updated 2:18 a.m. ET Feb. 21, 2008

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jimmy Rollins showed off a new pair of personalized red, white and blue Nike sneakers and answered a few questions before he got his first chance to reply to Carlos Beltran’s boast.

“Has anyone ever heard of plagiarism?” Rollins said, breaking into a laugh.

The NL MVP treated Beltran’s in-your-face message that the New York Mets are the team to beat in the NL East like a take-out slide at second base.

He eluded it nicely, but mixed in a jab the way some middle infielders purposely land on a hard-charging runner at second base.

“Sequels are never good,” Rollins said, crediting teammate Brett Myers with that statement first.

A switch-hitting shortstop with a big bat and slick glove, Rollins stirred things up with his mouth last January. His prediction that Philadelphia was the team to beat became back-page material for the New York tabloids.

Rollins backed it up with a career year and the Phillies took advantage of the Mets’ historic collapse to finish one game ahead of New York for their first division championship in 14 years.

But the Mets significantly improved its chances for this season by acquiring ace Johan Santana last month. Excited by the addition of the two-time AL Cy Young award winner, the normally quiet Beltran tried to one-up Rollins last week.

“Let me tell you this: Without Santana, we felt as a team that we have a chance to win in our division. With him now, I have no doubt that we’re going to win in our division,” the star center fielder said. “So this year, to Jimmy Rollins — we are the team to beat!”

When a reporter read Beltran’s quote straight from a newspaper clip, Rollins smiled and shrugged it off.

“Pretty good, especially coming from him,” he said. “Because he’s a quiet guy, it was probably shocking when he said it. Not shocking in a bad way, like, ’Wow, I can’t believe he said that.’ More like, ’Wow, he finally said something because he’s a leader on that team and you definitely need to be a vocal leader.”’

So who really is the team to beat in a tough division that includes the suddenly overlooked Atlanta Braves?

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“There isn’t a team in this division or the National League that’s better than us,” Rollins said. “After 162 games, we’ll be looking to win the next 11.”

How many games can the Phillies win, Mr. Prognosticator?

“We can win 100 games,” Rollins said. “Look at what happened to us last year with all the injuries and all the different pitchers and the uncertainties and we wound up winning 89 games.”

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