Carlos Beltran batted off Terry Collins, played right field with J.P. Ricciardi's son as a cutoff man in the infield and had some laughs too as PR man Jay Horwitz pretended to be a runner and slid into the plate during a simulated game late Thursday morning.

Beltran pronounced his balky knees OK after Thursday effort. If he continues to progress, he will be in a minor league game Saturday. He hopes to appear in Grapefruit League games and break camp with the Mets, although GM Sandy Alderson said playing in major league exhibition games would need to be carefully thought out because it might change the number of days Beltran might have to spend on the DL from five to 15 to open the season.

"I just wanted to come here today and test it -- kind of like simulating a game," Beltran said. "Actually, this is more than what we do in a game. I just wanted to test the knee. Hopefully tomorrow I recuperate, feeling good."

Beltran said he ran full throttle, including rounding first base and stopping, which puts pressure on the knees.

"That right there's big," Collins called out to him after that activity. "You've got to [comfortably] stop yourself."

Said Beltran: "That's one of the tougher plays. ... Those couple of steps when you're slowing down, normally when you have tendinitis you feel it there. But I didn't feel anything there. This is a good step for me to move forward. Defensively I feel very comfortable. My main concern was being able to run the bases."

As for his effort Thursday, Beltran said: "That's 100 percent right there. I mean, I'm not going to get faster than that."