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... was to enable a team that places winning at around 7th on the priority list (after a fun family day at the park, being profitable, being good community citizens, being applauded for keeping the Ms in Seattle, re-living the glory year of 1995, etc) to LUCK into competitiveness.
If you can't outspend other people (Detroit, Yankees, Bo Sox, Texas, LAAAA, etc) and you don't want to outwork them (As and such) then you'd better be sooo good at drafting that you simply cannot be stopped by upper management indifference.
If you draft Mike freaking Trout, and back him up with some other guys then you have a few years where you might be able to make a difference and be competitive. 
But our young, talented hitters have been Moron-Level learners at the pro level so far.  Lots of talent, but slooow to provide impact.  And our pitchers have been as snake-bitten as you could expect young arms to be with injuries.  It's only been 5 years - gotta have time to get that many guys through the system, but it IS the way the Mariners could win with this front office.
Without being able to train up the kids to harness their skills, though, and being miserable at adding vets in around them, just how good can we possibly be?
I'm hoping something breaks soon.  I still enjoy watching these Mariners (and we're trying to take a series from those mighty Tigers fair and square), but we REALLY need this to be the year the kids step up and help before the Ms sink back into the muck and mire again. We have a lot of talent, and a lot of options, but no true direction yet. I want to see at least the embryo of a playoff chase from these kids.
In lieu of that, I guess I'd take a fascinating trade for an All-Star to get to that point...
~G