The Phillies may, in fact, be the 2017 Brewers of this season. They had a great run, came up through a mostly youth-movement led charge, held first for a little while, and once it came to the Wild Card season...sort of vanished into the background.
Look, it's honestly not anybody's fault. It's just hard for a team to succeed when their pitching staff is miles ahead of their lineup, even with Wilson Ramos in the mix. This is also a very strikeout-friendly lineup, with a lot of people weighing down their averages with strikeouts, even once-heroic ballplayers like Odubel Herrera. Rhys Hoskins and Carlos Santana can hit all the home runs they want, but in order for this team to truly work, they NEED to hit for average. Or else there's no point.
This offseason, I would suggest that the Phils try to keep as much of this team around for next year as humanly possible, because there is a chance that Kapler and co can help perfect these guys. There are little things that might need to be done, little changes, that could help this team power past the Braves next year, and it starts with getting the lineup back in line. The little glimpses we saw in July, of this team in first place being awesome? That could be a bit more longer-lasting than we all were thinking.
Coming Tomorrow- He's out for the season, but even then he's kind of perfect to help me eulogize the White Sox.
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