The 2014 Mariners reached their pinnacle on September 6th, 2014. After Fernando Rodney got Elvis Andrus to ground out to short, notching his 43rd save of the season, Fangraphs, ESPN and other projections websites showed Mariner playoff odds somewhere between in the 60% to 65% range. At that time, the M’s had a 1.5 game lead over Detroit for the second Wild Card spot, and had been rapidly gaining ground on Oakland. Even though the defending-champion Seahawks had just opened their season with a resounding defeat of a well-respected Green Bay Packer team, people of Seattle were still buzzing about these Mariners – on the radio, in local sports bars, and in the workplace.

But at some point between September 6th and today, the Mariners allowed that playoff dream to slip between their collective fingers. It may have been during Rodney’s four-walk 10th inning against the A’s on September 13th. Or possibly it was when Munenori Kawasaki somehow managed to score from first on a bloop single in Toronto on September 24th. Perhaps it wasn’t even until yesterday afternoon, when Jed Lowrie’s 2-run single gave Oakland a 4-0 lead in the 9th inning against the Rangers. Whenever it was this season that hope turned into despair, Mariner fans should take consolation in the fact that it was far later than any year in recent memory.

And now the summary bullet points!

Robinson Cano performed as expected this year, putting up strong offensive numbers while providing slick defense at second base. His 2014 BB% was above career levels, while his K% was below. By all accounts he provided leadership in the clubhouse, the likes of which hadn’t been seen since the early 2000’s. Robbie averaged a wRC+ of 138 with the Yankees from 2009-2013 and posted a wRC+ of 136 in 2014.

Robinson Cano did not perform as a lot of people expected this year, hitting only 14 homers and seeing his ISO fall from an average of .217 from 2009-2013 to .139 in 2014. However, this is to be expected when a player moves from one of the most hitter-friendly parks in baseball to what is perhaps the least. With that said, I would expect Cano to cross the 20-homer mark in at least a couple of his years with the Mariners.

2014 was a career year for King Felix, who won his second ERA title and will most likely be awarded his second career Cy Young. Felix’s streak of 16 starts with at least 7 innings pitched and at most 2 runs allowed will be one that is remembered around baseball for a long time. Felix is the heart and soul of the Seattle Mariners. He’s a passionate, competitive 16 year-old kid in a 28 year-old’s body with a golden arm and the haircut of a North American Bison. I love Felix. We all love Felix, and Felix loves us.

2014 was another step on the ladder towards greatness for our own everyman superstar Kyle Seager. His offensive production has improved each season with a mechanical precision previously reserved for robots and androids.

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Not only that, but Kyle put together his best defensive season by far and I believe he is currently the 3rd best defensive third-baseman in the AL, behind Machado and Donaldson and slightly ahead of an aging Beltre. But does our everyman/android ("everydroid") have a flaw? Perhaps. For the second consecutive season, Kyle’s production saw a steep decline an incredible July.

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This chart just screams fatigue, and may be a cause for concern in future years. If these M’s are ever going to see success in the playoffs, they will need to be able to rely on their thick-legged all-star from North Carolina

Hisashi Iwakuma was a solid #2 starter this year. He was tremendous for a while, and then he was less tremendous. In 2014, he will continue to anchor one of the best rotations in baseball.

I think it’s finally safe to say that we know what we have with Dustin Ackley, and what we have is a guy with whom you’ll never really know what you have (at least offensively). The chart below shows Ackley’s offensive production by month since the start of 2013.

via i.imgur.com

Streaky? Try ultra-streaky. In 2014 alone he produced like Giancarlo Stanton in July and August and like Stephen Drew in June and September. Defensively, Dustin looks to be an above-average second baseman that can fill-in competently in left field. Unfortunately, second base won’t be free in Seattle any time soon.

James Paxton (aka Dad-Gut) continued where he left off last September, providing the Mariners with the spark needed to stay in the playoff race down the stretch. Without his September 22nd start, Daddy G had a 2.07 ERA. He also struck out 59 batters in 74 innings and allowed no home runs after August 2nd.

Like a lot of M’s fans, I came into this season with lofty expectations for Brad Miller. We all hoped that he could build on build his success from last year, and actually, in 42 second-half games he did. Brad’s 2013 triple slash was .265/.318/.418, and his 2014 second-half triple slash was .268/.330/.464. Now I’m not suggesting that we can or should overlook his atrocious first-half numbers, but I’m laying out the possibility that it may have been an aberration.

Chris Young and Roenis Elias have to share a bullet point because they were both very important to this year’s team, but weren’t flashy enough to warrant a lot of discussion. Elias could be a great 5th starter next year behind King, Kuma, Paxton and Walker. As much as I’ll miss Chris Young’s tall, narrow frame and tall, narrow head, I wouldn’t place any bets on him returning with the M’s next year or on him repeating the success he had for most of this season.

Until September, first base was once again a complete disaster for the Mariners. Justin Smoak made us forget all about his somewhat promising 2013 campaign, and Logan Morrison floundered in limited playing time, starting only 71 games through the end of August. However, LoMo was the M’s best position player in September, and I think he’s earned a longer look on next year’s squad.

Interestingly enough, Michael Saunders posted the same wRC+ as Kyle Seager in both 2012 and 2014. He has also missed significant chunks of the last 3 seasons with injury. Saunders could still turn into an All-Star outfielder. Saunders could also be Franklin Gutierrez lite.

The Mariners chose not to utilize the designated hitter rule during the 2014 season, electing instead to revert to the pre-1973 rules requiring pitchers to bat. Reports have stated that Seattle’s front office will continue to encourage other AL teams to join them in returning to the "way baseball was meant to be played."

Chris Taylor looks to have the potential to be a MLB starting shortstop. Down the line, I would project him as a plus defensive shortstop who can get on base about a third of the time, and will probably slug somewhere between .300 and .350.

James Jones might be the best base-stealer in baseball. He is also terrible at most other aspects of the game.

As has already been discussed in a number of articles, the trade deadline moves to bring in Morales and Denorfia were well-reviewed at the time, and the Franklin-for-Jackson trade was celebrated. Sometimes (often if you’re a Mariners fan) good process can beget poor results, and nobody would have predicted that the Kendrys/Chris/Austin trio would add nearly -1.5 WAR during the final two months of the season.

The bullpen deserves to be mentioned here as well. Rodney set the team record for saves, while Farquhar, Wilhelmsen, Leone, Beimel and Medina all had career years. Brandon Mauer’s transition from failed starter and Carson Smith’s performance in September also deserves some recognition here.

Doing my best to be unbiased, I would categorize this edition of the Seattle Mariners as an over-performing, highly-flawed baseball team with a few star performers. On the positive side, the Mariners were one of only two teams to have three players add at least 5 WAR this season. The pitching staff’s 3.17 ERA was best in the American League and a team record.

On the other hand, the M’s also batted .190/.266/.301 on the year from the designated hitter position. That’s worse than Eric Sogard, and that nerd wears glasses while he plays in baseball games.

Also, the Mariners three best RH hitters this season were, in order, Chris Taylor (glove-first shortstop), Mike Zunino (.254 OBP) and Willie Bloomquist (Willie Bloomquist).

Seattle’s previous two winning seasons (2007, 2009) were followed up by two disastrous 101-loss campaigns. If the Mariners to take the next step in 2015, they will need to do their best to address their glaring weaknesses without compromising their areas of strength.