May 29, 2012

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for May 28

by Larry Granillo

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Holy cannoli. Major league baseball players certianly did not take a day of rest on Monday. Instead, they gave the throngs of fans who showed up to the ballpark on their day off quite the show. Across the league, there were 45 home runs on Monday, with every game except the Cincinnati/Pittsburgh meeting featuring at least one. In Chicago, the Cubs and Padres combined for eight home runs on a windy day.

It was quite the day, so let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Mark Trumbo, Los Angeles Angels - 21.39 seconds [video]
He may not be the best player on the team, as on GM apparently thinks, but Mark Trumbo was certainly the most important Monday night, when he crushed a ball down the leftfield line to give the Angels a walkoff victory over the Yankees. Trumbo finished his celebratory trot with a nice, simple hop onto the plate amongst his cheering teammates. In this day and age of walkoff celebrations, Trumbo's hop seemed almost understated, even for a team that witnessed a walkoff tragedy two years ago today.

In Miami, Washington pitcher Jordan Zimmermann hit his first career home run over the left field fence. However, Zimmermann was confused for a moment and stopped at second during his trot, making his trot time invalid. The most notable moment of the home run came from leftfielder Chris Coghlan, who almost got his glove over the top of the 12-foot (or higher?) fence. It's impressive. Watch Coghlan at the start of the video here.

Slowest Trot: Alfonso Soriano, Chicago Cubs - 27.33 seconds [video]
The sixth inning is the time where Alfonso Soriano generally takes his mid-afternoon walk, so he decided to do it after hitting a home run on a hitter-friendly day at Wrigley Field. Or, that's the only explanation I can come up with for Soriano's slow trot Monday, at least.

In Boston, Detroit Tiger Gerald Laird hit a home run off the top of the Green Monster that bounced back into play. Before Laird realized that the ball was indeed a home run, he had begun to retreat back to first base, content with a single. Before he took too many steps back, though, he received the signal and went back on his way towards home plate. This was a tough time to include because, although Laird never quits moving, he clearly gives up on the trot by heading back to first. Technically, it appears to be a continuous trot and so must be included (just as if he had gone back to first base because he missed the bag), but it feels wrong somehow. The time is being included, however.

Quickest Trot: Vinny Rottino, New York Mets - NUM seconds [video]
Only two days after hitting his first career home run in six years of cups of coffee, Vinny Rottino hit his second on Monday. The shot was a hard liner off the wall above the leftfield fence at Citi Field that bounced hard back into play. Rottino, thinking it was in play, ran hard to second base before seeing the home run signal. Rather than drop into a simple trot, Rottino kept his speed up and touched home plate in 17.57 seconds. It was fast enough to edge Curtis Granderson's 17.91 second trot hit later in the day.

All of Today's Trots

Alfonso Soriano.......27.33   Jarrod Saltalamacchia.21.51*
Gerald Laird..........26.62*  Mark Trumbo...........21.39
Jhonny Peralta........25.5    Mark Teixeira.........21.3
Eric Hosmer...........24.43   Lonnie Chisenhall.....21.29
Mike Napoli...........24.16   Brayan Pena...........21.2
Kila Ka'aihue.........23.79   Edwin Encarnacion.....21.2
Adam Dunn.............23.65   Logan Morrison........21.01
Josh Reddick..........23.07   Trevor Plouffe........20.96
Scott Hairston........22.99   Chris Snyder..........20.88
Justin Maxwell........22.96   Darwin Barney.........20.85
Kelly Johnson.........22.87   Mike Trout............20.74
Ty Wigginton..........22.86   Troy Tulowitzki.......20.32
Nelson Cruz...........22.59   John McDonald.........20.23
Giancarlo Stanton.....22.47   Jed Lowrie............20.15
Rafael Furcal.........21.97   Brian Bogusevic.......20.11
Wilin Rosario.........21.93*  Daniel Descalso.......19.89
Ian Stewart...........21.8    Chase Headley #1......19.83
Starlin Castro........21.79   Will Venable..........18.97
Chase Headley #2......21.74   Everth Cabrera........18.78
Delmon Young..........21.64   Curtis Granderson.....17.91
Aramis Ramirez........21.57   Vinny Rottino.........17.57
John Mayberry.........21.55   Jordan Zimmermann.....n/a
Dexter Fowler.........21.53

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.