The problem I am seeing is that the prospect are progressing slowly, so we will eventually run into FA for our current players. We arent going to compete next year and if players like Crawford, Williams, etc. dont start moving a little faster we will still be saying the same thing in 2019. Now it is 2020 and you are starting to see guys getting close to FA and the team still isnt winning (a mass of players are eligible in 2022). We are continuing to feed in with players like Moniak, but how do we get from good to competitive?
I think the issue is that we have "good" players but not very good. None of our current players (except Hernandez) is seen as better than average. Crawford will add to the list (hopefully), but Williama is not. Even Hoskins and Cozens are tough to classify that way. Our pitching staff really only has Vasquez as a possible ++ Starter, with Nola almost certain to be a solid starter. Eickhoff is fun to watch, but still seems to be doing it with mirrors mostly, etc.
I am worried that what I am seeing is an average ML Player factory forming. Unless the Franchise is willing to spend some money to bring in superior players this is essentially an eternal rebuild.
Basically, if we can't start being a better team by next year than this looks like a loop to me. And at the moment we have the 2nd worst record in MLB and dropping like a rock, so even next year is now a "rebuild" year where the record is not considered important. But when the team hasnt improved (replace Galvis with Crawford, really what else? Williams maybe playing, maybe Cozens or Hoskins, but if Hoskins plays then Joseph doesnt, Cozens and Williams arent necessarily better than Saunders, etc.). So now, 2020, ad infinitium
Hopefully I am proven wrong, but I am just not seeing the "stars" that get us over the top, I am seeing a rebuild to an average, young, inexpensive team. Having a young, inexpensive core is good, but the question becomes how do you get to the next level and the answer is adding quality players. I have almost no confidence that the money will be spent to get us to that next level.
Once again, hopefully I am wrong.
Ask yourself this, in 2014-15 when this rebuild started would you have been happy if we were still the worst team in MLB in 2017? I think we probably are.
Who are the All-Stars coming to get us to the top of the league? Really only Hernandez when he is playing well. Odubel when he is hitting is a very good player, but he gets himself unscrewed too often (Franco and Joseph the same). Is Crawford a future All-Star? Probably not, just a good solid player. I am not seeing anything that looks like Howard, Utley, Rollins, Hamels... I am seeing more that next tier of player.