April 15, 2013

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for April 14

by Larry Granillo

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A prediction for today's games: a home run will be hit by number 42.

Let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds - 22.91 seconds [video]
First it was Josh Hamilton finally getting his first home run of the season. On Sunday, Mike Trout joined his teammate in the ledgers with his own clout. Out in Pittsburgh, former MVP Joey Votto, who has 20 walks on the young season, finally connected on a pitch that landed over the wall to join those two superstars as 2013's late-blooming hitters. Perhaps that league-leading walk total will increase soon.

Slowest Trot: Todd Helton, Colorado Rockies - 25.01* seconds [video]
This is tough. Helton's pinch hit home run in San Diego gave the Rockies the lead, courtesy of the newly-moved in walls at Petco. The cameras, however, did a poor job of capturing his trot as he approached the plate. Normally, in a situation like this, I can watch an alternative feed of the home run to get a better sense of when the batter touched home plate. In Helton's case, the San Diego feed is slightly better than the Colorado feed, but not by much. As he approaches the plate, Helton slows down to a walk, taking four or five steps between his slow-down and greeting his teammate past the plate. Somewhere in there, his foot touches home but it's very hard to say when. It looks to me like Helton's body slumps a tiny bit after one of the steps, which suggests that that is when he touched the plate. I have used that time as Helton's official time of the day, but I could be wrong. It's a very, very borderline call. I could just as easily count this trot as "Not Available."

Laynce Nix had the second slowest trot of the day, making his way around the bases in 23.56 seconds.

Quickest Trot: Austin Jackson, Detroit Tigers - 17.63 seconds [video]
Things on this end of the spectrum were a bit more fun on Sunday. A laser of a line drive by Austin Jackson resulted in this blistering 17.63 second trot, but it only barely made it as the quickest trot of the day. In Chicago, San Francisco's Hunter Pence had his own speedy trot, clocking in at 17.72 seconds. The next quickest trotter around the league was Michael Bourn, who came home on his leadoff home run in 18.9 seconds.

All of Today's Trots

Todd Helton.........25.01*  Nate Schierholtz....21.22
Laynce Nix..........23.56   Mike Trout..........21.01
Ryan Braun..........23.41   Starling Marte......20.93
Starlin Castro......23.38   Brett Gardner.......20.81
Joey Votto..........22.91   Matt Adams..........20.78
Josh Hamilton.......22.67   Alejandro De Aza....19.91
Edwin Encarnacion...22.63   Raul Ibanez.........19.44
Paul Konerko........22.48   Jonathan Lucroy.....19.41
Michael McKenry #1..21.97   Justin Upton........19.07
Michael McKenry #2..21.86   Michael Bourn.......18.9
Alberto Gonzalez....21.48   Hunter Pence........17.72
Andrelton Simmons...21.45   Austin Jackson......17.63

Click here for the ongoing 2013 Tater Trot Tracker Leaderboard. You can also follow @TaterTrotTrkr on Twitter for more up-to-the-minute trot times.