April 6, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for April 5

by Larry Granillo

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I spent last night at Miller Park, watching Yovani Gallardo make the Braves lineup look silly and trying to decide if the guys in the front row who stood up for the ninth inning deserved to be yelled at like they were. It was a fantastic game, but the lone run in the 1-0 game was not supplied by a home run so it, sadly, won't make an appearance here. Let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Yunel Escobar, Toronto Blue Jays - 23.67* seconds [video]
I've said before that I try not to be a slave to the walkoff home run in the Home Run of the Day spot. Of the 17 home runs hit on Tuesday, though, none were all that memorable. Escobar's walkoff blast off of Oakland's Grant Balfour defaults into the top spot, then. The camera angle as Ecobar walked into his crowd of teammates was a bit off, so this time is a bit of an estimate. The Angels' Hank Conger (note how I don't feel comfortable saying "Los Angeles' Hank Conger") hit his first career home run on Tuesday, making him Escobar's only real competition for the title. Conger made his first career tater trot in 20.92 seconds.

Slowest Trot: Billy Butler, Kansas City Royals - 27.26 seconds [video]
Paul Konerko's 25.25 seconds trot could be the slowest trot on many days, but not Tuesday. That's because Kansas City's Billy Butler hit himself an absolute bomb in the Paris of the Plains (Wikipedia says that's Kansas City's nickname, so it must be true, right?), with the ball ending up in the fountains. Butler is a slow man and, no matter how hard he seems to try, he just can't round the bases quickly. Tuesday's 27.26 second trot is a perfect example of that.

Quickest Trot: B.J. Upton, Tampa Bay Rays - 18.2 seconds [video]
There were only two trots to come in under twenty seconds on Tuesday. Troy Tulowitzki in Colorado had a simple trot in Denver, coming in at 19.22 seconds on his first homer of the year. It wasn't enough to topple B.J. Upton, who was too lazy to come in under 18 seconds and had to settle for merely an 18.2 second trot.

(I'll be running an experiment over the next couple of weeks. If you're interested in Tater Trot Tracker commentary during the day - after I watch home runs, etc - follow the Tater Trot Tracker on Twitter at @TaterTrotTrkr. We'll see how it goes. You can also follow me at @Wezen_Ball.)