Friar Forecast has a new post titled Why I am Content with Being Consistently Competitive (Revisited). While it may have nothing to do with my relief that the new owner wants set a goal of winning a World Series, it still is a good counter argument.
Right from the start let me just say that I want to be entertained and I have been entertained by the Padres for many years without ever winning a World Series and sometimes without even being competitive. It's actually easier to enjoy games when the team is simply consistent and playing to their potential.
I'm just speaking for myself, I realize that other people find their baseball enjoyment in other ways. I've said far too often that I did not find anything entertaining about watching the 2004-2007 teams flounder. Their record seemed to show that they were competitive in their lack luster division, but you knew all along that when they would need a miracle to survive the playoffs. The miracle never happened and they played the same baseball they played all year long, which was very mediocre and inconsistent.
That's really the only reason that the Padres plan of being Consistently Competitive irks me, because they use the 2004-2007 seasons as evidence of reaching their goal. The Padres seem to be perfectly content reliving those seasons where as a fan I would never want to watch that style of baseball again. It was way too irritating. I don't want a message of "more of the same", I would be thrilled if we had a team that played consistently enough to have a shot at the World Series, I do not want a consistently inconsistent mediocre team like Padres' teams of the past. Any steps the Padres take to become better each year is okay by me.