My Day at Spring Training: Lagares and Flores Take BP

Flores takes batting practice. Photo: Stephen Guilbert

Juan Lagares makes contact during batting practice. Photo: Stephen Guilbert

I noticed that players group together. Wilmer Flores and Juan Lagares traded off swings in the batting cages. Steven Matz, Jacob deGrom and Cody Satterwhite ran their sprints together and moved between the fields as a trio. Brandon Nimmo, Cesar Puello, and Gavin Cecchini. Cuddyer, Murphy, Granderson, Wright and Duda. You get the idea.

On his last swing of one of his turns in the cage, Flores let one rip (Gary, Keith and Ron would say he "swung out of his shoes") and crushed one.

"Homer!" he said, making the dozen or so fans who had assembled chuckle. Having spoken just in Spanish to Lagares during this practice, this was for the fans and it was a funny moment that reminded those who were there that despite how hard they were working, they are still young athletes having fun at what they do well.

Perhaps it is blind optimism about one of my favorite players, but Juan Lagares looks really good. I am far from a scout nor do I have a trained eye, but he looks fit, strong and healthy. One thing I noticed about comparing the two taking batting practice is that Lagares really does have good bat speed. We all know that Flores has some of the best bat speed of anyone on the Mets. It's becoming legendary. However, Lagares is not all that far behind. Then again, it's never been about a slow bat for Lagares, it's been about pitch recognition and patience. Hopefully Kevin Long can work with him on that because he has quick wrists and a real quick bat.

Next up: Harvey and Syndergaard take the hill.

--SG