MESA, Ariz. (AP) — By his own admission, Rich Hill tends to be just a tad analytical. So he wasn't shocked when Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella told him to relax on the mound.

"I'm not the type of person who's going to go in there and say, 'I like this type of car, let's go buy it,'" he said. "I'm going to research it, find out. Doing other things, I sit there and think a lot. It does run into (life)."

And, yes, it does drive him crazy at times.

"It's funny, because you know the process you need to take and the steps that you need to take," he said. "It's almost like you're not allowing yourself to get out of your own way. You're continuing to think."

And Hill keeps misfiring.

His ERA this spring is 7.11. He has 14 walks and nine strikeouts, has allowed 15 hits in 12 2-3 innings, and his most recent outing against the Colorado Rockies on Thursday was particularly bad.

Hill opened the game with seven straight balls and never really found the plate. He walked the bases loaded and, after a double play, walked two more to load them again before getting out of the jam with one run.

In the second, he walked another batter and committed an error before Piniella pulled him. In all, Hill walked six of the 11 batters he faced.

Hill is scheduled to start Tuesday, but he's not auditioning for a spot. A miserable spring won't keep him out of the rotation. Not after he emerged as the Cubs' third-best starter last season.

Either Jon Lieber or Jason Marquis figures to be the odd man out when Piniella announces the fifth starter on Monday, even though both have ERAs under 2.00.

Hill?

"I want him to relax," Piniella said. "Rich puts undue pressure on himself. He's a very conscientious kid and he wants to be a perfectionist, and there's no such thing in this business. I told him, 'Don't concern yourself with thinking that there's even a possibility of us taking you out of the rotation. We like you. Go out there and relax and throw the ball.'"

Hill's quick to acknowledge he has a tough time doing that, because his mind tends to kick into overdrive.

"That's something that I've been given is an analytical mind," he said. "I put too much stock into things, overanalyze things. The best thing is to keep things simple. It just makes everything go a lot smoother."

A year ago, Hill didn't walk a batter during the spring and had a 1.73 ERA over his first six starts once the season started. He went 11-8 with a 3.92 ERA and helped the Cubs win the NL Central. Now, he can't find the plate.

Piniella joked Hill spent so much time throwing in the bullpen after the Colorado game Thursday that "I think he would have thrown until 9 o'clock last night. He wouldn't have stopped."

And Hill added, "I would have been there to turn the lights on in the morning" had the coaches not made him stop.

But before he got dragged away, he and pitching coach Larry Rothschild adjusted his delivery, leveling out his shoulders. That should boost his control and quicken his delivery, making it harder to run on him.

Hill said the adjustments "cleaned up a lot of things" and simplified his delivery. He said he's been giving himself "a lot of positive reinforcement from last year" by reviewing video of his better moments.

"It's being able to rebuild again and go out and have some success and build off that success, whether it's minor success or seven shutout innings," Hill said. "I'll be honest, this is not fun to go out there and not pitch well. That's not the point. We've been working rather diligently on getting back on track. It's time to just go out there and do it."

Piniella simply wants Hill to clear his mind.

"He thinks too much and he worries," Piniella said. "He's very conscientious, but he's got to learn to relax. I said to him, 'You won 11 ballgames last year, and you've got one more year under your belt.' He's got a good chance to run this thing up to 15, 16."