April 28, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for April 27

by Larry Granillo

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It was a slow day for trots on Wednesday (get it?). Even though only one game was postponed due to weather, there were only 21 home runs across the league. Five were hit in Arizona, though, which is quickly convincing me that there will be at least 350 home runs hit in Chase Field this year. Conservatively.

Let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Andre Ethier, Los Angeles Dodgers - 23.87 seconds [video]
You know Vin Scully is not making the call when, after Ethier's tenth-inning, go-ahead home run, the announcer yells "Andre Ethier is a stud!" I'd like to think that Vin would go with something a little more poetic, like "And Andre Ethier shows why he is the modern-day Hector, pounding that ball over the Sun Life Stadium wall to give the Dodgers the lead. Hector, of course, was the model for Farmer John on the packages of Farmer John Hot Dogs..."

Slowest Trot: Juan Rivera, Toronto Blue Jays - 26.31 seconds [video]
For any Blue Jays fan who saw Juan Rivera's home run trot last week and thought that its utter slowness was some kind of outlier, you know now that it wasn't. As I said, Rivera was easily the second-slowest trotter in all the big leagues in 2010, and he doesn't seem to have changed his MO this year.

Quickest Trot: Daniel Murphy, New York Mets - 19.96 seconds [video]
The only trot to come in under twenty seconds on the night. It's rare to see such a slow trot (relatively-speaking, of course) take the crown for quickest of the night, but it happens on occasion. We'll just need to hope for more home runs from Curtis Granderson and Ben Zobrist again.

All of Today's Trots

Juan Rivera.......26.31         Adam Jones........21.94
Luke Scott........24.62         Joey Votto........21.75
Ryan Howard.......24.09         Mike Aviles.......21.69
Robinson Cano.....24.03         Justin Smoak......21.38*
Andre Ethier......23.87         Jeff Francoeur....21.31
Jimmy Rollins.....23.51         Kevin Youkilis....20.96
Matt Holliday.....23.5          Mitch Moreland....20.67
Rod Barajas.......23.43         Tyler Greene......20.37
Chris Young #1....22.56         Shane Victorino...20.16
Drew Stubbs.......22.08         Daniel Murphy.....19.96
Chris Young #2....22