May 3, 2012

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for May 2

by Larry Granillo

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An absolutely wild day in baseball for home runs (and everything else, really). Not only did we have two home runs helping Jered Weaver take a big 9-0 lead en route to his first career no-hitter, we also had wackiness everywhere. Four different players hit two home runs last night, including Chris Johnson and Kyle Seager. Three different players hit walkoff home runs, including ancientold guys like Chipper Jones and Jason Giambi. And then there was the tenth-inning go-ahead homer by Giancarlo Stanton, the sixth home run of the year for Adam Dunn, Edwin Encarnacion's league-leading ninth home run...

Like I said, it was a pretty good night around baseball. Let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves - 28.97 seconds [video]
Normally, on a day when there was a no-hitter thrown, I try to give the Home Run of the Day to someone that helped secure the no-hit victory. There were two home runs in the Angels game last night, but, with the 9-0 score and considering what happened in Atlanta, I have to go with Chipper's blast. It was already a thrilling game, with the Braves coming back from a 6-0 deficit early against Roy Halladay to have some serious see-saw action. The game saw scores of 6-0, 6-6, 6-8, 12-8, 12-13, and 13-13 before 40-year-old Chipper Jones got his 11th inning at-bat. After nearly winning the game the pitch before (the home run went barely foul), there was no doubt about it when Chipper rocketed the ball over the right-center fence.

And then there was the trot. Chipper's a bit slow as it is (with his lack of knees and all) and the thrilling walkoff gave him a chance to admire the view before heading around the bases. It was looking like we might see the first 30-second trot of the year as he rounded second 15 seconds into his trot, but he sped up a bit as he approached his teammates at home. Chipper's final step onto home plate with his left foot came 28.97 seconds after making contact with the ball. It is the slowest trot of the season so far this year by nearly a second (see the leaderboard).

For those who remember Tim Hudson's home run last season, Chipper took virtually the same amount of time to round the bases (28.99 seconds for Hudson vs. 28.97 seconds for Chipper).

Slowest Trot: Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves - 28.97 seconds [video]
Chipper wins the night, of course, but by not nearly the margin you might expect. Trotters were savoring the moment all over the league. Carlos Ruiz had the second slowest trot of the night (hit against Chipper's Braves), rounding the bases in 27.13 seconds. Travis Hafner wasn't far behind at 26.35 seconds and even Kendrys Morales took 25.24 seconds to make it home. If you lost count, that's three of the twelve slowest trots of the year hit last night, with two of the top five in the same game.

Jason Giambi had a roughly average trot, somewhere in the 23-second range. However, with only one channel broadcasting the game, the camera cut away from Giambi while he was the plate. Therefore, we cannot get a trot time for Giambi's walkoff. Carlos Beltran's second home run also has no trot time. The ball was initially ruled a double on the field, but replay overturned it. Because Beltran stopped at second, he cannot be counted here.

Quickest Trot: Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins - 19.12 seconds [video]
There weren't nearly as many quick trots as there were slow trots on Wednesday. In fact, Stanton didn't actually have the quickest trot. However, much like Giambi above. Brennan Boesch's tater trot is not available because the lone broadcasting channel turned away while he was the plate. He did touch home plate sometime in the (low) 18-second range, though. If his trot had been recordable, Boesch would have the night's quickest trot.

All of Today's Trots

Chipper Jones......28.97   Edwin Encarnacion..20.75
Carlos Ruiz........27.13   Justin Upton.......20.61
Travis Hafner......26.35   Wilin Rosario......20.43
Kendrys Morales....25.24   Carlos Gonzalez #2.20.37
Carlos Santana.....24.96   Carlos Gonzalez #1.20.31
Adam Dunn..........24.23   Chris Johnson #2...20.08*
Nick Markakis......24.06   Sean Rodriguez.....19.99
Bryan LaHair.......23.5    Kyle Seager #2.....19.88
Carlos Beltran #1..22.62   Howie Kendrick.....19.47
Ian Stewart........22.4    Kyle Seager #1.....19.43
Luke Scott.........21.88   Ian Desmond........19.37
Matt Wieters.......21.34   Giancarlo Stanton..19.12
Brandon Snyder.....21.17   Brennan Boesch.....N/A
Kelly Johnson......21.08   Jason Giambi.......N/A
Brian McCann.......20.88   Carlos Beltran #2..N/A
Chris Johnson #1...20.81

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.