Richard Jones- Post From Spring Training

 Yesterday was the 4th of 5 games I'll be seeing this spring in Florida. It was the best of the 4 so far. Today I'll be in Palm Beach to see the Mets take on the Astros.

I got there early and I got to see the whole roster doing their warm ups. Mike Piazza was also there. I suspect it had something to do with the MLB Network. They had a crew there which included Brian Kenny.

From there I followed Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz over to another field where they took some batting practice. I think these guys could have made it as position players if pitching didn't workout. They can rake. 

I'm sure players go through some type of training on how to respond to fans. There very polite. They'll say "hello" back or "good morning" but they keep it very brief. Some exceptions were Terry Collins and Frank Viola. Today Viola spent a lot of time with fans. He wouldn't leave if there was a fan wanting and autograph or photo. his time I did take the opportunity to get a photo with him. An incredibly nice guy.

I got to see Matt Harvey working on his bunting. They kept us a 

 good distance from him so I got to test my zoom lens. It did a decent job.

Syndergaard started the game off strong. Three shutout innings. He sat at 95-97. I believe he hit 98 MPH once. The fourth inning wasn't a good one for him. We have to cut him some slack. He hasn't been feeling well. Any spring training game that our starters get through healthy has to be considered a success.

Asdrubal Cabrera got the Mets on the board early with a home run. I'm very proud of the photo below. It is the homerun swing. I timed it perfectly.

Tim Tebow made great diving catch. I wasn't as skilled with the camera here. He also would get his 1st hit of the spring a couple of innings later.

Robert Gsellman looked very good in his three inning of work. He sat around 92-93 MPH. He had Marlin hitters taking awful cuts.