September 22, 2012

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for September 21

by Larry Granillo

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It's the last weekend of summer and there's no time to waste. Let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Darwin Barney, Chicago Cubs - 21.56 seconds [video]
The Cardinals are still in the lead for the second Wild Card in the National League and, with the Cubs, Astros, and likely resting Nationals and Reds teams to finish out the season, they have the easiest schedule of the contenders. On Friday, they took a two-run lead into the bottom of the ninth against the Cubs. They did not walk away with the victory, however, as Barney's two-strike, two-out, two-run homer tied the game up for the Cubs. They would go on to win it in the 11th.

Also, the Cubs fan sitting in the front row of the bleachers made a great catch on Barney's blast.

Slowest Trot: Kendrys Morales, Los Angeles Angels - 24.52 seconds [video]
Although there were 26 home runs hit on Friday, this 24-second trot from Morales was the slowest of the night. Jonathan Lucroy and Scott Hairston also had trots of nearly the same length, but Morales is who walked away with the Slowest Trot crown. It's just the luck of things.

Things were a bit more interesting on Thursday. The slowest trot that day belonged to Nick Swisher, who enjoyed his grand slam to the tune of 27.41 seconds. Meanwhile, in Cleveland, Trevor Plouffe hit a home run into the centerfield bushes. Somehow, both he and the centerfielder seemed to lose the ball. Plouffe actually stopped halfway between first and second and walked back to first, confused as to where the ball was. Eventually, he learned that he had hit a home run and finished his trot.

Quickest Trot: Adam Eaton, Arizona Diamondbacks - 16.65 seconds [video]
On Thursday, Adam Eaton hit his first career home run for the Diamondbacks. He sprinted home on that inaugural trot in 17.77 seconds (video), an impressive debut. However, it's not uncommon to see a player have that great first trot but then come back to earth a bit in his subsequent trots. That was definitely not the case for Eaton, who hit his second career home run the next night and sprinted home even faster. At 16.65 seconds, Eaton's Friday trot is now the eighth quickest trot of the season, knocking Tater Trot Tracker legend Adam Rosales out of the top ten. Even better, Eaton made that time after slowing down considerably to gingerly touch home plate. If he had decided to run through the base, we might have seen the quickest trot of the season. Let's hope he gives himself a 360-foot full-speed trot on his next trot.

All of Today's Trots

Kendrys Morales...24.52	 Brandon Moss......21.32
Jonathan Lucroy...24.46	 David Murphy......21.32
Scott Hairston....24.36	 Garrett Jones.....21.27
Jose Molina.......23.7	 Chase Utley.......21.22*
Chris Johnson.....23.59	 Chase Headley.....21.05
Ike Davis.........23.33	 Miguel Olivo......20.98*
Ryan Howard.......23.13	 Mike Trout........20.68
Pablo Sandoval....22.96	 Kevin Frandsen....20.58
Russell Martin....22.94	 Carlos Ruiz.......20.2
Adam LaRoche......22.83	 Ben Zobrist.......19.99
Jed Lowrie........22.26	 Brett Wallace.....19.89
Justin Maxwell....21.62	 Alejandro De Aza..18.17
Darwin Barney.....21.56	 Adam Eaton........16.65

Thursday's Trots 

Nick Swisher........27.41  Clint Barmes........21.99
Andrew McCutchen....24.62  Seth Smith..........21.92*
Ryan Howard.........24.57  Mark Ellis..........21.43
Aramis Ramirez......24.14  Jesus Guzman........21.22
Adrian Beltre.......24.08  Andy Dirks..........20.89
Allen Craig.........23.14  Buster Posey........20.86
Pablo Sandoval #2...22.88  Kelly Johnson.......20.14
Moises Sierra.......22.87  Mike Baxter.........20.04
Pablo Sandoval #1...22.85  Aaron Hill..........19.56
Welington Castillo..22.21  Ichiro Suzuki.......19.48
BJ Upton............22.2   Adam Eaton..........17.77
Jose Iglesias.......22	   Trevor Plouffe......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.