Phillips and the Duke

If there’s a lesson from the last two years of Steve Phillips with the Mets and the last two seasons Dan Duquette spent in Boston, it’s this: the minute the GM starts to worry about being fired, he should be. Phillips and the Duke both had their strong points as GMs, but both gave in to panicked overspending on declining veterans when they reached the point where they were more worried about the back page than about the long haul.