August 4, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for August 3

by Larry Granillo

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Wednesday was yet another big afternoon for home runs, with 35 hit across the league. The dog days of August are already here (and it's only August 4!). There were only three multi-home run days on Wednesday, though one of them was a three homer day from Casey McGehee.

Let's get to those trots!

Home Run of the Day: Casey McGehee #3, Milwaukee Brewers - 22.01 seconds [video]
There were certainly more dramatic home runs hit on Wednesday - Jacoby Ellsbury's walkoff blast comes to mind - but McGehee has to be here for his three home run binge off of the St. Louis Cardinals. And, thanks to Tony LaRussa, all three home runs came off of starting pitcher Edwin Jackson, even though the final blast was in the seventh inning and gave the Brewers a 10-5 lead.

More importantly, McGehee's trio of home runs comes complete with this absolutely heartwarming story of McGehee and a 7-year-old kid by the name of Clayton Wollner.

He’d met Clayton — McGehee didn’t know the boy’s last name — on the field before the game, and was trying to draw out some conversation. Clayton was shy, so his mom, Jennifer, and dad, Ben, tried to drive some conversation. Mom blurted out that McGehee should hit a homer for Clay

Make sure to read the rest.

Slowest Trot: Todd Helton, Colorado Rockies - 26.6 seconds [video]
Thsi is one of the weirdest things I've seen. The video clip linked above shows the version of the home run shown on the Rockies' broadcast. As you can see, as Helton is rounding the bases, they showed a couple of quick highlights of the swing to kill some time. They come back right as Helton is getting to the plate and continue from there. Except that's not exactly true. The trot shown in that video is about 1.5 seconds too long, meaning that, because the highlight package went long, they came back "live" 1.5 seconds after the actual action on the field. I only noticed this because I had to watch the Phillies' broadcast of the home run to verify which step Helton used. I've never seen that before - but, then again, how would I know I've never seen it before?

Quickest Trot: Peter Bourjos, Los Angeles Angels - 18.9 seconds [video]
It's unfair to Bourjos, of course, but after this four-base single, I always expect blindingly fast home runs from him. But why am I complaining? He still had the quickest trot of the day.

All of Today's Trots

Todd Helton.........26.6     Casey McGehee #3....22.01
Michael Cuddyer #1..25.6     J.D. Martinez.......21.87
Billy Butler........25.41    Casey McGehee #1....21.63
Josh Willingham.....24.69    Delmon Young #2.....21.55
J.P. Arencibia......24.38    Robinson Cano.......21.49*
Humberto Quintero...24.33    Dontrelle Willis....21.35
Mike Napoli.........24.05    Jason Kubel.........21.28
Eric Chavez.........23.98    Carlos Quentin......21.12
Jason Kipnis........23.9     Casey Kotchman......21.07
Casey McGehee #2....23.55    Ryan Raburn.........21.02
Jayson Werth........23.38    Robinson Chirinos...20.4
Dan Uggla...........23.35    Michael Cuddyer #2..20.28
Ryan Howard.........23.32    Jason Bartlett......19.84
Alex Avila..........23.07    Jacoby Ellsbury.....19.36
Starlin Castro......22.47    Ben Zobrist.........19.19
Todd Frazier........22.39    Rafael Furcal.......19.12
Delmon Young #1.....22.35    Peter Bourjos.......18.9
Corey Hart..........22.21