April 17, 2011
Mike Lupica, Tempe Gazette

Tempe is off to its best start ever at 8-3, but it has come at a terrible cost, with a rash of injuries hitting the Knights.  In two weeks the Knights have lost: Juan Montés for three months; Lorenzo Álvarez for two months; Ángel Zarate for two weeks; Chad Hull for four weeks; Wade Ferguson for five weeks; and Diego Vásquez for three weeks.  The Knights have still managed to play well, with Jason Kirkland leading the way.  Knights GM Chris Van Hauter hopes that his bench and call-ups from AAA Chandler can fill the void until everyone gets healthy.  Van Hauter stated that the goal now is to stay close and not fall too far behind in the divisional and wild card races.

Before the season started, Van Hauter predicted a playoff berth; that has not changed, even with the rash of injuries.  Van Hauter believes that Chris Gamble, Richard Carney, Tim Eaton, Lorenzo Luján, Gabriel Letomia, and Bryan Brown can help fill the void and keep the Knights in contention until everyone gets healthy.

One of the reasons why the Knights are off to a fast start is because their hitters are being more patient, drawing more walks and not striking out as much.  Indeed, Tempe leads the league in on-base percentage.  One of the things the club wanted to do in the offseason was to acquire players who rarely struck out because strikeouts kill a lot of rallies.  Kirkland in particular looks like he is going to have his breakout year in 2011.  After 11 games, he is hitting .410 with an OBP over .500.  He also has driven in 9 runs.  Van Hauter believes that Kirkland can hit 30 home runs this year with an average around .280.

The Knights are winning despite their struggling pitching staff.  However, Van Hauter is not yet concerned on this front, believing that Knights pitching should be near the top of the categories by the end of the season.  Of course everything in the Knights universe revolves around Markus Hancock, who is off to a solid start at 2-0.  Chet Collins rebounded from a horrible first start to strike out 10 in a 5-2 win over Kalamazoo.  Barney Sharp has struggled with his control but has looked good overall.  The Knights hope that Sharp can turn the corner this year, which will require him to show much better command of his pitches.

The big test for the Knights comes this week as they take on the Bakersfield Bears and the Omaha Cyclones.  Bakersfield has had Tempe‘s number since 2007 and Van Hauter hopes the Knights play well in the three-game series.  It may be too early to say this is a crucial series, but Van Hauter feels it could make or break the club in terms of momentum and confidence.  The GM believes if the Knights win two of three, it will boost everyone’s confidence and give the team needed momentum as it recovers from the rash of early-season injuries. One thing is for sure: the Knights need to keep up their winning ways and hope that their injuries prove to be not too costly.