PEORIA, Ariz. — If a pitcher — reliever or starter — struggles and puts up poor results in the Cactus League, there’s often one of a variety of reasons listed as the cause behind it.
Some examples being:
- Working on a certain pitch
- Experimenting with a mechanical adjustment
- The dry air of Arizona affecting breaking pitches
- Just trying to build the pitch count and not show too much to hitters.
Within reason, all of these are somewhat acceptable and logical causes of a statistically bad outing.