What Does the Phillies' Dynasty Mean for the Mets?

A question that occurred as I caught the end of Loudmouths on SNY: if the Phillies are a dynasty with a few years left in them, what does that mean for decision-makers with the Mets?

With Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels leading their rotation, and Ryan Howard and Chase Utley powering their offense for years to come, is it even possible for the Mets to field a team that should win the division any time before, say, 2013?

Of course, there's always the chance of injury or Father Time interrupting their best-laid plans. But in lieu of that, what's the Mets' best strategy, hope?

I don't mean to sound defeatist (I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately...), but if you're the Mets and you're up against that kind of team in Philly, you need to give a lot of thought as to how you can best allocate your resources.

Normally you might say, well, if we can just make it into the playoffs, then you never know what'll happen. That's true enough, but any team entering a postseason with Halladay-Oswalt-Hamels is going to be the favorite in any series.

The question I'm posing then is if the best you can realistically hope for is to be the Wild Card winner, first, and then enter the playoffs as a long shot, second, is it worth doing that at a cost of ~$130mm in payroll? Is it worth retaining guys who will have peaked by 2013 (that year's a bit arbitrary, but go with it for the sake of argument)?

Lot of hard questions facing our Metsies, not a lot of easy answers.

- A.F.O.M.G.