Six weeks after signing a multi-year contract with the Mariners, Yusei Kikuchi made his way to Arizona in early February for his first big league spring training.



Excited, curious, a little bit nervous? Sure. What Kikuchi wasn’t, though, was unprepared. The Japanese import was determined to hit the ground running. And new surroundings be damned, Kikuchi was certain what he needed. Brian DeLunas, the Mariners’ director of pitching development and strategy, discovered this much fairly quickly.



“I will be honest with you,” DeLunas said. “Beginning with his first outing of the spring, someone would find me the following morning, tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Yusei wants his info.’”



The left-hander wasn’t seeking feedback from the coaching staff, but a comprehensive analytical synopsis of his pitches and mechanics; data he could dig into in the name of self-improvement.



“Having data when...