In a season filled with clubhouse turmoil, the newly acquired, and very unproductive, Phil Nevin is apparently fitting right in...
The DMN's Rangers notes for Monday morning has this to say:
Phil Nevin had a frustrating day at the park on Sunday.
It started with a lineup change that dropped the Rangers designated hitter from cleanup to seventh. It ended when he was ejected after arguing a called strike three in the second inning.
When Nevin saw the lineup card that was posted before 11 a.m. in the clubhouse, he was listed as the cleanup hitter. The card showed Marshall McDougall starting at third base and Hank Blalock getting the day off.
But Blalock told manager Buck Showalter he felt good and wanted to play, so around 11:30 a.m. a new lineup card was posted with Blalock batting cleanup and Nevin hitting seventh.
Nevin said to someone walking in the clubhouse [and loud enough for everyone to hear]: "You should have been here, I was hitting fourth. It was a big day for a minute. It was going to be like old times, back when I was good."
Nevin then walked by Blalock's locker and said, "Way to go, Hank."
Wow.
And again, this is a guy that the team is talking up as being at least a semi-regular on their 2006 team.
It will be interesting to see how Buck reacts to this. Personally, I'd rather see Jason Botts get Nevin's ABs the rest of the way, anyway...
But it makes no sense, to me, that a guy who has the reputation Buck does, of being a control freak, someone who keeps a tight lid on things, is having these sorts of things erupt on the team. We had the Barajas/Drese fight, the Soriano tantrum over being benched, the Rogers/camerman incident, the ongoing public complaining by Teixeira and Young over the front office's inactivity, Soriano's ongoing refusal to hustle or run anything out...
And now, we've got Nevin throwing a tantrum over being dropped to the #7 slot, when, in light of his awful production of late, he should just be happy he's in the lineup.