Feb. 14 -- SURPRISE! HAMELS WILL START OPENER (UPDATED)

BY SCOTT LAUBER

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Typically, Charlie Manuel waits a few weeks before naming the Phillies' Opening Day starter. Not this year.

It'll be Cole Hamels.

Shocking, right?

"You might as well go ahead and pencil him in," Manuel said today. "There's no sense in me bull[bleeping]. I don't think there's a sense of me playing games, so go ahead and pencil him in."

Hamels said taking the ball April 5 against Braves will be "awesome." But it can't possibly beat starting Game 1 of the World Series, can it?

"No, it won't," Hamels said. "It never will. Starting Game 1 of the World Series will top anything. I'd like to do that this year. When he tells me I'm the No.1 starter for the World Series, then I'm happy."

(Updated, 6:25 p.m.): It had been my impression that, upon signing as a free agent in December, closer Francisco Rodriguez declared the Mets would be the "team to beat" in the NL East, although it's really difficult to remember since Mets players have become so reckless with Jimmy Rollins' famous catch phrase over the past few years.

Anyway, our spies across the state in Port St. Lucie tell us that K-Rod reported to camp today and reiterated his "team to beat" boast. I guess he -- and the rest of the Mets -- just have nothing much else to talk about.

"Whatever happened, it's in the past," Rodriguez said of the Phillies' 2008 World Series title. "You've got to move forward. Whatever they did last year, they already got paid for. Whatever they did, we all respect. They work hard and they deserve it. This is a different year, a different ballclub now. We've just got to go out and compete. Like I said before, I don't want to make no controversy. But with this ballclub, the way I see it, with those guys, me and J.J. Putz and the other acquisitions in the bullpen, I think now I feel like we're the team to beat."