Bryant was awesome again, Baez had his best year ever, Happ hit the ground running despite being a high risk profile, and Almora got better as the season progressed. Schwarber's start and Heyward's continued slump were disappointing yes, but Zobrist and Russell battled injuries too. I see all that but Baez' improvement was marginal, the real test for Happ comes now that the league has a book on him, and he appears to be major trade bait for us, Almora's approach vs RHP is a little too Vittersish for me to feel comfortable that improvement is around the bend, and we basically have to bank on him continuing to crush LHP that well to produce average offense if that same-side hitting doesn't improve. Speaking for myself here but when I looked at that core last year I just expected more. That's my own fault but I was really sold on this glut of positional talent and it has underwhelmed to a fairly significant degree. Just thank horsefeathering god for Bryzzo, obviously. They mask a lot of problems the offense has. When they suck, we are hopeless, collectively.