April 27, 2012

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for April 26

by Larry Granillo

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The worst thing in the world that could have happened did happen on Thursday: Jarrod Saltalamacchia, he of the 47-letter last name, hit two home runs for the Red Sox. Now, in the "Today's Trots" list below, Salty's last name followed "#1" and "#2" will cause every other trotter to have an obscene amount of space following his name. These are the trials and tribulations of a Tater Trot Tracker.

Other memorable home runs were hit yesterday, though. From Kevin Youkilis's grand slam off of formerly Mr. Perfect Philip Humber to the ninth-inning heroics of Angel Pagan and Brandon Allen, it was a fine day for home runs.

Let's get to those trots!

Home Run of the Day: Jay Bruce, Cincinnati Reds - 25.38* seconds [video]
I couldn't decide between Pagan's go-ahead home run of Allen's walkoff shot, so I went with the dark horse for today's Home Run of the Day: Jay Bruce's blast to right-centerfield. This home run is memorable for something out of Bruce's control, however. Watch the video. A father holding his sleeping child and sitting in the front row of the outfield seats tries (and fails) to catch the home run ball, blithely swinging his child around. You get a better view of it all here.

Slowest Trot: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers - 25.43 seconds [video]
Nothing too shocking or surprising here. The third slowest trot of the day belonged to Jayson Werth, who came home in 24.96 seconds. He seemed to admire his blast with a slow walk out of the box much more than anyone else on the day.

Quickest Trot: Scott Rolen, Cincinnati Reds - 17.59* seconds [video]
Two days, two home runs, two super-quick trots for Rolen. It's great to see.

The next quickest trot was Angel Pagan's ninth-inning, go-ahead blast, clocking in at 18.93* seconds. Now is a good time to mention that there was only one broadcast of the Giants/Reds game yesterday. That means that there was only one view of each tater trot. The asterisks for each of the three home runs hit in this game are because the Giants' broadcast chose to focus on each player's face as he crossed the plate, making it a bit difficult to know exactly what foot touched home plate. Thankfully, each player seemed to change his gait slightly as he touched the plate, so I was able to get a pretty confident time. That said, the asterisks are still there signifying an approximate time.

All of Today's Trots

Miguel Cabrera.......25.43    Miguel Olivo.........22.44
Jay Bruce............25.38*   Dayan Viciedo........22.05
Jayson Werth.........24.96    Jarrod 
Justin Smoak.........23.91      Saltalamacchia #2..21.75
Chris Davis..........23.88    Kevin Youkilis.......21.16
Gaby Sanchez.........23.64    Mark Trumbo..........20.65
Adam Jones...........22.8     Brandon Allen........19.14
Jarrod 			      Angel Pagan..........18.93*
  Saltalamacchia #1..22.68    Scott Rolen..........17.59*

Click here for the ongoing 2012 Tater Trot Tracker Leaderboard. You can also follow @TaterTrotTrkr on Twitter for more up-to-the-minute trot times.