August 31, 2012

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for August 30

by Larry Granillo

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It was a fun night for the Tater Trot Tracker, when Bryce Harper, who...

You know what? We'll get to him below. Let's go to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers - 24.56 seconds [video]
This was an ugly, ugly game. The Brewers blew a 9-3 lead to the Cubs in the sixth inning and then blew an 11-9 lead in the bottom of the ninth to lose it. It's the kind of game that not even the winning team can call "pretty". At least the home runs were spectacular, with Ryan Braun's fourth inning blast off the roof of the camera well in deep, deep straightaway center being the best of all. ESPN's Home Run Tracker called it 460 feet. Anyone sitting in the second level of bleacher seats (located right next to the camera well) called it "Holy $&*!".

Slowest Trot: Jonathan Lucroy, Milwaukee Brewers - 25.45 seconds [video]
Another beauty of a home run in the Brewers/Cubs game. This blast from Lucroy was a grand slam that landed on Waveland Avenue down the third base line. The trot was slowed a bit by the runners on base, who may or may not have stopped to watch the ball sail out of the park (hint: they didn't). The next slowest trot was from James Loney, who hit his first home run as a member of the Red Sox on Thursday. Loney's ball sailed down the first base line, causing him to wait and see if it would land fair or not.

Also, Chris Young missed first base on his trot, forcing him to go back a few steps to make sure he got the bag. That's always fun to see.

Quickest Trot: Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals - 16.2 seconds [video]
Yesterday, after Harper's two home run day in which he had a pair of nearly 20-second trots, I said: "He still owns two of the ten fastest trots of the year (including the single quickest non-inside-the-park home run trot), but that doesn't seem to be the norm anymore. How disappointing."

I guess Harper must have been listening because, in the first inning of Thursday's game, the 19-year-old phenom hit a laser into the rightfield bullpen and then raced around the bases faster than he ever has before. His 16.2 second trot is now the fastest single trot of the year, putting Harper in the #1 and #2 (and #10) slots on the leaderboard. These are the trots we all want to see. Maybe we should just let him know that, in 2010, Adam Rosales had four regular tater trots faster than Harper's from last night. Four!

All of Today's Trots

Jonathan Lucroy...25.45     Josh Donaldson....21.25
James Loney.......24.75     Coco Crisp........21.18
Ryan Braun........24.56     Adam Jones........20.94
Chris Young.......23.34     Cody Ransom.......20.84
Josh Willingham...23.27     Cliff Pennington..20.74
Josh Reddick......23.15     Jason Kipnis......20.42
Taylor Teagarden..22.95     Joaquin Arias.....19.85
Scott Hairston....22.47     Tyler Greene......19.14
Alex Gordon.......21.53     Mike Baxter.......18.48
Jayson Werth......21.51     Bryce Harper......16.2

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.