May 22, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for May 21

by Larry Granillo

Printer-friendly

I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but I apologize for missing the Tater Trot Tracker yesterday. My brother was visiting Chicago from Texas and I had to make my way down to visit him. Sadly, making either the White Sox or Brewers games wasn't possible. What's the point of having three major league clubs within 100 miles if I can't catch a game whenever I want? Terrible. The Cubs, White Sox, and Brewers should schedule everything around me.

Anyhow, I have gone through and timed all home runs from Friday and Saturday. They're included below. This post will mostly focus on Saturday's games, but I'll be sure to mention any worthy Friday games as well.

Home Run of the Day: Prince Fielder, Milwaukee Brewers (Friday) - 23.16 seconds [video]
Friday night's walkoff home run in Milwaukee - a booming shot to rightfield that nearly reached the Miller Park Dew Deck - was so huge that it carried through to Saturday. The Fielder home run came in the bottom of the 14th inning. The Brewers had tied the game at four in the eighth. They gave up a run in the 13th, only to tie it in the bottom half of the inning with a Yuniesky Betancourt home run. In the 14th, the Rockies scored again, but the game ended on Fielder's two-run blast. I would have placed a Saturday home run here, but I just couldn't let Fielder's walkoff go unrecognized.

Slowest Trot: Yunel Escobar, Toronto Blue Jays - 26.37 seconds [video]
David Ortiz also hit a home run on Saturday, but his 26.07 second trot is only the second-slowest of the day. Escobar somehow managed the slowest, with his two-run shot. The slowest trot on Friday belonged to Jayson Werth, who ran out his second home run of the day in 25.35 seconds.

Quickest Trot: Curtis Granderson, New York Yankees - 18.59 seconds [video]
It should not come as a surprise anymore to find Granderson at the top of this list. It's great to see his consistency remain. The fastest recorded trot from Friday belonged to Raul Ibanez, who came home in 18.66 seconds. But he wasn't the quickest. In Baltimore, Washington's Roger Bernadina hit a home run when the ball bounced off of Adam Jones' glove at the wall. Bernadina ran out the trot at top speed, though. He was three steps from home plate at 16.26 seconds when the MASN cameras cut away to focus on Jones. We could not see Bernadina finish his trot. And, since the Orioles and Nationals both broadcast on MASN, there was no secondary feed to check. It's a shame, because Bernadina's trot is almost certainly in the top five trots or so of the year.

All of Today's Trots

Yunel Escobar......26.37        Mark Teixeira......22.39
David Ortiz........26.07        Russell Martin.....22.22
Bobby Abreu........25.55        Travis Buck........22.21
Omar Infante.......24.46        Nolan Reimold......22.02
Hanley Ramirez.....24.33        Alex Rios..........21.9
Carlos Gonzalez....24.06        Joe Mather.........21.15
Alex Rodriguez.....24.01        Jose Bautista #2...21.04
Matt Holliday......23.78*       Jason Kubel........20.93*
Ryan Howard........23.55        Danny Valencia.....20.91
Brent Lillibridge..23.5	        Kelly Johnson......20.74
Jonathan Lucroy....22.74        Jerry Sands........20.1
Jose Bautista #1...22.47        Curtis Granderson..18.59

Friday's Trots
Jayson Werth #2.......25.35	Yuniesky Betancourt...21.62
Chris Johnson.........24.59	Neil Walker...........21.38
Jayson Werth #1.......24.52	Logan Morrison........21.37
Laynce Nix............23.87	Russell Mitchell......21.26
Jason Hammel..........23.87	Michael Cuddyer.......20.63
Wilson Ramos..........23.81	Mark Teixeira.........20.47
Prince Fielder........23.16	Mike Stanton..........20.46
Danny Valencia........23.07	Jarrod Saltalamacchia.20.26
Kevin Youkilis........22.72	Danny Espinosa........20.21
Jason Giambi..........22.5	Mark Trumbo...........20.15
Lyle Overbay..........22.15	Gordon Beckham........19.9*
Miguel Olivo..........22.12	Ramon Santiago........19.5
Trevor Plouffe........22.09	Stephen Drew..........19.32
Casey McGehee.........22.08	Daniel Murphy.........19.27
Matt Kemp.............21.86	Raul Ibanez...........18.66
Ben Francisco.........21.64	Roger Bernadina.......N/A