SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Dan Cortes wasn't looking to be a hero, just a friend. But when he tried to protect his friends and break up a fight on a December night in 2005, it nearly cost him his life.

Cortes, a 21-year-old right-hander of considerable promise in the Kansas City farm system, was awash in the expectations of a baseball career as the winter of 2005 approached. He had just finished his first professional season after being selected by the White Sox in the June First-Year Player Draft. He was 18 at the time and had taken an offseason job in a California sporting goods store in an effort to make some extra cash.

He didn't know anyone at the store so when his co-workers offered to take him bowling as a way of breaking the ice, he accepted. It was a Friday night and Cortes joined a group of people at the local lanes. Though a good time was being had by all, Cortes, still a teenager and living at home, wanted to honor his mother's wishes and be home by 1 a.m.

"I told the guys I was going to leave and they said OK, they'd come to and we started to walk out," Cortes said. "There were three gangsters outside and they picked a fight with one of my co-workers. I tried to mellow everyone out, but I got caught up in it and two guys tried to fight me. I started fighting and I got stabbed eight times.

"I got stabbed in my throwing arm, the back of my shoulder, my eyebrow, the back of my head. It was a life-changing experience. When I was in the hospital, I was all bloody and I couldn't move my arm. I could flex my biceps, but that was it; I couldn't rotate it. It was pretty traumatizing. I thought my career was over. I never thought I'd play again."

Cortes was laid up for a month and a half and didn't start to get flexibility back in his arm until just before Spring Training in 2006. He never expected to make it back, but he did and was able to pitch that season, starting at Class A Kannapolis of the South Atlantic League before getting traded to the Royals along with Tyler Lumsden for Mike MacDougal.

"I didn't have the same velocity I had before, but it picked up little by little," Cortes recalled. "It kind of changed my arm slot, too. I was over the top and after that I was more a high three-quarters guy. It was pretty tough, but eventually I got through it."

The men who attacked him were arrested and convicted. Two of them are serving life sentences while the third is in the middle of a five-year stint in prison. That Cortes survived the incident and has gone on to become one of Kansas City's most talked-about pitching prospects is a bit of a miracle.

Cortes understandably struggled in 2006, posting a 4-11 mark with a 4.67 ERA in 27 games (26 starts). But by the time he reached Wilmington of the Class A Advanced Carolina League in 2007 he had regained his form, going 8-8 with a 3.07 ERA in 24 starts. This season, he was 10-4 with a 3.78 ERA in 23 starts at Double-A Northwest Arkansas, despite missing a month early with a strained quad muscle.

He recovered, though, and was brilliant down the stretch, going 6-0 with a 2.86 ERA in his final eight starts. He was third in the Texas League in wins and sixth in ERA.

"I started off the season great and with the setback, it took a little while to catch up," Cortes said. "I had never been hurt before and it messed me up mentally and physically. My body wouldn't let me do what I wanted to do. It was pretty tough and it took about a month and a half, two months to come back fully."

Cortes is pitching for Surprise in the Arizona Fall League and is 0-3 with an 8.10 ERA in five starts. He lives about two miles from the park and skateboards in every day. He gets a bit of a workout and gets to do something he enjoys.

Once at the park, he's been working on his changeup and fastball command. He didn't like his walk totals this season (55 in 116 innings) or a strikeout-to-walk ratio that was a little less than 2-to-1.

"I need to cut down on the walks, but I guess that's what the AFL is for," said Cortes, who had eight walks through 16 2/3 innings. "I haven't had the best outings of my life here, but I'm learning about what to pitch. My sequences are different than the regular season. During the regular season, I was more aggressive with my fastball.

"But guys here are looking for that fastball. They set you up for it, so I have to learn how to use my off-speed stuff more. Most of the time in the regular season I just used my fastball."

It's a good concern to have, considering there was a time that worrying about pitching and getting better use out of his breaking ball weren't things Cortes was sure he'd ever be able to do again.