April 29, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for April 28

by Larry Granillo

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Thursday was a huge day for offense, with four different teams reaching double-digits in runs. Suprisingly, though, the number of home runs hit wasn't all that high. In the eleven games played, there were 22 home runs around the league, with eight home runs hit by the double-digit-scoring teams. As far as home runs go, at least, there was nothing out of the ordinary happening in Thursday's games.

So why not get to the trots?!

Home Run of the Day: Ben Zobrist (Game 2), Tampa Bay Rays - 19.36 seconds [video]
Lance Berkman hit two home runs in his return to Minute Maid Park as a member of the Cardinals, but not even that is enough to bump Zobrist out of the Home Run of the Day. The Rays played two games with the Twins on Thursday, with the first of the two making up the previous night's postponed game. In that first game, Zobrist had four hits, including a home run, and a Tampa Bay-record eight RBIs. He capped his day off with this second home run of the day in the nightcap, bringing his total RBI total for the day to 10. That's a pretty good day even if they had played four games!

Slowest Trot: Miguel Montero, Arizona Diamondbacks - 23.63 seconds [video]
How does one get the slowest trot of the day with barely a 23.63 second trot on the same day that Vladimir Guerrero also hit a home run? Have the misfortune of running out your trot on the same day that Vlad circles the bases faster than 24 seconds for only the second time in the last two years (see the video). It's just bad luck, pure and simple.

Quickest Trot: Ian Desmond, Washington Nationals - 19.2 seconds [video]
I said yesterday that we need to see more home runs from the likes of Ben Zobrist and Curtis Granderson in order to ensure more sub-twenty second trots. It turns out both Zobrist and Granderson went yard on Thursday, but neither sit atop the leaderboard. That honor goes to Ian Desmond, who also routinely runs his trots out at a quick rate (his slowest 2010 home run was 19.87 seconds). It's nice to see the quick trots again.

All of Today's Trots

Miguel Montero........23.63      Carlos Santana........21.94
Vlad Guerrero.........23.4       Nick Swisher..........21.78
John Jaso.............23.28      Stephen Drew..........21.72
Miguel Olivo..........23.19      Adam Lind.............21.49
Michael Cuddyer.......23.12      Casey Kotchman........20.87
Shelley Duncan........23.04      Shin Soo Choo.........20.85
Chris Johnson.........22.91      Ben Zobrist...........20.65
Koyie Hill............22.51      Grady Sizemore........19.88
Lance Berkman #1......22.37      Brett Gardner.........19.45
Luis Rodriguez........22.11      Ben Zobrist (game 2)..19.36
Lance Berkman #2......21.98      Ian Desmond...........19.2