November 23, 2007
The Eyes Have It
The Yankees recovered one of the players traded for Bobby Abreu for a very interesting reason:
The Yankees signed C.J. Henry to a minor league deal after their No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft asked for and was granted his release by the Phillies. He was dealt to Philly in 2006 as part of the Bobby Abreu deal.
"He came to us," scouting head Damon Oppenheimer, the man who drafted the 21-year-old Henry, who batted .184 for Lakewood (Single-A) this past summer. "He told us he wanted to play for us and asked would we want him back? We made sure he wanted to play baseball and we found out the last month of the season he was fitted for contacts and hit .300."
Maybe the contacts made the difference and maybe it was just luck. One month of batting isn't a big sample size. But if the contacts do make a difference, the Yankees might get a decent player for very little investment.
Posted by David Pinto at
10:55 AM
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I agree. He went 17-for-52 in his final month, but with little pop (.431 SLG). In July, though, he went 8-for-73 with zero extra base hits, 3 BB and 32 K - an OPS of .265! I'm not sure who had worse vision, CJ or his manager.
Low risk, but very low expected reward. The Yanks had given up on him when he was traded to the Phillies.
Good grief--a recent first round draft pick, and they couldn't be bothered to give him an adequate eye exam for over two years? Someone should lose their job over that.
