I think people's expectations were inflated when they signed Harper, and the injuries just exposed what was obvious if you took off the rose colored glasses, that this is a work in progress.
Trading for Segura and Realmuto improved the team (and Alfaro is putting up the same numbers as last year except his BABIP is a more realistic .366 than .406, the decline of RC+ from 96 to 85 suggests it isn't a ballpark effect), Sanchez was a top asset, Crawford is pretty much the same as last year, BB% is up, BABIP is a more reasonable .321, he's settling in as a solid starting SS. But unless Sanchez becomes a #1 SP, no regrets.
However, Cutch getting hurt was a big blow, as was Franco and Herrera going south, which is hard to blame on coaching, Herrera was a head case before he became a monster, Franco has gone through, what? 4 hitting coaches with no change. Hernandez has slipped, coaching? bad habits after he hurt his foot? age?
Kingery has been moved around b/c if he replaces Hernandez, who played CF before Haseley came up, who plays 3B - Kingery at 3B and Hernandez at 2B is better than Kingery at 2B and Franco at 3B. I think he's slotted at 2B when Bohm comes up, and Stott and Simmons are slotted for SS/3B (with Bohm potentially moving to LF down the road).
Another factor which may not be Phillies centric is the impact of the new balls on a lot of pitchers, it's not just that hitting, especially HRs are up leaguewide, but it would be interesting to see which pitchers fell off due to the difficulty of gripping the ball with lower seams. We're seeing this at Lehigh where practically every pitcher promoted there struggled for their first month. Wonder if hand size is a factor in adjusting successfully? Even Nola seemed to struggle to command his curve the first couple months, and to locate his changeup.
