September 9, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for September 8

by Larry Granillo

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Eighteen home runs were hit across the league on Thursday. And, no, that does not mean that there were only two or three games being played around the majors. Apparently it is "normal" for there to be such few home runs hit on a single day occasionally. It may be hard to believe from recent experience, but it's true.

How about we get to those trots?

Home Run of the Day: Justin Upton, Arizona Diamondbacks - 28.44 seconds [video]
I still absolutely love watching Justin Upton hit a baseball. The swing is so fluid and the power so obvious - it's a joy. His sixth inning home run on Thursday was no exception, landing deep in the leftfield seats at Chase Field. Of course, with Justin Upton, that just means it was a run-of-the-mill home run.

His trot, however, was certainly not run-of-the-mill. Upton admired his blast out of the box, inching up the line as the ball sailed out of the park. On the basepaths, he did little to speed himself up. In the end, his 28.44 second trot was much more Big Papi-esque than usual. It was so slow the San Diego broadcasters even made mention of it as they waited for Upton to finish the trot.

Slowest Trot: Justin Upton, Arizona Diamondbacks - 28.44 seconds [video]
We already mentioned Upton's trot above. The remarkable thing about Thursday's tater trots was just the sheer number of slow trots. Besides Upton, five other players took 25-or-more seconds to complete their tater trots. Now, one or two 25-second trots a day isn't uncommon, but six is pretty impressive. Especially on a day when there were only 18 home runs hit in total.

Quickest Trot: Eric Thames, Toronto Blue Jays - 17.77 seconds [video]
Thank goodness for Eric Thames, then. Thames is always good for a nice, quick trot and he did not disappoint on Thursday. Two of his teammates - Edwin Encarnacion and J.P. Arencibia - were in the 25-second club, so it was refreshing to see Thames come through with his trot. It seemed to balance things some.

All of Today's Trots

Justin Upton.........28.44   Brent Morel #2.......22.31
Chipper Jones........26.28   Corey Hart...........21.32
Paul Konerko.........26.08   Jason Varitek........21.28
Vladimir Guerrero....25.53*  Brent Morel #1.......20.94
J.P. Arencibia.......25.29   Jason Bay............20.63
Edwin Encarnacion....25.18   Paul Goldschmidt.....20.21
Jayson Werth.........23.92   Yuniesky Betancourt..19.87
David Ross...........23.01   Ichiro Suzuki........19.58
Justin Smoak.........22.49   Eric Thames..........17.77