The Boomer said:These early spring games are meaningless. It looks like the real AAA lineup for the Red Sox played the actual ML AAA lineup of the Marlins to a scoreless tie.
Not so, Boomer. Miami Marlins officials were "outraged" the Red Sox sent only JBJ and Lavarnway after they sold "premium" tickets to see the World Champs. This article sums up my feelings pretty well.
The Miami Marlins, who won 62 games last season and routinely trotted out a regular season lineup featuring players like Jeff Mathis, Donovan Solano and 37-year-old Placido Polanco, are apparently in a tizzy over the spring training lineup the Red Sox put together for Thursday’s Grapefruit League game in Jupiter, Fla. That’s according to the Sun-Sentinel‘s Marlins beat reporter Juan C. Rodriguez, who wrote that team executives were “outraged” over the squad of minor leaguers that Boston sent to Miami’s Roger Dean Stadium to play a team that will feature 36-year-old Rafael Furcal at second base in games that actually count.
Rodriguez also notes that Boston’s lineup was especially galling given that the Marlins had instigated “super premium” pricing for tickets to Thursday’s game against the defending World Series champion, only to watch “organizational filler in Red Sox batting practice jerseys with numbers befitting an offensive line” face a team that, in 2013, charged its fans to watch Ed Lucas compile nearly 400 plate appearances for a team that finished 34 games out of first place in the National League East.
The Marlins, meanwhile, had a lineup that featured seven of their likely Opening Day starters, including Furcal, who has not played in the majors since 2012; third baseman Casey McGehee, who spent all of 2013 in Japan; and shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria, who was the worst player in baseball last season by WAR (-1.9).
Thursday’s game between the Marlins and Red Sox was called after eight innings due to rain with both teams tied at zero. Boston’s lineup out-hit Miami’s, 7-2.