Drake, a very wise man, once told an ex-girlfriend: "I always saw you for what you could've been; ever since you met me like when Chrysler made that one car that looked just like the Bentley... I always saw you for what you could've been."
Indeed, in the wake of an 0-4 start, I find myself thinking about the Padres for what they could've been.
It would've been so easy to think about what would've happened if Eric Hosmer didn't ground in to multiple rally-killing double plays, if Brad Hand didn't implode and cough up a 3-run lead in the 9th against the Brewers, or if Luis Perdomo and Bryan Mitchell could command their respective fastballs.
It's easy, so, so, easy to think about the Padres being 4-0 right now and on top of the division- even if just for this week.
But is this really what we want?
This has been a very, very long rebuild. and a far from perfect one at that- but it's coming to an end. The question now? What's the best way for it to end?
Is it really by having an insipid 81-win season? I mean, we haven't been .500 since the turn of the decade, but .500 it doesn't put us in the playoffs. And more importantly, it won't put the team in the best position to get top prospects through the draft.
Our ability to increase our stockpile of these talents will impact whether the Padres' championship window is 5 years or 10 years.
Perhaps its time to reevaluate what exactly success means. Again, this team isn't supposed to compete this year, and it maybe won't even compete the next year either. "Wins and losses" as we conceive of them don't really matter yet.
What matters is making sure that once these young players arrive, this team will be competitive as long as possible. In light of that, it's time for us to reevaluate what a "successful season" means in the context of this team.
I mean, think about it: what if we don't win any games, but the Padres continue to develop the young talent that we've cultivated, draft a strong cohort of amateur players in June, flip some over-preforming veterans for high-upside prospects, and maybe even secure a high draft pick for 2019?
This has pretty much been the trajectory of the team for the last several years, and don't get me wrong, IT SUCKS.
But I gotta say, next to winning a World Series, this- the same old song and dance that we've endured for the last 10 years or so- is one of the best possible outcomes imaginable.
Winning by losing isn't fun, but as we've seen from the Dodgers, Cubs, and Astros, it doesn't just work- it works spectacularly.
We've embraced the tank thus far- what difference does one more year make?
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