SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Arizona Diamondbacks had a short practice Monday, just long enough to break a sweat before retreating to their clubhouse before 11 a.m. It was paintball day for the Diamondbacks, who changed into camouflage gear and headed off for a team-building exercise in which they all, essentially, would try to imitate Gerardo Parra.

Parra, their sublime right fielder, flings baseballs, not paintballs, with extraordinary force and accuracy. In 2013, by one measure, Parra had the best defensive season a right fielder has ever had, with a left arm to envy.

“Every time he throws, it shocks me; it stuns me,” said A. J. Pollock, the Diamondbacks’ center fielder. “It’s a different gear than I’ve ever seen anyone throw with. He wants guys to go. He baits them to go. He’s so accurate and quick with it, he’s like a shortstop playing from 300 feet away.”

Parra’s glove and arm are so renowned that he seemed almost out of place with a bat in his hand Monday morning, in a hallway off the clubhouse. One teammate walked by, tapped the bat and asked if Parra knew how to use it. Another called him Billy Wagner, referring to the retired closer who threw 100 miles per hour.