A Top Prospect Could Turn Into a Package Deal
AKRON, Ohio, July 8 — C. J. Henry, a first-round draft pick by the Yankees, is in his third season of toiling in the minors. But even after all those at-bats, ground balls and bus rides, he is still adamant that he can beat his younger brother, Xavier, one-on-one in basketball.
Xavier Henry is a 6-foot-6 junior who is solidifying his reputation as one of the country’s top high school players this week at a Nike basketball camp here. College coaches liken him to a left-handed Allan Houston, with the most optimistic comparisons being to a young Kobe Bryant.
C. J. Henry was a very good guard in his own day. He was set to play for Kansas before signing with the Yankees in 2005 for more than $1.5 million.
“He thinks he can beat me,” C. J. Henry said of Xavier in a telephone interview. “It’s close, but he still can’t.”
Instead of beating his brother, Xavier Henry, 16, might join him on a college campus. C. J., 21, is hitting .171 for Lakewood, the Philadelphia Phillies’ lower-level Class A team in New Jersey. In the last year of his contract, Henry is considering a return to the hardwood. Kansas and Memphis are the two likeliest destinations.
“As far as me going back and playing with my brother, that would have to be next year,” C. J. Henry said of the 2008-9 season, when Xavier would be a college freshman. “I want to focus on baseball for the rest of this year and next year. I’ll see where I’m at then. If it’s not looking good for me or not where I want to be, I’ll decide what I want to do.”
The Yankees drafted C. J. Henry in 2005 and saw him as a shortstop with raw baseball skills and boundless potential. After that athleticism did not translate to the baseball field, the Yankees traded Henry to the Phillies last summer as part of the deal for Bobby Abreu.
Since then, he has played three different positions. Henry said that the position switches had not allowed him to get comfortable in the field and that he had struggled mentally this season. Now an outfielder, Henry leads Lakewood with nine home runs, but he has struck out 94 times in 228 at-bats.
The minor league life and its 12-hour bus rides have not been too appealing, either. Henry said he slept at a Best Value Inn in Maryland on Saturday night.
“It was horrible,” said Henry, who added that he had no idea what part of the state the hotel was in.
The hotel room’s air conditioning broke in the middle of the night, which prompted a room switch. The room, which he shared with a teammate, had only a king bed and a couch.
“I was bigger than he was, so I lucked out,” Henry said.
Xavier Henry said that he and his brother did not speak often about the potential of them playing together on the same college campus. He said that his brother preferred “to stay in reality.”
Xavier’s reality right now is an intriguing one. He is ranked No. 2 in the high school class of 2009 behind Renardo Sidney, a 6-foot-9 forward from Artesia High School in Lakewood, Calif.
“Xavier Henry is as good as the senior wings now, with another year to grow and get better,” said Dave Telep, a recruiting analyst for scout.com. “Everyone realizes that he is a legitimate difference maker in a program and won’t be around long enough to see his classmates graduates.”
Xavier Henry stormed onto the basketball scene his freshman year at Putnam City High School in the Oklahoma City area. He led his team to the state title and quickly emerged as one of the country’s best young prospects.
Good genes have helped the Henry boys. Their father, Carl, played basketball at Kansas and their mother, Barbara, ran track and played basketball there. The strong Jayhawks ties have led to speculation that Kansas is atop Xavier’s list, but he said that the Jayhawks were tied with Memphis and North Carolina.
“I need to take my visits and learn more about the schools,” said Xavier Henry, who has a 3.8 grade-point average.
Xavier Henry has already made a considerable impression at Putnam City, where Coach A. D. Burtschi said Xavier Henry was beloved by the faculty, the secretaries and the student body. Burtschi, who has been at the school for 25 years, said that it was difficult to find any flaws in Xavier Henry’s offensive game.
“As talented as a player as he is, he’s still a great kid and very coachable,” Burtschi said.
Burtschi also coached C. J. Henry in basketball and said that he would not be surprised if C. J. were able to make a smooth adjustment back to basketball.
Carl Henry said that it was written into his son’s baseball contract that the Phillies would have to pay for his tuition, meaning that a college program would not even have to give up a scholarship to take him. C. J. Henry said Kansas would be the place that he would probably go.
Still, there are some bus rides and high school games left before the brothers have a chance to be teammates.
“I told him I’m focused on baseball until I decide to do something else,” C. J. Henry said.
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