Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Let’s play today
Van Horn hardly can wait to use ’18 roster
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn came across as giddy at Wednesday’s news conference at Baum Stadium.
Van Horn’s mood had a lot to do with the introduction of Nate Thompson as the Razorbacks’ recruiting coordinator and hitting coach. He also was excited that his 2018 roster for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville would include an ace in right-hander Blaine Knight and a pair of seniors in Luke Bonfield and Carson Shaddy who hit in the middle of the order last year.
Combining those veterans with other returning starters in catcher Grant Koch, shortstop Jax Biggers, third baseman Jared Gates, and outfielders Eric Cole and Dominic Fletcher — along with the return of would-be weekend pitcher Isaiah Campbell from injury — and a quality 13-man signing class has Van Horn stoked for 2018.
“We want to be playing this week next year,” Van Horn said. “It’s going to be good having some seniors on the team that are good.
“A lot of times you have seniors on the team that are OK. These guys are experienced, and they’re good players. They’ll be able to lead us a little bit, and then you mix in the other guys coming back, it should be a good mix. Expectations around here are going to be high.”
Knight was draft eligible after posting an 8-4 record and 3.28 ERA in a lead starter role for most of his sophomore season, but Major League Baseball teams were aware of his asking price to sign and he was not drafted until the 29th round by the Texas Rangers two weeks ago.
After Knight recorded two outs in relief in the Razorbacks’ season-ending 3-2 loss to Missouri State on June 5, Van Horn thought the Bryant native had thrown his last pitch for the Razorbacks. Knight gave him hope he’d be back in 2018 just before the draft.
“The last thing he told me was, ‘Coach, don’t worry about it, I’ll be at school,’ ” Van Horn said. “Blaine had every opportunity in the world to make a deal the first day.
“People ask, ‘Why did he slip?’ He didn’t slip. He wanted a lot of money. So then it was up to those pro teams to make that decision. They didn’t get to exactly what he wanted and he stood firm. I respect him for that. He believes in himself. That’s why he’s coming back. It’s not like he’s rolling the dice. They already know what he can do.”
Knight and Campbell could be the top starters in the weekend rotation, but Van Horn and pitching coach Wes Johnson should have plenty of other options to piece together a strong staff. Junior right-hander Keaton McKinney might be ready to return from Tommy John surgery, and left-handers Kacey Murphy (5-1, 3.65 ERA), Matt Cronin (3-1, 2.00) and Evan Lee (0-0, 3.60) could contend for bigger roles along with righthanders Jake Reindl (4-1, 2.31), Kevin Kopps (3-1, 3.31) and others.
“We’re just hoping we can have Isaiah back,” Van Horn said. “He’d be a guy that we hope can get to the form that he had last fall, and then we figure out who’s going to go from there. We feel we have a chance to put together a pretty good pitching staff.”
The signing class is loaded with talent, including a big selection of right-handed pitchers such as Jackson Rutledge, Zebulon Vermillion, Caleb Bolden, Kole Ramage and two-way player Bryce Bonnin of Baytown, Texas, whose fastball touched the high 90s late last year. Lefty Hunter Milligan is another option.
“We feel like we really have five quality right- handers coming in that should help us immediately,” Van Horn said. “I just feel really good about the class that’s coming in.
“There were a few guys that aren’t coming because Bonfield’s coming back. That knocked an outfielder out. These kids are concerned a little bit because they want to play. They want to know they’re going to get a chance.
“You know me. I’m going to be upfront with them and tell them there’s not much of an opportunity to play the first year, and juco would end up being the best route for some guys, and that’s what most of them are going to do.”
Bonfield, batting almost exclusively at No. 3 in the order, hit .294 last season with 9 home runs and 49 RBI. Shaddy, batting mostly sixth, hit .279 with 8 home runs and 40 RBI. Those two, along with Koch (.264), fell off at the end of the season after hitting better than .300 for much of the year.
Shaddy was hitting .327 through April 7 after going 2 for 5 in a victory over LSU. He went 29 of 121 (.240) the rest of the way.
“This is the summer I want him to come in and put on 10, 15 pounds of strength because at the end of the year he had lost a lot of weight,” Van Horn said. “If you look at his numbers over the last two years, he tears it up in the first half, power wise and all that. Then it goes the other way. He just needs to get better and stronger and faster. He’s working on that.”
Cole, Biggers, Bonfield, Koch, Fletcher and Shaddy — in that order — could wind up being the top six hitters in an Arkansas lineup laden with veterans next season.
Van Horn also is excited about the young position players headed to campus.
“We do have some athletic young guys coming in,” he said. “Are they going to play every day? We’ll see.”