On February 20th, Jimmy Rollins of Philadelphia made the following boneheaded remarks:

“Bottom line, we’re the team to beat,” the shortstop said. “I can’t put it any other way.”

There you have it David Wright & Co. The gauntlet is thrown down.

Rollins isn’t the only one talking this way. Manager Charlie Manuel’s message to his team on the first day of full-squad workouts was simple: “We’re here to win,” Manuel said. “We’ve got to win. Losing is not an option.”

Even though the Mets ran away with the division last year, Rollins said he thinks the Phillies are the better club now.

“Look at our team,” he said, mentioning star first baseman Ryan Howard, the addition of pitcher Freddy Garcia, and the continued development of Cole Hamels and Brett Myers. “Look at what we’re bringing. Look at the improvements we’ve made.”

What if his words upset the Mets?

“If they needed motivation to play this game,” Rollins said, “then they are playing the wrong game. They had a chance last year to go to the World Series. They made it to the playoffs.

“They won a division. Congratulations, but last year is over.

“They can take it any way they want; I’m just merely stating the facts.”

Let’s state some facts.

The Phillies are a mere 2 games over .500, and a fulll 6 1/2 games back of the first-place Mets, and two games behind the second place Braves. Yeah… Last year is definitely over, Mr. Rollins, but it seems like the Mets and the Phillies picked right up where they left off. The Mets are a few percentage points behind Boston in the race for the best team in the league and the Phillies, much like they finished last year, are at .525 (they finished at .520 last year).

It’s nice to see lots of teams taking Rollins’ advice, though. They’re the team to beat and it seems like everyone in the league is doing just that.

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