Don't forget Segura. Except for Schwarber these are all guys who have never won anything. Harper's old team won it all as soon as he left. The appeal of comparing this team to the 2007 team is the idea that that was the year the Phillies learned to win. Whereas the Braves (and before them the Nats) have already done it year-in-year-out.
But I still don't know that it's mentality. I really still think it's the talent, and the flawed roster construction. This is still an older team, and older teams wear down or lose guys to injuries. The young players have been promising, but aren't stars. What started out as a deep and surprisingly effective rotation wound up hemmorhaging all over the place.
And a bullpen that we thought would be different from the last few has actually wound up being exactly the same - all three of our free agents on the IL, our best homegrown reliever has been been injured and our big trade deadline guy is currently a bust.
And when they lose, they don't look any different than they did with the other two managers.
Over the years I've heard a lot of athletes say they don't believe in chemistry, that winning is chemistry, and I think that sort of chicken/egg thinking applies to "fight" as well. If Harper had been able to come back from the IL playing the same way he did with "just" the other injury or Wheeler hadn't gotten hurt or the bullpen hadn't fallen apart, they'd have won more of these games and would be up by 4 or 5 and we would perceive them as being tough and enthusiastic.
