Ex-Cat Hale not surprised by Royals' run

Arizona alumnus Chip Hale, new manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks, told me that the Kansas City Royals’ emergence as a power didn’t surprise him. “In the industry, we looked at them three or four years ago and said, ‘Oh my God, here they come,’” he said. “All that good young pitching, all that speed, you could see it coming.” Hale said that Tucson resident Dave Duncan, Tony LaRussa’s long-time pitching coach in St. Louis, will have an expanded capacity for the D’backs in 2015. “Dave has the uncanny ability to take a pitcher who’s struggling, make some tweaks, and put him back on the rails.”