Well folks, it's officially late September and look at that, the Mets are out of another pennant race. It's been a nice steady decline back into oblivion since Carlos Beltran looked at that season ending strike three in the 2006 NLCS.

The part this is the most annoying is that the Mets have actually made attempts to get better. Signing Johan Santana, Jason Bay, etc. The moves just haven't panned out, as seems to be the Mets' curse. Outside of the Bobby Valentine years, when the Mets make a big free agent splash it never turns out like everyone thinks it will.

Hmmmmm, Bobby Valentine anyone?

For the record, in seven years at the helm of the Mets Valentine was 536-467 and took the team to the World Series. He was unceremoniously used as a scape goat for general manager Steve Phillips and sent to his room without supper.

Why not? Who wouldn't want more of this:

Say what you want about proper or improper, the guy knows how to manage a talented team. No one can be successful without a talented roster. The Mets have that. What they need is someone who has that intangible ability to coax performance out of every player on the roster.

The players that made up those good Mets teams under him contained some pretty impressive names like Leiter, Piazza, Ventura, Zeile and Olerud. They also had names like Reed, Alfonso, Agbayani, Trachsel, Wendell, Cook,Payton, Timo Perez, and Rey Ordonez.

For as much talent as they all had, few went on to success on other teams or came from success on other teams. I don't how much was Bobby and how much was his coaches, but he had to have some kind of influence over the clubhouse, no?

And I still say that if Armando Benitez doesn't blow that Game 1 save in the 2000 Subway Series the outcome would have been different, but that's neither here nor there.

It seems that as soon as he took over, the Mets had a new attitude and were suddenly contenders. Not because the papers said so, but because they believed it. That type of leadership is rare and as nice as Jerry Manuel may be, I don't see it happening.

Of course, there were some unforseen things that hampered the 2010 campaign. Oliver Perez not only disappointed, he turned out to be an epic fail. Daniel Murphy suffered an injury in spring training that derailed his season, although Ike Davis has been a success story as his replacement. K-Rod turned into a nightmare and Jason Bay is on the DL.

However, the biggest error on Mets management is how they handled the return of Carlos Beltran after the All-Star Break. At the break, the Mets were 48-40 and contending. Enter Beltran and what ensued was a 3-9 west coast trip that saw them score 1.9 runs per game while being shutout four times.

A 26-33 record since the break lands the Mets right where they are now: on the outside looking in. Maybe it's for the best because with Bay, Santana, and now rookie Jennry Mejia out with injuries, who knows how long this team could go.

There is a lot that needs to be done in Flushing this offseason. Starting pitching is an absolute must. While the bats have been unproductive for the most part, there's too much talent on the roster not to hit. What's needed is a change in managers.

Valentine should be the man.