Ben Ennis

And not just where they're standing, but the way they've played.

With the Phillies in particular, losing 11 of 12,

catches your attention a little bit.

And a lot of the... It's not just the record, but it's how the losses have come about, how you're performing, what the issues are, and certainly in the case of the Phillies and the Mets, and again, the Mets at this hour, last I checked 30 seconds ago, still Carlos Mendoza is the manager, but this is something that bears checking every several minutes at this juncture.

Both of those teams are at...

the stage that is most uncomfortable in professional sports, which is leveraged with long-term contracts to a lot of players who are no longer terribly young, and then at the bottom of the standings in performance.

That combination of factors is really uncomfortable.

In some ways, the Red Sox are in a better position than the Phillies.

The Red Sox have a better chance to bounce back.

I believe than the Phillies or the Mets do this season for that matter because at least they've got some young talent that their roster while imperfect is not as though they've got loads of bad money that have to be shipped out of town to rebalance the books with the Phillies.

If Harper, and Harper's been okay to begin the season, but if some of the other underperforming players are struggling, what exactly do you do with that roster?

The same with the Mets.

If Lindor isn't really himself, and then Soto, obviously he's been hurt for a while, there's not a lot you can do with these rosters.

And I think that is why firing the manager unfortunately becomes the move, because the old saying, you can't,

You can't fire 26 players.

Well, you really can't fire 26 players when half of them are on multi-year long-term contracts.

It's an interesting situation.

And Kevin, you outlined a lot of the reasons why.

Again, for those that may not know, Dave Dombrowski is the president of baseball operations there in Philadelphia, but the GM is Preston Mattingly, Don's son, of course.

Much was made about different matchups when the Phillies and Jays would meet up.