April 3, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for April 2

by Larry Granillo

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The full season is now underway, with all thirty clubs playing on Saturday. What a wonderful time of year. There were 27 home runs hit on Saturday. And though that's a fairly typical number for any given day of the year, it's kind of a lot as I get back into the swing of this thing. But you won't hear me complaining!

On to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Erick Almonte, Milwaukee Brewers - 21.47 seconds [video]
Pardon me for my Brewers bias so early in the season, but this story is just too good to ignore. Before Saturday, Almonte had not played in the major leagues since 2003, but he got the start in Ron Roenicke's second game as manager. In his second at-bat of the game, Almonte took Travis Wood's pitch into leftfield's second deck. It was his second career home run, his first having been hit exactly eight years to the day prior, on April 2, 2003. Let's hope his next home run is sometime before April 2, 2019.

The other candidate for Home Run of the Day was Ian Kinsler, who hit his second leadoff home run in as many games on Saturday. His trot came in at a respectable 21.38 seconds.

Slowest Trot: David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox - 28.97 seconds [video]
It took David Ortiz until May 1 to hit his second home run of the year in 2010, but he managed the feat in only two days in 2011. More important for our purposes, though, is the midseason form that Big Papi is showcasing on his home run trots. As I said before, he was the only player in 2010 to give us a non-injured home run trot longer than 30 seconds. With trot number two already pushing 29 seconds, that goal might not be all that far off!

Carlos Lee (26.54 seconds) and Victor Martinez (25.54 seconds) also gave us some incredibly slow times on Saturday.

Quickest Trot: Austin Jackson, Detroit Tigers - 17.44 seconds [video]
Scott Rolen trotted out one of his trademark - if not counterintuitive - quick trots, circling the bases in only 17.97 seconds. It wasn't enough for top marks, though, as Detroit's Austin Jackson took it to his former franchise at a 17.44 clip. With only four home run trots in 2010, this is now Jackson's quickest career trot by over a second.