On the first day of camp last week, Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly simulated three innings of work, his pitch count reaching 50. It was an outing typical of the third or fourth week of spring training.
A day later, left-hander Madison Bumgarner made his first appearance, logging between 35 and 40 pitches, an outing more in line with the first game of spring.
As they make their way through a three-week ramp up before the start of the season, the Diamondbacks are tailoring their players’ workloads on a case-by-case basis. They asked pitchers to be ready to face hitters when they arrived at camp, but some pitchers are ready to do that more than others.