Read: Rollins Speaks Up

by Matthew Cerrone on February 21st, 2008 at 1:38 am

Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins arrived to camp yesterday, and was immediately asked to comment on Carlos Beltran’s weekend statement, which proclaimed the Mets as the team to beat in 2008, not the Phillies.

Rollins, talking with reporters from Phillies camp, said…

“Carlos is a quiet guy. It’s good that he spoke up. He needs to be a vocal leader for them. To that I have two things to say. One: There are four other teams in this division that want to make sure that doesn’t happen. And, two: Has anyone ever heard of plagiarism?…What I said last year still rings true. My mind isn’t going to change. My feelings aren’t going to change about that…There isn’t a team in the National League that’s better than us…If you can’t do it, don’t say it…We can win 100 games. I’ll say that right here. Why? Look what happened last year, with all those injuries. We lost Chase for five weeks, we lost Ryan for three weeks, we expected Lieber and Garcia to be part of our rotation and they hardly pitched for us. All those things went wrong and still we won 89 games…

“The spotlight isn’t on me anymore…The pressure is back on the Mets if you ask me. They were, on paper, the best team in the division last year. They were supposed to win and they didn’t. So now, they’re going to, of course, be out there trying to prove that what happened last year was a fluke…

“I think Omar did a great job of getting a good pitcher and not having to give up his best prospects…Santana can only pitch one game at a time…We can play with anybody. That’s the bottom line.”

For more on Rollins, who has his own customized cleats, according to Ken Davidoff in Newsday, also read the Daily News, New York Times, and SI.com.

…added to by Chris Mazzone…

…apparently, rollins has some sort of copyright on predicting division titles…he also threw in a not so subtle shot at beltran’s perceived leadership abilities, or lack thereof…these teams do not like each other and it’s going to be a fun ride…

…love him or hate him, i can appreciate that he’s helped to bring the rivalry to a whole new level…which will make victory that much sweeter…

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