August 2, 2012

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for August 1

by Larry Granillo

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I ditched work early yesterday to go to the Astros/Brewers matinee game. It was a beautiful day for baseball and a much more fun game to be at than the Washington/Milwaukee game on Sunday. Houston's young squad made quite a few errors, however, which led some to wonder if they're impending move to the American League has left them with a case of senioritis. Also, I ate this bacon-wrapped, brisket dog yesterday. It was a good day.

Now let's get to some trots!

Home Run of the Day: Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers - 21.6 seconds [video]
Fourteen pitches. Four foul balls hit to the two or three sections immediately to my right. A six-minute-and-49-second at-bat. Braun owned his sixth-inning at-bat against Fernando Rodriguez. The fact that it ended in a home run may be the least surprising thing about it.

Other notable home runs include Albert Pujols' pair of home runs (for the second day in a row) in a losing effort to Texas, a pair of home runs from the somehow-unheralded Matt Holliday, and a huge blast from Miguel Cabrera that sailed over the Green Monster and onto the parking lot across the street in Boston. Starlin Castro and Starling Marte also made Wrigley Field a sterling place for home runs on Wednesday.

Slowest Trot: Matt Holliday, St. Louis Cardinals #2 - 25.44 seconds [video]
Seriously, what does Matt Holliday have to do to get people to notice him this year? He's only batting .325/.408/.561 with 75 RBIs so far this year. Maybe he should just keep mashing two home runs a game until we pay attention to him more?

Holliday's trot was significantly slower than the two slowest trots from Tuesday, when Neil Walker's 26.23 second trot was still a full-second behind the 27.17 second trot from Brandon Phillips. There were two unusable trots over the last two days: Cameron Maybin on Tuesday and Carlos Santana on Wednesday. Both players stopped at second on balls that were ruled home runs on the field (and later confirmed by instant replay).

Quickest Trot: Curtis Granderson, New York Yankees - 18.08 seconds [video]
Granderson beat out Seattle's Eric Thames for the quickest trot of Wednesday. However, Tuesday was much more interesting. In Washington, Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins hit a long fly ball to the rightfield fence. Thanks to an ill-advised jump by Bryce Harper, the ball rolled far from the wall, giving Rollins plenty of time to come home on an inside-the-park home run (video). The sprint was 15.65 seconds long, a fairly reasonable time for an inside-the-park home run even if it is the third slowest such trot of 2012.

All of Today's Trots

Matt Holliday #2....25.44  Matt Holliday #1....21.53
Nelson Cruz.........24.84  Delmon Young........21.46
Miguel Cabrera......24.77  Chris Johnson.......21.44*
Albert Pujols #1....24.32  Chase Headley.......21.28
Jimmy Rollins #1....23.99  Brandon Inge........21.2
Prince Fielder......23.89  Ian Kinsler.........20.91
Carlos Pena.........23.64  Brett Wallace #2....20.76
Nate Schierholtz....23.08  Carl Crawford.......20.63
Welington Castillo..22.96  Ruben Tejada........20.57
Robinson Cano.......22.92  Kelly Johnson.......20.4
Albert Pujols #2....22.92  Danny Valencia......20.32
Cesar Izturis.......22.89  Colby Rasmus........20.28
Miguel Montero......22.76* Ryan Ludwick........20.13*
JJ Hardy............22.46  Brett Wallace #1....19.97
Starlin Castro......22.44  Chris Iannetta......19.85
Jimmy Rollins #2....22.32  Zack Cozart.........19.24
Michael McKenry.....22.2   Josh Rutledge.......19.05
Rickie Weeks........21.72  Starling Marte......18.96
Buster Posey........21.65  Eric Thames.........18.76
Ryan Braun..........21.6   Curtis Granderson...18.08
Jonathan Lucroy.....21.57  Carlos Santana......n/a

Tuesday's Trots

Brandon Phillips...27.17  Chris Snyder.......22.1
Neil Walker........26.23  Tyler Pastornicky..22.03
Nick Markakis......24.71  Todd Frazier.......21.89
Matt Holliday......24.44* Chris Davis........21.73
AJ Pierzynski......24.3   Robinson Cano......21.69
Carlos Beltran.....24.09  Mike Trout.........20.75*
Albert Pujols #1...23.95  Paul Goldschmidt...20.71*
Mark Ellis.........23.67  Donnie Murphy......19.68
Brian McCann.......23.61  Josh Rutledge......19.22
Albert Pujols #2...23.61  Ryan Ludwick.......19.05
Aramis Ramirez.....23.52  Dustin Ackley......18.83
Corey Hart.........23.43  Kevin Frandsen.....18.23
Miguel Montero.....22.73  Jimmy Rollins......15.65
David Freese.......22.17  Cameron Maybin.....n/a

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.