May 17, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for May 16

by Larry Granillo

I have to apologize once again for getting these Tater Trot Tracker posts up late. Things have kept me from getting them done in a timely fashion in the last few days, but that should hopefully be done with.

Let's get to those trots!

Home Run of the Day: Mike Stanton, Florida Marlins - 20.67 seconds [video]
I do love me a massive bomb, and few do it as well as Mike Stanton down in Florida. His blast on Monday went to the back of the batter's eye in Citi Field, and felt even bigger than that. I can't wait to see the hundreds of homers Stanton has in his bat. Too bad he has such horrid announcers to commemorate each one.

Slowest Trot: Justin Upton, Arizona Diamondbacks - 24.34 seconds [video]
Upton's home runs may not be quite as impressive as Stanton's, but I still enjoy watching them. His 24-second trot came on an unfortunate day, as most days would see much slower trots somewhere around the league.

A special note should be made about Jonny Gomes. As he got to second base, he stopped trotting for a moment. He had thought the ball was in play and stopped for a double. He was quickly informed that it was a home run and went on his way. It's my policy not to clock trots that are interrupted for any length of time. Gomes stopped long enough at second to meet my threshold. So, even though he took 23.8 seconds to reach home plate, I am classifying his home run trot as unusable.

Quickest Trot: B.J. Upton, Tampa Bay Rays - 18.67 seconds [video]
This may be a first: the slowest and fastest trots of the day come from a pair of brothers. I'm almost certain I haven't seen that yet. It's also a bit surprising. If you read the papers, at least, it seems like B.J. should be the Upton with the slowest trot. Curtis Granderson might have been able to top Upton, but he was slowed by the runners on base.

 

All of Today's Trots

Justin Upton.......24.34       Ryan Ludwick.......21.19
Danny Espinosa.....23.77*      Andres Torres......21.15
Henry Blanco #2....23.16*      Michael Brantley...21.04
Jhonny Peralta.....23.06*      Sam Fuld...........20.71*
Seth Smith.........22.8	       Mike Stanton.......20.67
Henry Blanco #1....22.79*      Matt Downs.........19.56
Nate Schierholtz...22.62       Curtis Granderson..19.48
Carlos Gonzalez....21.74       Johnny Damon.......19.42
Mark Reynolds......21.61       Carlos Peguero.....19.11
Jerry Hairston.....21.54       B.J. Upton.........18.67
Carlos Pena........21.39       Jonny Gomes.......N/A
Adam Kennedy.......21.36