SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Like a lot of players, there was a time that D-backs first baseman Christian Walker subscribed to the theory that more meant better.

If 75 swings in the cage was good, then 100 or 150 must be even better.

“When I grew up it was always more, more, more,” Walker said. “Work harder, work harder. There’s always somebody working harder, there’s always somebody better than you, so there was this quest to be the hardest worker in the room.”

The D-backs are trying to make sure their players are working smarter, not longer this spring.

With that in mind, everything is being counted. Each throw that an infielder makes during drills, every swing a hitter takes in the batting cage or on the field. Even every time a pitcher covers first base during fundamental work.

It’s all logged in a computer and then analyzed so that no one is asked to do too much.

It’s load management, Major League Baseball style.

The tracking of swings dates back to last year when hitting coach Darnell Coles came over from the Brewers and brought with him the idea that every swing in the cage should be tallied.

“When I hear the numbers, yeah it’s surprising at the end of the week you took 750 swings just in the batting cage to get ready for games,” Walker said. “Not to mention BP swings and game swings. Surprising, but great information for someone like myself to know.”

When a batter gets done with a round in the batting cage he calls out his swing number and whichever member of the hitting coach staff is there logs it. It then gets entered in a computer and Coles will monitor it.

Coles knows that when a hitter is struggling, his total swings in the cage is going to go up because he’s working on ironing out issues. What Coles then will make sure is that it’s a temporary surge and the numbers even out as time goes on.

Some hitters had been keeping track of their workload before Coles’ arrival.

“I’ve been aware of my volume for a while now and just trying to do a good job of taking care of my body,” veteran shortstop Nick Ahmed said. “I used to work, work, work until the cows came home and I don’t think that’s sustainable to play for 15 or 18 years. I’ve learned over the last three to four years that I need to not take more, that more isn’t always better.”

That’s a lesson that veteran outfielder David Peralta has learned as well.

“You don’t realize that, but that’s why at the end of the season you’re feeling like you can’t even move,” Peralta said of taking too many swings.

Both Peralta and Ahmed, though, think it’s something that can only come through experience and that young players can get away with extra work because their bodies handle the wear and tear better.

“You can’t take a young kid and just teach him to work smart,” Ahmed said. “You have to have a drive and a work ethic and determination and then reel that back as you get older.”