August 8, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for August 7

by Larry Granillo

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Four different players added themselves to the lifetime home run leaderboard yesterday, tying the great Duane Kuiper with their first career home runs. Jose Constanza (19.6 seconds) and Johnny Giavotella (22.13 seconds) came through with pretty standard trot times, but Brett Lawrie (17.95 seconds) and Bryan Petersen (17.03 seconds) were nothing of the sort. When I first started the Tater Trot Tracker, I expected to see quite a few super-quick trots from players hitting their first career home runs. That didn't turn out to be the case, but you'd never know it from Lawrie and Petersen.

Now let's get to the rest of the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Edgar Renteria, Cincinnati Reds - 27.07 seconds [video]
Mark Trumbo hit a 470-foot bomb off of Seattle's Felix Hernandez to give the Angels all the offense they'd need against the M's. The majesty of Trumbo's home run, however, gets trumped by the humor of Renteria's. The ball was skied into the leftfield cage above the ivy in Wrigley Field. Two fans tussled for the ball, causing one of the two to tumble over the wall and (nearly) into the cage three feet below. Once he pulls himself out, the fan then proceeds to throw a decoy ball onto the field. The crowd wasn't fooled, though, setting off a round of boos.

Two questions: Why do people throw decoy balls? And how in the world did it take Renteria 27 seconds to round the bases? Did he find a penny and pick it up?

Slowest Trot: Paul Konerko, Chicago White Sox - 28.88 seconds [video]
Amazingly, Renteria wasn't even the slowest player in Chicago (well, the White Sox were in Minnesota, but you know what I mean). Paul Konerko was one of four White Sox players to go deep in Target Field on Sunday, and he really took his time rounding the bases. He seemed to be favoring his left leg for the last 120 feet of his trot or so, but my eyes could also have been playing tricks on me. Konerko is a very slow trotter, but he's not usually in (or near) the 29-second club.

Quickest Trot: Bryan Petersen, Florida Marlins - 17.03 seconds [video]
After watching Lawrie's trot Sunday afternoon, I was certain that he was going to have the quickest trot of the day. But then I saw Petersen's trot and he just blew Lawrie out of the water. The next quickest trot was from Brett Gardner, who circled the bases in 18.89 seconds.

All of Today's Trots

Paul Konerko.......28.88    Mike Carp..........21.2
Edgar Renteria.....27.07    Cody Ransom........21.07
James Loney........25.57    Michael Brantley...20.96
Mark Reynolds #1...25.03    Jonny Gomes........20.92
Alex Gonzalez......23.89    Mark Trumbo........20.84
Mark Reynolds #2...23.62    Drew Stubbs........20.06
Alexei Ramirez.....23.25    Evan Longoria......20.05
Brandon Wood.......22.88    Jose Constanza.....19.6
Casey Kotchman.....22.85    Eduardo Nunez......19.56
Johnny Giavotella..22.13    Kelly Johnson......19.43
Todd Frazier.......22.04    Jason Heyward......19.4
Brent Lillibridge..21.96    Blake DeWitt.......19.1
Albert Pujols......21.92    Brett Gardner......18.89
Josh Willingham....21.63    Brett Lawrie.......17.95
Starlin Castro.....21.57    Bryan Petersen.....17.03
Hideki Matsui......21.52    Alex Rios..........N/a
Prince Fielder.....21.48