Maybe this year will be better than the last

I guess I was pretty satisfied with the Padres’ 2017, but maybe I’m not the right person to ask, since I have spent three decades taking whatever nonsense this team deals me in large, frequent doses, shrugging, and signing up for more. It was expected to be — even supposed to be — a tank year, but it was nice to see the young core and some random older warm bodies play like actual major leaguers from time to time, even at the cost of draft position. It felt like progress, but maybe I’m just so steeped in Stockholm Syndrome that I’m telling myself that in a feeble attempt to cling to some semblance of sanity.

What would it take for you to consider 2018 a success for the Padres? .500? Contention for the second wild card? Going full-tank and actually succeeding this time? Or is it something else, like how they do in free agency and around the trade deadline? I’m not sure what I’d set as my criteria for a good 2018 since, you know, I’ll wind up talking myself into being okay with whatever the end result is.