The fact that ex-Met GM Steve Phillips is now a part of the media is somewhere between totally hypocritical and hilarious. When Phillips reigned at Shea, he continuously used half-truths, playing semantic games to deceive the press, while carefully falling just short of deceit.

While he acted in this manner, he accused one reporter we know of trying to “stir it up.”

But now on ESPN, Phillips is feeding the beast. Phillips offers some provocative opinions, which – wouldn’t you know it? – seem designed to illicit reactions.

Meanwhile, Bobby Valentine’s ESPN work last year has been lauded in this space and elsewhere. He was engaging and enlightening.

In the end, this bitter Matchup, pitting the fiercest of rivals, goes to Valentine. While Phillips seems to find it OK now to “stir it up,” Valentine always did. He is the master, and it showed on the tube.