June 16, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for June 15

by Larry Granillo

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With the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals wrapping up in the last five days, baseball is finally all by itself for the summer. Feels good.

How about some trots?

Home Run of the Day: Kevin Youkilis, Boston Red Sox - 23.35 seconds [video]
A pretty good pitcher's duel between Josh Beckett and Jeremy Hellickson. This seventh-inning, three-run home run was all the Red Sox would need to win the game, beating Tampa Bay 3-0 on a one-hitter from Beckett. The home run makes it as the Home Run of the Day for another reason, though. Thousands of miles away, the Boston Bruins were playing in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, trying to beat the Vancouver Canucks for the Cup. At nearly the same exact moment the Bruins were taking a 1-0 lead in Vancouver (en route to a 4-0 victory), Youkilis was slugging this home run. That's a pretty good one-two punch for Boston fans, and worthy of the day's Home Run of the Day.

Slowest Trot: Angel Pagan, New York Mets - 25.53** seconds [video]
I am not entirely convinced of this trot time. Pagan did touch home plate 25.53 seconds after his bat made contact with the ball, yes. What I'm not sure of is whether this was an actual trot. Pagan hit a sky-high flyball down the rightfield line. It took over six seconds to finally come down on the fair side of the pole, giving Pagan his home run. If you watch the replay, Pagan appears to be starting from a dead stop when the camera returns to him, as if he stopped and waited to see if the ball was fair or not. Pagan is one of the quicker trotters in the league, so it seems unusual for him to be moving so slowly. However, I've watched the Braves' and Mets' feeds and can't see what happened to Pagan on the basepath. I'll keep his time up here, but there's a very real possibility his real trot time was "N/A".

Quickest Trot: Greg Halman, Seattle Mariners - 19.58 seconds [video]
Halman, the kid from Haarlem, Holland. It was his first major league home run, though the Mariners broadcasters don't seem to realize that. I always like seeing players make the Quickest Trot list on their first career blasts.

All of Today's Trots

Angel Pagan........25.53**    Robinson Cano......21.68*
Juan Rivera........24.96      Xavier Paul........21.68
Rickie Weeks.......24.85      Michael Morse #2...21.55
Mark Teixeira #2...24.56      Gaby Sanchez.......21.54
Kevin Youkilis.....23.35      Adam Lind..........21.28
Yunel Escobar......23.24      Chris Young........21.25
Reed Johnson.......23.24      Willie Bloomquist..21.2
Mark Teixeira #1...23.2*      Rob Johnson........21.12
Ramiro Pena........23.17      Ian Kinsler........19.96
Brennan Boesch.....22.86      Jeff Baker.........19.92
Logan Morrison.....22.25      Danny Espinosa.....19.74
Jimmy Rollins......22.04      Michael Morse #1...19.69
Eduardo Nunez......21.94      Greg Halman........19.58
Jayson Werth.......21.8