May 12, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for May 11

by Larry Granillo

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The official record shows 24 home runs were hit on Wednesday, but that's not exactly the truth. Mitch Moreland hit a grand slam on Wednesday as well, the first of his career. Except he is still stuck with zero career grand slams because a downpour in Texas wiped away all the stats from the game. His trot was somewhere in the 22-second range, but, thanks to the one available highlight, we'll never know for sure. This may be the first phantom home run trot since I began the Tater Trot Tracker.

Let's get to the real trots!

Home Run of the Day: Eric Hosmer, Kansas City Royals - 20.19 seconds [video]
Tuesday it was Toronto's David Cooper and Wednesday it was Kansas City super-prospect Eric Hosmer. In each game, the young rookie hit his first career home run early in the game only to come back in extra innings and knock in the winning run with a sacrifice fly. Pretty good day to be the kid.

Prince Fielder hit the 200th home run of his career on Wednesday, tying the game up after an early 5-0 hole. If the Brewers hadn't then given up an 8-spot in the 8th inning to lose 13-6, Fielder may have had a chance at the Home Run of the Day.

Slowest Trot: David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox - 27.25 seconds [video]
Is it too much to hope for Ortiz and Victor Martinez to have competing 30-second trots on the same day in the near future? Because that would be phenomenal. It was close to happening on Wednesday, when Ortiz came through with this 27.25 second trot while Martinez gave his own 26.71 second trot (watch the video). It wouldn't take much to have the dream scenario happen.

Quickest Trot: Chris Denorfia, San Diego Padres - 18.25 seconds [video]
But they weren't all slow. In fact, there were three 18-second trots on the books Wednesday. Curtis Granderson, Chris Heisey, and Denorfia were the three men responsible for them, so it shouldn't be all that surprising. Those three never disappoint. Denorfia's came on the second pitch of the game.

All of Today's Trots

David Ortiz..........27.25	Drew Stubbs..........20.92
Victor Martinez......26.71	Shane Victorino......20.89
Michael Saunders.....24.41	John McDonald........20.84
Jayson Werth.........24.04	Prince Fielder.......20.58*
Adam Dunn............23.89	Eric Hinske..........20.4
Jhonny Peralta.......23.86	Eric Hosmer..........20.19
Hanley Ramirez.......23.53	Henry Blanco.........20
Adrian Gonzalez......23.43	Chris Heisey.........19.69
Aubrey Huff..........23.02	Curtis Granderson....18.95
Matt Joyce...........22.9	Ben Zobrist..........18.86
Ryan Ludwick.........21.65	Chris Denorfia.......18.25
Jason Kubel..........21.2*	Mitch Moreland.......22ish - HR wiped out by rain
Yuniesky Betancourt..21.19*