It's not a matter of standing pat, rather, not fooling yourself into thinking the team is better than it really is.
The driver of the team's improvement was primarily young players, Hoskins, Franco, Williams, Pivetta, Eflin, Velasquez, SD, Arano. And that's going to be the primary source of improvement next year. It doesn't mean you don't make moves, it means you feel no urgency to make moves and approach the offseason like Klentak did this year and at the TDL, add talent when the price and fit are right.
If the Phillies had been patient with the 2004 team, instead of moving out Polanco and Abreu, and had a little money to spend on incremental upgrades, we might have multiple championship flags waving over CBP.
Same with this team, you have great young pitching depth, some good young hitters, you don't have to hit the panic button because they lost some games in late August. For a lot of these pitchers, this is the longest season of their careers with far more pressure. And the young players are still learning on the job.
There's no savior coming up next year, but Lehigh should be loaded with talent, Reading should be solid, and with top young players, all it takes is for the light to go on and they can jump multiple levels. PUjols has 10 BB in his first 66 AA AB - it's obvious they're teaching him patience, Grullon started the year with 188 AB and 8 BB, last couple months 123 AB and 10 BB. You can see this at the ML level, Franco revamping his hitting style, more patient, taking the ball to RF, they're working with Alfaro the same way.
I think they've really made some significant coaching changes up and down the system, but this is pretty recent, and it may take time for these changes to take root. Some of this was tried before, but this just seems more systematic. And some of it takes time - SD threw three changeups in a row and they were good changeups - can't command that pitch yet, but when he combines that with his wicked slider, cutter and 4 seam FB, watch out!
