May 18, 2012

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for May 17

by Larry Granillo

Printer-friendly

Adam Jones hit another home run on Thursday. So it goes.

Let's get right to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates #2 - 22.33 seconds [video]
All the talk from this game seemed to center around starting pitcher James MacDonald, who had a fantastic game. He didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning and struck out 11 batters in only 5 ⅔ innings of work. But, in every other aspect of the game, Andrew McCutchen was awesome. He made a great play at the wall and hit a pair of home runs to lead Pittsburgh to their 5-3 victory.

Slowest Trot: Jose Lopez, Cleveland Indians - 29.37 seconds [video]
I really want to put an asterisk by this trot or not count it or something, but I don't think I can justify it. Yes, Jose Lopez is now in a virtual tie with Matt Joyce for the slowest trot of the year, but I feel like it might still be wrong. The only station broadcasting the Mariners/Indians tilt yesterday afternoon was Seattle's Root Sports. When Lopez hit his game-tying bomb to left, the cameras followed the ball to the wall and then stayed there (there was a bit of confusion about where it hit). By the time the cameras cut back to Lopez, nearly 15 seconds had passed and Lopez hadn't yet touched second base. The announcers explained that Lopez had missed first base and was forced to backtrack.

I have no reason to disbelieve the announcer, which is why I'm keeping the time as official. However, without any cameras on Lopez as he passed-and-returned to first base, I wonder if he somehow stopped his trot for a second during the confusion. If he had, the time would be inadmissible. There's no real reason for me to wonder about that other than a hunch, though, so the time remains.

Quickest Trot: Marlon Byrd, Boston Red Sox - 17.86 seconds [video]
I've said it many times before, but I've always been a fan of Marlon Byrd's tater trots. The only reason he never routinely gave us 16-second trots is that, playing in Wrigley, his home dugout was on the third base side. This always gave Byrd an excuse to slow way down as he approached the plate (he did the same thing during this trot in Tampa Bay). Hopefully, with Fenway Park's first base dugout, that might change. No matter what, we'll still get fantastic trots like this one.

All of Today's Trots

Jose Lopez..........29.37   Starlin Castro......22.22
Rod Barajas.........24.45   Troy Tulowitzki.....22.21
Jed Lowrie..........24.27   Yadier Molina.......21.96
Jose Bautista.......24.12   Trevor Plouffe......21.64
Matt Holliday.......23.48   Andrew McCutchen #1.21.23
JP Arencibia........23.11   Brennan Boesch......21.12
Welington Castillo..22.93   Freddie Freeman.....21.04
Albert Pujols.......22.75   Dayan Viciedo.......20.83
Mitch Moreland #2...22.6    Joey Votto..........20.81
Justin Morneau......22.59   Josh Reddick........20.64
Prince Fielder......22.5    Cody Ross...........20.41
Mitch Moreland #1...22.48   Jordan Pacheco......19.6
Adam Jones..........22.45   Ronny Cedeno........19.56
Andrew McCutchen #2.22.33   Justin Upton........19.04
Andy Dirks..........22.28   Marlon Byrd.........17.86

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.