This is how Black, 26, relaxes during spring training, with what he calls mindless entertainment. For a few hours each day, he can sink into his chair and forget about finding his delivery, forget about the pressure, the expectations and the natural anxieties that come with his job.

For Black, spring training is typically a mental battle, a time when he becomes obsessed with perfecting his delivery to the point that he may be a detriment to himself. Black has been invited to three big league spring training camps now and has pitched in the majors for parts of two seasons, but he has yet to make an opening day roster.

Black used to warn his coaches, “I’ve never had a good spring training.”

Black calls himself a feel pitcher, meaning that for him to be his best, the rhythm and the timing of his delivery have to be in accord. His foot has to land at the right moment. His arm has to be in the right spot. When it all feels right, he does not give it any thought. Everything flows freely and smoothly. But that generally takes time to achieve.

Black lost sight of that at some point over the last few years. He tried hastening the process in spring training, tinkering with his mechanics, forcing the issue.

He was impatient, constantly wrestling in his mind with how he could fix himself. When the Pittsburgh Pirates left Black off their opening day roster in 2013, his anxiousness grew. His concerns blended together. Was he tinkering to solve his problems? Or was his tinkering causing his problems?