May 21, 2012

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for May 20

by Larry Granillo

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A lot of exciting stuff happened across the big leagues yesterday, so let's get right to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Scott Van Slyke, Los Angeles Dodgers - 19.76 seconds [video]
As a Brewers fan, I really wanted to put Jonathan Lucroy's second home run here. It was the first game in his career batting clean-up and somehow Lucroy managed two home runs and seven RBIs in a 16-4 drubbing of the Twins. However, in the end, it was just a grand slam in the seventh inning of an already out-of-hand 12-4 game. It wasn't enough to overcome two great home runs across the country.

Scott Van Slyke, son of former major leaguer Andy Van Slyke, gets the top honor, but it's mostly because the other trot was already the slowest of the day. Van Slyke's three-run home run came as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the seventh inning with his team down two. The home run was the first of Van Slyke's career and put the team ahead for good in the Sunday night game of the week. You can't ask for a better shot than that.

Slowest Trot: Stephen Strasburg, Washington Nationals - 26.15 seconds [video]
There's a lot of hype (and hope) in Washington these days, with Bryce Harper doing great things as a 19-year-old starting outfielder and Stephen Strasburg finally back from Tommy John surgery. So when either of those two players hit their first career home runs, it's a big deal. We had Harper's last week and now it's time for the pitcher's.

There was a lot of talk about Strasburg's super-slow trot on Twitter yesterday. Many people were sure that it had to be one of the slowest trots ever. As you can see, though, Strasburg's trot wasn't much different than, say, any David Ortiz, Billy Butler, or Hanley Ramirez trot.

But it felt so slow! The truth is, it was really slow—from second base to home. Because the ball barely cleared the fence in leftfield, Strasburg was running hard out of the box. He wanted to get a double out of it if it wasn't caught. Instead, it ended up going out. Once he knew it was a home run, Strasburg slowed his trot immensely. He saw it go over the wall 8 seconds into the trot, between first and second. By 11 seconds, he had touched second. It took 15 seconds to run the final 180 feet. If he had maintained that pace off the bat, it may have been the slowest trot ever. Instead, it's not even in the top ten of the season.

Quickest Trot: Jonathan Lucroy, Milwaukee Brewers #1 - 19.64 seconds [video]
Lucroy's grand slam was timed at 20.21 seconds, a very fast time for grand slams. His first trot was half-a-second faster, however, and good enough for the fastest trot of the day. Four other trotters managed to come in under 20 seconds, but not by much. It's possible Raul Ibanez had the quicker trot, but neither television feed gave a good view of his feet as he reached the plate.

All of Today's Trots

Stephen Strasburg.....26.15   Mike Aviles...........21.31
Jhonny Peralta........23.9*   Corey Hart............21.21
Ryan Hanigan..........23.74   Neil Walker...........21.16
Danny Espinosa........23.69   Justin Smoak..........21.03
Jesus Montero.........23.68   Mike Trout............20.96
Rod Barajas...........23.34   Ryan Ludwick..........20.72
Jose Bautista.........23.24   Jesus Flores..........20.5
Adam Dunn.............23.21   Jonathan Lucroy #2....20.21
Dexter Fowler.........23.15   David Murphy..........20.12
Jed Lowrie............23.06   Gordon Beckham........19.8
David Ross............22.27   Scott Van Slyke.......19.76
Tyler Flowers.........22.16   Josh Reddick..........19.75
Carlos Gonzalez.......21.92   Raul Ibanez...........19.74*
Mike Carp.............21.45   Jonathan Lucroy #1....19.64
Jarrod Saltalamacchia.21.36

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.