SNY: Berg: There’s something happening here…Why Mets have improved ain’t exactly clear

There’s a man with a Juggs gun over there on Petey
Telling me I got to beware

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 they 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.”

...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 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.