Tom Brennan - Reporting from St Lucie

I had some use-it-or-lose it vacation time, by March 31, so I, being no fool, decided to use it.

Arriving Tuesday in Orlando, I decided to drive over to Clearwater Beach...80 and sunny. Nice.

Grabbed a burger at an outdoor joint, walked around, and drove back to Orlando.  I went on line and struggled to order a ticket for Wednesday's St Lucie battle between the Astros and Mets. $25 and 3 fees later (yes, there was even a $3 fee to pick up your ticket at the box office).

On Wednesday AM, I drove to Cape Canaveral and took A-1A most of the way down. 70s and sunny - nice drive.

Watching Thor pre-warm up in the outfield, he fired a bullet from nearly dead center that sailed over the catcher and over the fence.  No crashes or screams were heard, so the ball must have landed safely.

My game observations:

Thor's control was shaky at first...he later said he was trying not to air it out early, and that led to his wildness.  He then let loose and looked dominant, more so than Gerrit Cole did, and he looked good too.

One runner stole 2nd without a throw, and one extremely loud fan yelled for him to learn to hold guys on.  No doubt Noah heard him...he was LOUD.

On offense, Cano looks great....what a hitter.  He smoked a homer off the batters' backdrop.  He also looked silky smooth in the field. Why not? He's Robbie Cano, dontcha know.

Jeff McNeil played 3rd, hit well and made a very nice, difficult short hop play at 3rd.  Jeff is just plain good.

Alonso smoked one ball to very deep right and lined a ball just foul into the left field corner.  Not to keep saying it, but I like Pete a lot.

Lagares looked lost at the plate, including a popped up sac bunt. He will be making 15 times as much as MLB's best closer in 2018, Edwin Diaz.  I mention that only because I felt like it.

Ramos hit the ball very hard a few times...what a catcher treat after hitless Jose Lobaton.

I like Leon Broxton...hustles, speedy, walked, looked good.  Good contact a few times.

If we get a healthy Lowrie back, this team should rake.

Amed stole 2nd, and I have the sense he could steal 40 this year.

Lastly, I stood behind the plate in the aisle for a while, as my seat was in the sun and where I stood was shady.  I was talking baseball with a middle aged guy next to me, and a young, tall, very athletic young man stopped to have someone take his photo just a few feet from me. I was there for a minute or two while he was there, and then went to my seat in right field.

At the end of the seventh, I walked back near where I had stood earlier and the guy who I chatted with tapped me on the arm and said, "hey, right after you left before, that young guy getting his picture taken was telling the person who took his picture that he was a Mets prospect, named Richardson, I think."

I felt dumb - I had not realized the young man standing 5 feet from me was top five Mets prospect Simeon Woods-Richardson.

Chalk up another one for my powers of observation, or lack thereof.

Thursday, I am singing at an event at a church in Lakeland, a 45 minute gig, then back to Long Island I come.

Hey, and I write for Macks Mets, too.

Life is good.