Sim date December 17, 2022

2022 turned out to be a surprising and productive year for the Tempe Knights. We made the playoffs for the first time in 9 years (2013). We finished the year over .500 for the first time in my tenure and the first time since 2017.

We defeated  cross state rivals the Yuma Bulldozers in a thrilling down to the wire Wild Card Series, 3 games to 2. That propelled us to the Divisional Series against PEBA’s best record in 2022 the Crystal Lake Sandgnats. If making the playoffs wasn’t surprising enough and then taking the Wild Card Series from the powerhouse Bulldozers, (which about bankrupted Las Vegas) didn’t catch everyone off guard then winning the Divisional Series against the mighty Sandgnats 4 games to 2 was a complete shocker. I think momentum carried us through the series with Crystal Lake. So we managed to get to the Sovereign League Championship Series.

What are we doing here? What are all these media people doing in our locker room. They are following us everywhere. We weren’t quite used to this. But the team we were facing, the juggernaut Aurora Borealis were. They were as much used to it as they were changing their shoes. The Cinderella run stopped there. After getting shocked themselves by us in game 1 the eventual 2022 PEBA World Champions gathered themselves up and showed Tempe just how it was gonna be. Taking the next 4 games to win the series in 5 games. We packed it up after the game and the players cleaned out their lockers til the pitchers and catcher report again in February.

But all in all it was an awesome run for us and a great experience for our players. It was good to see that both Padilla and Figueroa get a taste of the playoffs and be in the limelight as they deserve. But at age 29 they both have plenty of career ahead of them to have another chance to get to the dance. Youngster SS Coleman tied a Sovereign League playoff record with a 5 hit game in the divisional series against Crystal Lake. He also won the MVP of that series and Norm Bruce won the MVP award in the Wild Card series against Yuma.

The pitching rotation stays in tact with Lee-Ashley-Esquivel-Wilson-Diaz. The bullpen will get a shaking up of sorts with a new closer, whoever wins that job and the promotion of Tinker. We looking forward to see both Lawson and Bravo’s growth in their young careers. Although they both pitch well last year. And hopefully Cuevas can turn it back around and have a good season in 2023.

The lineup is fairly stable with stars Padilla, Figueroa and Coleman. Hopefully a nice addition of Murakami will help the outfield defensively with Figueroa in right and Juarez roaming in center. Were expecting Bruce and Mays to both have solid years as well. 1 time All-Leather winner SS Coleman and 2 time All-Leather award winner 2B Reyna will again controlling the middle with Mays and Padilla expected to anchor the corner infield. 1 time All-Leather winner Turley will call the pitches behind the plate with Barnes in relief every so many games. At least this is the last I heard from manager Rodriguez’ on his plans. Utility infielder Lopez and Mr I can play just about anywhere just put me in coach Scherer will come off the disabled list just in time for spring training

We have news on the all off-season fronts this year. Free agency incoming and out going, draft 5 rule addition, coach signings and a new scout after our long time scout Matt Pratt decided he didn’t like the Arizona sun anymore. Better buy yourself a good umbrella Mr Pratt cause your gonna need it in Okinawa.

The biggest news within the Tempe organization is on a new stadium deal. The decision to renovate or rebuild is a tough one. There have reportedly been meeting after meeting to discuss the pros and cons of each choice and how it will impact the Knights and the city of Tempe as a whole. The decision will be announced at this years Winter Meetings.

On the Free agency front we lose closer Raul Cruz. Even though he faded towards the end of the season and the playoffs, he will be missed. We didn’t offer contracts to RP Tomas Medina or OF Eric Springer. 1B Ken Knight walked on his own after he fell out of favor in Tempe. We do welcome free agent addition OF Hirotaka Murakami to the Tempe organization. Murakami who came to us from Dayton hits for a decent average and is an upgrade in the left field defensively over Wild Card MVP Norm Bruce. I’d move Bruce to DH and Murakami to left if i still had the choice but that will be up to new Knights manager Pedro Rodriguez who likes to make decisions on his own. We also signed left handed RP Nelson Ortiz to compete for a bullpen spot. Both righty RP Aurelio Lopez and lefty RP Luis Puente will compete for the closer job this spring. If lefty Puente wins the job Ortiz will be needed in the bullpen for the lefty/righty match ups.

In the Draft 5 Rule we didn’t lose anyone this year. Which is prolly a bad sign. It might just show how weak our farm is or the lack of depth in it. We did sign RP Lorenzo Lopes from the Aurora organization. He will get an invite to spring training in 2023. We’ll see how he does. He has some aspects in his game that I like. But we’ll just have to see if it applies to the real world of PEBA.

On the personnel front, we finally found a scout after some hang ups with the signing of Pedro Paz. As mentioned above we promoted bench coach Pedro Rodriguez to manager and signed new bench coach Ken Sandoval off the streets. This is his first professional coaching job and loves defensive wizardry but is poor at teaching it. ???????? Ya I don’t understand it either. We also welcome our new coaches down on the farm. New SS-A manager Jason Anderson, SS-A pitching coach Dan Goode, and A league hitting coach Walt Ramos. You got some work to do down there boys, good luck.

Coming off of a big improvement year we’ll have to wait and see what 2023 has in store for us. A lot of things going on in the front office, in the bigs and also plenty of movement on the farm. One thing is for sure is that more Tempe residence are interested on what goes on with the Knight this year vs last. There’s been so much interest that many more peeps have moved to Tempe giving it an upgrade in status from tiny to small.

I guess they love the smell of cactus in the morning.