July 18, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for July 17

by Larry Granillo

Sunday brought us a nice juxtaposition: in New York and Cincinnati, two players hit their first career Major Leagu home runs. Meanwhile, in Colorado and Minnesota, two other players hit home runs that brought their combined career total to 1,021. Conveniently enough, their two blasts travelled roughly that same distance.

What are we waiting for? On to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Jason Giambi, Colorado Rockies - 22.8 seconds [video]
I really wanted this spot to go to Jim Thome. I love the way the guy plays the game and how he keeps hitting home runs. His blast yesterday was the longest home run of the year at 490 feet and it happened to be the 596th of his career. That's just great all around. (Also, Delmon Young's reaction to the blast was priceless.) But then I saw Giambi's blast into the upper deck of Coors Field and I had no choice. I can't find a distance on the Giambi home run, so I don't know how exactly it compares to Thome's. It felt more impressive to me, though.

Philadelphia's Michael Martinez and Cincinnati's Zack Cozart (awesome name) were the two players trotting for the first time in a big league uniform.

Slowest Trot: Carlos Santana, Cleveland Indians - 28.49 seconds [video]
This 28-second trot is almost entirely a function of height and flight of the ball. It flew about 20 feet over the rightfield foul pole and no one knew if it was fair or foul. Hunter Wendelstedt, the first base umpire, took a moment to make his call. Meanwhile, Santana was watching the ball, trying to decide if he was supposed to run or not. Eventually, it was ruled a home run and Santana made his way around the bases.

Jim Thome, at 26.72 seconds, and Hanley Ramirez, at 25.19 seconds, also had some slow trots on Sunday.

Quickest Trot: Danny Espinosa, Washington Nationals - 19.26 seconds [video]
The only trot to come in south of 20 seconds. Espinosa rounded the bases pretty fast. It was a bit surprising to see merely a 19-second trot. He did seem to pull up at the final step, but not enough to slow him down so much. I guess eyes can be deceiving at times.

 

All of Today's Trots

Carlos Santana.....28.49     Mitch Moreland.....23.34
Jim Thome..........26.72     Nick Markakis......23.16
Hanley Ramirez.....25.19     Michael Martinez...23.12
Humberto Quintero..24.96     Jason Giambi.......22.8
Brian McCann.......24.92     Adam Jones.........22.71
Lance Berkman......24.78     Greg Dobbs.........22.62
Robert Andino......24.24     Jeff Keppinger.....22.36*
Travis Hafner......23.94     Ryan Roberts.......21.36
Daniel Hudson......23.83     Matt Wieters.......20.86
Jeff Francoeur.....23.64     Zack Cozart........20.29
Conor Jackson......23.54     Brennan Boesch.....20.22
Nate McLouth.......23.34     Danny Espinosa.....19.26