September 18, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for September 17

by Larry Granillo

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Where did summer go? The calendar still says there's four days left of summer, but you wouldn't know it by the weather. Thankfully, the boys of summer play on through these weird pseudo-falls and all the way into October. Weather aside, it's a great time of year.

Let's get to those trots!

Home Run of the Day: Curtis Granderson, New York Yankees - 19.16 seconds [video]
Curtis Granderson has 40 home runs. All those who predicted that at the beginning of the season, please lineup to the left to collect your wheelbarrow of money.

This home run was also important in that it gave the Yankees a late 7-6 lead over the Blue Jays. Two innings later, Mariano Rivera trotted to the mound from the bullpen with the same lead and quickly shut the Jays down. It was Mo's 601st career regular-season save, tying him atop the all-time leaderboard with Trevor Hoffman.

Slowest Trot: Yuniesky Betancourt, Milwaukee Brewers - 25.06 seconds [video]
Betancourt edges out Los Angeles' Juan Rivera by the narrowest of margins - 25.06 seconds vs. 25.05 seconds - to come away with the slowest trot of the day. Washington's Wilson Ramos was next in line, trotting the bases in 24.85 seconds.

In Kansas City, Mike Moustakas hit a home run that bounced off the rails in right-centerfield. The ball bounced back onto the field, with the Chicago outfielders playing it like it was a live ball. Moustakas ran it out like it was live as well, running his hardest to third. He reached the bag and stopped, waiting for the call. A second or two later, he began his jog home. Moustakas touched the plate at 21.46 seconds, but, being an interrupted trot, it is not counted.

Quickest Trot: Orlando Hudson, San Diego Padres - 17.39 seconds [video]
It's almost as if Hudson had been watching the Tampa Bay game earlier in the day. In that game, Ben Zobrist launched a home run and sped around the bases in only 17.89 seconds. Hudson is always fast on his trots, but that can easily mean a 17-second trot or an 18-second trot, depending on different variables. On Saturday, however, there was no doubt. Hudson raced around those bases hard from the get-go - almost like he knew he had Zobrist's quick trot to beat.

All of Today's Trots

Yuniesky Betancourt..25.06    Raul Ibanez........21.24
Juan Rivera..........25.05    Yonder Alonso......21.06
Wilson Ramos.........24.85    Mike Carp..........20.71
James Loney..........24.62    Elvis Andrus.......20.02
Mark Reynolds........23.64    Donnie Murphy......19.89
Alex Rodriguez.......23.33    Josh Hamilton......19.84
Ryan Braun...........23.21    Shane Victorino....19.49
Adrian Beltre........22.95    Jeremy Hermida.....19.47
Carlos Santana.......22.55    Curtis Granderson..19.16
J.J. Hardy...........22.54    Aaron Hill.........18.18
Alex Rios............22.36    Ben Zobrist........17.89
Bryan LaHair.........22.26    Orlando Hudson.....17.39
Chris Parmelee.......21.77    Mike Moustakas.....N/A
Jeff Francoeur.......21.5