New Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team manager Chip Hale, left, puts on a Diamondbacks hat as he is introduced by chief baseball officer Tony LaRussa during a news conference Oct. 13, 2014, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) Β  Β Β 

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


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