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But no matter what happens, the Mets' season will not be over come Sept. 8. Still, something feels special about the Flushing Nine this year. The difference between a mediocre team and a good team in Major League Baseball is slim, and at some point, something turned the Mets from one to the other.

So what happened here? What's happening here? Since Manuel took the reins of the club on June 17, the Mets are 45-26. Carlos Delgado has 22 home runs, 64 RBIs and a .369 on-base percentage. Jose Reyes is hitting .320 with an .877 OPS. Fernando Tatis has posted a .910 OPS. Fernando Tatis! Throw in marked improvements from Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez under new pitching coach Dan Warthen and you've got yourself a playoff ballclub.

But could it be as simple as a managerial change? Color me dubious. There's no question that Manuel has changed the attitude and dialogue around the Mets, and it's impossible to place a value on that. But to even suggest that Delgado was purposefully tanking it under Willie Randolph is as offensive to Delgado as it is patently absurd. No Major League Baseball player tanks it, ever. It just doesn't happen. You don't get to the Major Leagues with that attitude, or anywhere close. Players get paid in part for the statistics they produce, and no player anywhere doesn't want to be the best he can possibly be. So stop that talk. Maybe the change in atmosphere under Manuel aided Delgado, but more likely, it's a simple case of the logical fallacy known as "post hoc ergo propter hoc," meaning "after this, therefore because of this."

Delgado, we should not forget, looked like a borderline Hall of Famer exiting the 2006 season. In 2007, he suffered a decline far more precipitous than is likely for a presumably healthy player of his caliber, even at his advancing age. Taking the entirety of his 2008 into account, he's playing at just about precisely the level that would have been expected of him this season based on his 2006 stats. He's shown that 2007 was an unfortunate or perhaps injury-altered aberration. Maybe being happy under Manuel has something to do with it, sure, but I'd like to give Delgado a little more credit than that. What we've seen these past several months is a great player aggressively reverting to his mean.

Reyes, too, appears to be following a predictable career arc. The young shortstop is entering the prime of his career, and, don't look now, but 25-year-old players are expected to be improving. Reyes endured a setback in 2007 that can mostly be attributed to a league-average batting average on balls in play, one not befitting a player as speedy as Reyes and one .20 lower than his rate in 2006. With that number back up into its 2006 range combined with Reyes' continued advancements at the plate, he's playing his way into MVP contention, and performing the way Mets fans should expect him to for the next several years.

Tatis has been a revelation few could have predicted, unless of course they looked at his Minor League stats from the past two seasons. Daniel Murphy has been another pleasant surprise, and Manuel deserves credit for effective use of Murphy and platoon partner Nick Evans -- who's clearly only ready to hit Major League left-handed pitching.

It's difficult to say for sure, but Warthen probably deserves credit for the improvements from Pelfrey and Perez. Both pitchers have made palpable changes to their approaches, and in Perez's case, to his windup, and so it's reasonable to acknowledge Warthen as a factor in the team's turnaround.

This is not to take away from Manuel; not at all. Gangsta Jerry has clearly won the hearts of his players, the fans and the media alike, and should be praised for it. Plus, he's made effective use of platoons like Murphy/Evans and Brian Schneider/ Ramon Castro (until Castro's injury) in a way Randolph never seemed willing to.

I'm not here to say the Mets would have won like they have since June 17 if Willie Randolph were still managing and Rick Peterson were still preaching Zen tactics to impatient young pitchers. But I think chalking the entire turnaround up to the coming of the Manuel administration does little service to the Mets team that most picked to win the division coming into the season. It's a good club in a weak division, and it's simply playing the way it should be playing.

But it ain't over yet.

That other thing: The bullpen that stunk so viciously for most of August? Now, thanks to an influx of fresh arms, it's riding a 15-inning scoreless streak. What's more, three of those fresh arms -- Luis Ayala, Nelson Figueroa and Brian Stokes were all on the Mets' active roster prior to Sept. 1, so all are available for the postseason roster. I might be getting ahead of myself even thinking about it, but it's worth noting, especially considering Stokes' outstanding 16 innings of relief so far. The trio has allowed for some much-needed rest for the more familiar faces in the bullpen, which should help the team immensely down the stretch this month and, if necessary, into October.