Billy Buckner and Leo Rosales have been send down to Triple-A Tucson by the Arizona Diamondbacks who continue to trim their spring training roster down as they get ready for opening day which is less than a week away.

Buckner and Rosales are both planned to be on the big league roster at some point this season as they will probably be the first pitchers called up to pitch out of the bullpen with the Diamondbacks need some help out of the pen.

Diamondbacks Blog

There will be nine players away from the Diamondbacks big league camp as they were all reassigned with the minor league camp so they get more opportunities at playing time against the minor league competition.

Brooks Brown, Hector Ambriz, Barry Enright, Matt Green, Wes Roemer, Mark Rosen, Jamie D’Antona, Frank Curreri, and Chris Rahl were all sent down.  None of these players were really expected to make the big league club out of spring training so nothing is really suprising here.

Diamondbacks Blog

Randy Johnson is pitching great in spring training has he has thrown three bullpen session so far and looks excellent.  The “Big Unit” only pitched 10 games in the 2007 season, and then had back surgery in August.

Johnson is on schedule to pitch to live batters on Thursday.  I would expect him to throw around 30-40 pitches during the throwing session.  If Johnson can have a strng 08 season for the Diamondbacks, you have really got to like their chances to make another post season run.

Diamondbacks Blog