Marlins none too pleased over Red Sox Spring Training lineup

From SI.com: 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.

Few things here. First, the fact that the Marlins jacked up the prices for this game is laughable. It's a Spring Training game. There's no such thing as a "Premium Game" in the spring, I don't care if the Red Sox are defending World Series champions. Even if the rule calls for a minimum of "four major leaguers" in an exhibition game, that's still less than half of your typical starting lineup. (Also, who even knew about this rule until the Marlins complained here). Say what you will about the NFL pre-season, and it is god-awful, but at least teams aren't able to jack up prices just because the defending Super Bowl champion is in town.

The bigger point here is that we're talking about the Marlins. They went 62-100 last year. An organization with a franchise winning percentage of .470. An organization that holds firesales at least once per presidential term. Seriously, I strongly suggest trying the Marlins Opening Day Lineups quiz on Sporcle. They continuously trot out a roster deprived of "major leaguers." Aside from their star Giancarlo Stanton, they had exactly one player with an OPS over .700 (min. 300 at-bats) last year: Logan Morrison, at a whopping .709. By the way, they traded him this off-season for Carter Capps, a pitcher with a 5.04 ERA in 84 career innings. 

Their team president, David Samson, took time off last summer to compete on Survivor....and was the first voted off. The losing culture is contagious. 

We're talking about an organization that has finished no higher than 28th in attendance since 2001 save for 2004 (defending World Series champs, finished 24th) and 2012 (first year of new ballpark, 18th). Speaking of that ballpark, which opened in 2012 and was financed using 59% of the tax payers of Miami-Dade County's money....didn't these tax payers assume that the Marlins would finally stop selling off their best players? 

Nope. After signing Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell to the three of the largest free-agent contracts in team history in the winter of 2011-12, all three were gone after just one season. A "former Marlins all-star team" would include names like Miguel Cabrera, Hanley Ramirez, Josh Beckett, Dan Uggla....and that's just from recent cheapness. Players like Mike Lowell, Ivan Rodriguez, Carlos Delgado, Mike Piazza, Moises Alou, Derrek Lee, Edgar Renteria are just a few retired players who at one point played for the Fish.

Perhaps the funniest part of this whole non-story is the result of the game. It was a scoreless tie due to a rainout, which is funny in itself, but the Red Sox "scrubs" out-hit the Marlins 7-2 through eight innings. You can't make this stuff up.

Bottom line: this team has no leg to stand on when griping about the roster practices of others. And bring back this old logo, while we're at it. They literally can't do anything right.

Rhody takes down Fordham on Senior Night, heads into A-10 Tourney on high note

A well-deserved serenation of Xavier Munford highlighted Senior Night at the Ryan Center, a 77-65 victory by URI over Fordham. 

The first star of the Dan Hurley era went out with one of his finest performances of the season, tallying 21 points on 7-14 shooting (including 4-7 from three-point land, his most makes since January 25 vs. Dayton). Munford, the only scholarship senior on the Rams roster, became the fastest player in Rhode Island history to reach 1,000 career points last Saturday. 

A bit of symmetry existed inside the box score last night, a sign of the changing of the guard from Munford's team this season to EC Matthews's in the future: both players finished with identical stat lines of 21 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. Rhode Island struggled in the first half against Fordham, who's mascot is also the Rams, trailing 33-31 at the break. Munford and Matthews each had 6 points in the first half. It's no coincidence the Rhode Island rendition of the Rams was able to outplay Fordham when the dynamic duo matched each other with 15 apiece in the second frame.

Hassan Martin, fresh off his Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week honors, posted another double-double, with 13 points and 12 boards. He also added  It was the third straight outing Martin has cracked double figures in points, and the fourth time in the last seven games he's topped 10 rebounds. Martin and Matthews won't be battling each other for rookie of the week honors for much longer; we'll be talking about A-10 Player of the Week nods soon enough.

T.J. Buchanan had perhaps the finest game of his URI career, posting a career high 14 points, to go along with 11 rebounds and 7 assists. It was his first career double-double. The last tie to the Jim Baron era picked the perfect time to have a career night, as Gilvydas Biruta was held scoreless for the first time since December 11, 2010, when he was still a freshman at Rutgers. Biruta, who fouled out, went 0-4 from the field in just 13 minutes of action, matching his lowest total of the season (vs. Metro State back in November). 

Rhode Island's team defense continues to impress, as for the third time in the last five games, they were able to neutralize their opponent's leading scorer. Langston Galloway (16.6 ppg) of St. Joseph's had just 6 points (2-12 shooting) in a 61-57 win for the Hawks; Kendall Anthony (15.7 ppg) of Richmond had 8 points while shooting an astounding 2-20 from the field in a 66-43 win for Rhode Island; and the unit shone brightest last night, taking out Jon Severe (17.8 ppg) to the tune of 3 points on 1-12 shooting. 

And so the Rams conclude the regular season with a 14-17 record, 5-11 in the Atlantic 10. They won three of their final four games, including a nice road win @ St. Bonaventure's, and (almost certainly) popping Richmond's bubble last Saturday at home. Considering the team won 7 and 8 games each of the last two seasons, you'll take the 14. And let's not forget what's up next:

The Atlantic 10 Tournament, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. All 13 teams from the conference qualify this season, with the 12th and 13th ranked teams facing off in a play-in game of sorts. Rhode Island avoided potentially playing in that game with last night's win, and can finish either 10th or 11th, depending on the outcome of Duquesne's final game at George Mason on Saturday. No matter where URI finishes, it is almost a certainty they will face a team they've previously beaten this season: Richmond or Dayton. So stay tuned, and look for a collaboration between Adam Stein of the UMass Basketball Report and myself on a preview of the conference tourney. Until then, Go Rhody.