Interesting that, after I went to press yesterday, the start time for tomorrow\u2019s game was changed to be an evening affair. Today, however? Suck it up, baby. Accuweather currently projects a temperature of 107 F at 4 pm, around the time this one ends. Remember to hydrate, folks. Or, better yet, don\u2019t bother crossing the doorstep. For you can listen on the radio, though Arizona Sports 98.7 FM or online equivalents. Anyway, here\u2019s today\u2019s line-up, marking the final tune-up for Ryne Nelson before we hit the regular season schedule next week<\/p>\n
After Ryne, it\u2019ll be RHP Taylor Clarke, LHP Brandyn Garcia, RHP Paul Sewald and LHP Philip Abner. Yesterday, we saw Kade Stroud optioned out to Reno, thinning the herd of potential relievers. Here\u2019s the list of who I see still not yet disposed of:<\/p>\n
Walston and Mena are crossed out, because they are probably off the board for health reasons. The former had TJ about a year ago, so doesn\u2019t seem ready, and Mena was shut down at the end of February, after re-aggravating the strained shoulder which has kept him out since last June. They may end up becoming 60-day IL fodder to open up spots on the 40-man roster for non-roster invitees. There are two still present: Loaisiga and Ross, though the latter hasn\u2019t impressed with a 7.71 spring ERA and almost as many walks as K\u2019s. Presuming eight bullpen spots, I\u2019m crossing Ross and Garcia off, and the rest will be your Opening Day bullpen.<\/p>\n
After today\u2019s Cactus League game, there will be another contest, with a roster of D-backs prospects taking on the Rockies\u2019 equivalent, in a Spring Breakout contest. The Arizona roster includes a slew of their top names: Ryan Waldschmidt (No. 1 prospect, MLB No. 59), Kayson Cunningham (No. 2), Demetrio Crisantes (No. 5), JD Dix (No. 6), Patrick Forbes (No. 9), LuJames Groover (No. 10), Jansel Luis (No. 13), Druw Jones (No. 16), Carlos Virahonda (No. 17), Brian Curley (No. 22), Wellington Aracena (No. 24), Ivan Luciano (No. 26), Jose Fernandez (No. 27), Avery Owusu-Asiedu (No. 29) and Gavin Conticello (No. 30). Let\u2019s hope none of them melt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interesting that, after I went to press yesterday, the start time for tomorrow\u2019s game was changed to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,75962,4314,5,38,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-636972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-diamondbacks","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","10":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks-discussion","11":"tag-arizonadiamondbacks","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-diamondbacks","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116272150801659320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}