by the Phillies.
The Yankees resigned Henry just hoping he put it all together. In '08 with the High-A Tampa Yankees, Henry hit .234 with 2 doubles, 2 homers, 6 RBI, 3 SB, and a .319 OBP in 20 games. One positive was that he finally found a comfortable defensive position, as he posted a 1.000 Fld% in LF in '08. Still, Henry gave up on baseball.
Henry returned to college later in '08. He went to the University Memphis and was a walk-on on the Memphis basketball team. But, he redshirted that year and did not play a single game for Memphis. In '09, C.J. Henry's younger brother Xavier Henry committed to Memphis. But, when John Calipari took the University of Kentucky job, the Henry brothers decided they would go to Kansas, with C.J. transferring and Xavier uncommitting from Memphis and committing to Kansas. Unlike his brother Xavier who starred for Kansas during the '09-'10 season (13.4 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 1.5 APG, 1.5 SPG, .458 FG%, .783 FT%, .418 3P%), and has declared for the NBA draft, C.J. Henry didn't do very well. He averaged just 3.1 PPG, 0.7 RPG, 0.3 APG, and .4 SPG, with a .583 FG%, .500 FT%, and a .524 3P%. The FG% and 3P% were good, but since he only played 5.6 minutes a game, it didn't really matter. He should get more minutes during the '10-'11 season with his brother going to the NBA.
It's pretty sad that C.J. Henry has gone from a 1st round draft pick in baseball to averaging just 3 points a game in college basketball. He'll be 24 years old when the '10-'11 season starts, so he still has a chance to be NBA player. But, he was an underachiever his whole baseball career, and he did nothing his first year at Kansas. He better play up to his potential in '10-'11.
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