Seattle Mariners: September mailbag – Seager, stolen bases, and mayochup
By Ed Stein
5) Is the Mariners 2018 season a success or a failure?
Jordan Cordano – To the optimists, this season was a “winning season” therefore successful. To the realist like myself, this season looked like it was going to be a great success and then ultimately as I expected, came to a crashing halt, leading to year 17 without a postseason birth.
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I was in 6th grade in 2001. Yes, I’ve been here every year but it is bad that every April I look forward to Mariners baseball only expecting the worst and in the end be proven right. Therefore, mark this season as a failed success!
Herb Nightingale – I am sure everyone including those in the Mariners organization would call this season a failure. The purpose of any team in major league baseball is to make the playoffs and again for the 17th straight year, the Mariners failed to make the playoffs.
Seattle has progressed in winning seasons, this one is the third in five years. Last year they had a losing record. The primary reason that was an injury-riddled pitching staff that forced the Mariners to use 17 different starting pitchers. A healthy 2017 pitching staff would have had four out of five years of winning record.
The expectation going into 2018, with a healthy pitching staff plus the additional of Juan Nicasio to the bullpen and Dee Gordon that they would make the playoffs. Early on in the season because of their success they added outfielder Denard Span and setup reliever Alex Colome to the team to help them make the playoffs. Both Span and Colome played their part throughout the season to put the Mariners into a good spot to make the playoffs.
Outside of Span, Mitch Haniger and Nelson Cruz, the rest of the offense pretty much disappeared after the all-star break. Those were the words out of the mouth of general manager Jerry Dipoto on his KIRO-710 radio show. He considered this season a failure so I have to agree with him.
Matt Barry – I would deem the Mariners season a success. If you had said before the season started that Seager would be in further decline, Robinson Cano would be suspended 80 games, Felix Hernandez would be a shell of his former self, and the bullpen would have question marks besides Edwin Diaz, then I would expect a sub .500 squad. When you add the Astros, an up and coming A’s team and the Angels with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani in the division, it wouldn’t look good.
The Mariners were battling for playoff position until September first and had some great moments and performances. I think it was a good step forward. It is up to DiPoto now to make some shrewd moves to take the next step
Jaymin Bernhardt – This season was a success. It was the most fun I have had watching the Mariners in my lifetime, given the fact that the last time they made the playoffs, I was four-years-old. The amount of exciting one-run wins with Diaz closing them out was almost like watching playoff baseball. It most definitely was the closest thing I’ve gotten to watching playoff baseball.
Ed Stein – It depends on how you look at it. In my mind, it’s neither and both. The Mariners played a great half season of baseball, which built up the fans expectations. Did they play over their heads from April through June? Probably.
Let’s say this, the Mariners got a brief taste of what its like to be among the elite. Maybe that along with the dismal feeling of their post-all-star break will serve as motivation going forward.
Next. A season to remember. dark
Some questions were modified due to duplicates.