In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.

So, keeping in mind these words of Henry David Thoreau, what’s the appropriate thing on which the GM of the Mets should focus his aim? Surely, we need to aim higher than the oft-mentioned “meaningful games in September.” In one way, this is easy – a World Series victory. But is one enough?

As fun and as glorious as 1986 was, does its existence make up for everything that has come since? Does one championship trump the following 28 years of drugs, bad trades, the worst team money can buy, impotent managers, a World Series loss to the Yankees, incompetent and/or untrustworthy owners and six straight losing seasons?

Methinks we should aim higher than that. In my mind, these are the best results:

1. Extended streak of dominance

The best example of this is the 1949-1958 Yankees, who made the World Series nine times in 10 years, won seven of them, including five in a row. And the one year they didn’t make the World Series, they won 103 games.

2. Perennial contender, multiple World Series victories

It’s hard to pick the best example of this type. But you can think of the 1968-1976 Oakland A’s, who won three straight World Series, won their division five straight years and finished over .500 all nine seasons.

3. Perennial contender, one World Series victory

Think of the 1991-2005 Atlanta Braves, who won 14 division titles in 15 years, made the World Series five times and won it all once.

4. Competitive teams, one World Series win

How about the 2000-2008 White Sox, who went to the playoffs three times in nine years, won it all once and finished over .500 in eight of the nine seasons of the range.

5. Perennial contender, no World Series win

Let’s nominate the 2008-2013 Rays. In this stretch, they won 90 or more games five times in six years, made the playoffs four times and advanced to the World Series once but came out on the short end of a five-game set.

*****

We can argue about the order, especially the last two groups, but at the very least we are hopeful that Alderson’s plan of building through prospects and ignoring the current team will at least produce one of the above five outcomes. And hopefully once he builds a team like the Rays, he’ll pull the trigger on a deal to put them over the top. A criticism pointed at Alderson is that he is not truly committed to being the best; that the goal is to be “good enough,” rather than “great.”

Noted philosopher Billy Beane once remarked years ago that his methods didn’t work in the postseason. It’s an interesting take and one that would be insightful to hear if he still feels the same way. His deadline deals last year seem to indicate a willingness to go all out and try to win it all – in other words, to be great. Can you see Alderson changing his spots and doing that? And do we want him doing that?

Alderson doesn’t have much in his history to support the idea of going for the jugular. The one notable exception is that he did trade for Rickey Henderson during the 1989 season. That year, Henderson posted an .869 OPS for the A’s, was the MVP of the ALCS and put up a .474/.524/.895 line in the World Series, giving Alderson his only World Series championship. Perhaps there’s a lesson in there somewhere.

Right now it’s fair to ask if Alderson will go big when the time is appropriate. My worry isn’t necessarily that he won’t; rather, my concern is that he will try to win the trade in addition to winning the World Series. At some point – and we’re not there, yet – concerns about the latter blow concerns about the former out of the water. Alderson will be forgiven for dealing, say, Marcos Molina in 2017 if the player who comes back leads us to the World Series.

But we’ll blow up that bridge when we get to it. In the meantime, let’s continue ranking overall club results.

6. Non-competitive baseball, one World Series win

There are virtually no examples of this outside of the Marlins. From 1998-2007, they were 758-861. On average, that’s essentially a decade of playing like the 2011-2014 Mets. But in that stretch was a 91-win season and the 2003 World Series. However, an evil Cubs or Phillies fan might lump 1962-1983 for the Mets in here and disregard the team making the World Series in 1973.

7. Occasional contender, no World Series win

Many teams fit this bill. How about the 1994-2014 Blue Jays. They’ve been over .500 nine times in this stretch, including an 88-win team in 1998, but have not made the playoffs once in this span. Since 2005, they’ve been between 73 and 87 wins each year. That’s a decade where they have neither won nor lost 90 games.

8. Consistent second-division club

The 2010-2014 Cubs have finished in fifth place all five years. The 1979-1983 Cubs finished fifth or sixth five straight seasons. The 1960-1966 Cubs finished seventh place or lower seven years in a row. We could go on but you probably get the point.

9. A score of uninspired play

From 1993-2012, the Pirates went 20 years without reaching 80 wins. This is the franchise whose yearly moves of signing name-brand free agents who were all good three or more years ago to deals inspired the phrase, “Drive to 75.” However, 15 times in this stretch they failed to reach that standard of mediocrity.

10. The Philadelphia Phillies

Sure, it was the old Washington clubs which inspired the phrase, “First in War, First in Peace, Last in the American League.” But from 1901 to 1960 the Senators lost 100 games five times. Meanwhile, the Phillies lost 100 games a season five years in a row from 1938-1942. And from 1918-1948, a span of 31 years, the Phillies finished under .500 a whopping 30 times. And the year they finished above was with a 78-76 season in 1932. They promptly turned around and lost 92 games in 1933. In that 31-year stretch, the Phillies lost 100 games 12 times. From 1949-1953, the Phillies finished above .500 four times in five years. They then proceeded to rip off eight more sub-.500 seasons, including a 107-loss team in 1961. It took the arrival of the 1962 expansion teams to get the Phillies over .500 again. But they still had another lousy stretch of play in them, as they finished under .500 every year from 1968-1974.

*****

The 2009-2014 Mets fall somewhere in between group seven and group eight. Recently, it was pointed out to me that in the past 10 years, the Mets have played exactly .500 ball with an 810-810 record. The Mets will need strong play the next few years to keep or better that mark. For the past four years, Alderson has put all his eggs in the “future” basket. Plenty of us are optimistic that the future begins paying dividends in 2015. We can start with meaningful games in September but the goal is multiple World Series championships.

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