The spanking of Jeff McNeil

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Some of us may have missed this but late night Saturday McNeil whiffed for, I think, the 3rd time on the night and exhibited McNeil-like behavior-- demonstrably slamming his bat on the ground and stalking back to the dugout, no doubt saying a lot of Bad Words as he went.



But what happened next is more interesting: nothing, as in, didn't come out for the next inning on the field, and not in the lineup yesterday and batting... 8th tonight.



Neither Mickey nor Luis ever showed the juice to pull this off. No matter how many times--to my eyes, McNiel needed a little tough love. I love it, if this is Buck.



I didn't see yesterday's game on TV or read much Twitter since Saturday so curious if there's been a fan narrative developing on this

[Fman99]

They did mention it in the booth yesterday. They framed it as him getting a breather but also made it pretty clear that it was very much in response to that last K

[roger_that]

I just thought he was moved down to the 8 hole because the Mets were facing a lefty tonight

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Well that's certainly possible too but I'm just glad to see some action being taken when mcneil's head gets stuck up his ass

[Edgy MD]

When asked about McNeil coming out of the game on Saturday night, Bucko said something very Buck-like along the lines of "Jeff needed to be sitting close to us at that time."



Buck can be puckishly coy and pregnant with meaning at the same time, and so turning the silly back on himself saves face for the player even as he's getting a slap.



Yesterday was a lefty too, and Buck's got the luxury of three starters bouncing between second and left. So McNeil can get sat down, get a dose of medicine, and it isn't glaringly obvious, becoming the narrative of the game and seed material for column inches.

[Edgy MD]

Interestingly, dealing with Jeff's ass came up during http://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30964&p=83444#p83459Buck's introductory press conference.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I was on it.