Before we brand the New York Mets as perennial choke-artists and cast them into the history books as overpaid underachievers, let’s first take a closer look at the 2008 season, and how the Metropolitans managed to, again, not make the postseason.

The Mets let a seven game lead in September disappear and failed to reach the playoffs by losing to the Florida Marlins in the final game of the season in 2007, and New York management ensured fans that this type of disappointment would never happen again. The league’s best pitcher, Johan Santana, arrived in Flushing after the Minnesota Twins agreed to trade the two-time Cy Young-award winner to New York for a handful of prospects. Santana proved his worth in 2008, finishing with a 16-7 record and a National League-best 2.53 earned run average. He pitched the Mets into a tie for the Wild Card lead, entering Sunday after his complete game shutout against the Marlins on Saturday. As they began in 2008, the Mets were relying on Santana, and he came through. Several other players who New York was counting on missed significant time to injuries and didn’t produce this season.

Both corner outfield positions were unstable in 2008 with expected everyday players Moises Alou and Ryan Church lost to injuries. Alou is 42 years old, so the rational Mets fan never expected much out of him. Church, on the other hand, is young and talented. His season was derailed, unfortunately, by post-concussion symptoms that made him miss three months of action. Alou played in only 15 games and had no home runs. With energetic and defense savvy backup Endy Chavez also hurt for much of the season, New York sorely lacked outfield depth.

With these injuries the Mets were forced to look deep into its bench and minor league system to find replacements in these key positions. Fernando Tatis, Damian Easley, and, for a few weeks, Trot Nixon, provided some veteran options for New York, but several no-name prospects were also thrust into huge roles for a team who expected to challenge for the division title.

Enter Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans, who stepped up big for the Mets and helped them remain in the division and Wild Card races for the entire season. Still, it’s hard to expect too much out of such young, inexperienced players. At second base New York also saw its everyday option, Luis Castillo, succumb to injury and poor performance early in the season and miss more than half the team’s games. Argenis Reyes, another unheralded prospect, stepped in and teamed with Easley to provide a nice platoon, but not nearly the production that the Mets were expecting from its second baseman.

New York’s starting pitching also experienced deflating injuries at the beginning of the season when its second starter, Pedro Martinez, was injured in his first start. He started only 20 games in 2008. Orlando Hernandez, who the Mets also expected would be in its rotation in ’08, never recovered from foot surgery and didn’t start a single game. John Maine, who won 15 games in 2007, injured himself at the most crucial part of the season, and missed all of September. With all of these injuries to starting pitchers the Mets were forced to start top pitching prospect, 21-year-old Jonathan Niese, in huge situations down the stretch. Niese only played one month in Triple-A before his first major league start on Sept. 2.

With these injuries to Martinez, Hernandez and Maine, the other Mets starters besides Santana — Oliver Perez and Mike Pelfrey — were forced to step into more prominent roles for New York’s rotation. Perez proved to be his inconsistent self, finishing 11-7 overall with 174 strikeouts and a major league-worst 102 walks. Pelfrey was wise beyond his years in 2008 and ended his second major league season with a record of 13-11 with a 3.72 ERA. The 24-year-old Pelfrey was a workhorse for the Mets, pitching a career-high 200.2 innings.

A sensational season from Santana, an encouraging one from Pelfrey, and a mediocre one from Perez was not enough for the Mets down the stretch of the season. Several short-term options were employed, but in the end, New York did not have the starting pitching necessary to make a postseason run. Couple this with a pathetic bullpen, which lost its only strong point in closer Billy Wagner to injury in July, and New York did not have the pitching staff to keep up with the Phillies in the NL East.

As painful as this past weekend was for Mets fans, we can sleep a little easier knowing that injuries were a major factor in a disappointing 2008. Despite having four players — David Wright, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, and Jose Reyes — put up numbers that will get them each their share of MVP votes, and a pitcher — Johan Santana — who will receive his portion of votes for the Cy Young award, the Mets’ 2008 season was a failure.

On Sept. 3, the Mets completed a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers, the team that beat them out for the NL Wild Card. They had a three-game lead over the Phillies, and seemed destined for the postseason. After that, the Mets went 10-12 over its final 22 games in September and, again, failed to make the playoffs.

General Manager Omar Minaya received a four-year contract extension in the final week of the season, as the Mets’ playoff hopes faded away. His reliance on Alou in the outfield and Castillo at second base was questionable, given the age and history of injuries in both players. He made little effort to address the needs of the bullpen, which embarrassed the Mets in 2007 and again in 2008. If he wants to prove himself worthy of his new contract, then Minaya better make significant additions to the Mets bullpen, as well as adding a right-hand hitting corner outfielder to replace Alou.

These Mets are not choke-artists. Wagner went to the disabled list in early August, and the Mets’ bullpen was in chaos from that point on. Once Maine went down, the only reliable starters in the rotation were Santana and Pelfrey, with Pedro providing less-than adequate starts for the short time he was in the rotation. The young players who stepped in for the vacant outfield and second base spots came back to Earth and started hitting like rookies. In the end, the Mets just weren’t good enough in 2008. They didn’t collapse. They didn’t choke. The other teams were just better.