Fantasy Beat: Who Am I... (06/06)
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June 6, 2011 Tater Trot TrackerTrot Times for June 5I usually do my best to keep abreast of the day's goings on in the baseball world (through Twitter and whatnot) so that I don't accidentally miss something home run-related when I watch through the videos. There are times, though, when I don't get a chance to do that and, as such, go into the home run videos pretty blind only to discover some pretty interesting things happened. Sunday was a day like that. Let's get to those trots.
Home Run of the Day: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals - 24.26 seconds* [video] Dodgers pitcher Chad Billingsley also had a big game, hitting a home run, a double, and earning a run-scoring walk in Cincinnati. Almost any other day that would be enough for Home Run of the Day, but it pales in comparison to Pujols today.
Slowest Trot: Wilson Ramos, Washington Nationals - 28.94 seconds [video] The Ramos home run came late in the game Sunday and put the Nationals ahead 4-0. It also came one batter after Danny Espinosa was hit in the back (and, apparently, a few days after a Nationals player was nearly hit in the head by a D-backs pitcher). Ramos began his trot as normal, not sure if the ball would sail out. By the time he reached first, it was clearly gone. At that moment, you can see Ramos slow down some. My first thought, as I watched the home run the first time, was that it looked like Ramos had slowed down into his final walk - you know how trotters tend to slow down those last 10 or 15 feet before home plate - about 250 feet too early. But it only got worse. At both second and third base, you can see Ramos go into an even slower trot before essentially strolling the last 45 feet. The Nationals feed (shown in the highlight above) shows Ramos get to the area of the plate, but it's hard to see when he touches home. Switching over to the Arizona feed, the steps are clearer but, as he gets to the plate, the camera moves over to a very angry Matt Williams in the Diamondbacks dugout. The Arizona broadcasters noticed the slow trot right away, commenting on it from the time he rounded second base until well after the play was done. They even went back and showed replays of the trot (which is where I was able to determine with certainty when Ramos stepped on the plate). When I interviewed Duane Kuiper, he told me that the one trotter he admired more than anyone else was Matt Williams, for his no-nonsense way of rounding the bases. It makes sense, then, that Williams was so ticked off in the dugout. And it wasn't an accident on Ramos' part (nor could it be blamed on his injured leg from earlier in the game). Ramos told Washington Post writer Adam Kilgore that he did the slow trot on purpose, in order to "see those guys angry". Clearly it worked. (And, in case anyone was wondering, this is the most spite-filled home run trot I've seen since Jose Bautista showed up the Yankees last year.)
Quickest Trot: Elvis Andrus, Texas Rangers - 18.77 seconds [video]
All of Today's Trots Wilson Ramos......28.94 Ryan Raburn.......21.23 Miguel Carbera....25.9 Brian McCann......21.19* Adrian Gonzalez...25.36 Adam Lind #1......21.16 Albert Pujols.....24.26* Mark Teixeira #1..21.07 Diory Hernandez...24.18 Chris Iannetta....20.88 Yunel Escobar.....23.63 Brett Hayes.......20.64 Nick Swisher......23.61* Drew Stubbs.......20.44 Chad Billingsley..21.99 Michael Morse.....20.41 Carl Crawford.....21.97 Gordon Beckham....20.36 Kevin Kouzmanoff..21.91 Neil Walker.......20.02 Rickie Weeks......21.86 Mark Trumbo.......20.01 Matt Kemp.........21.82 Josh Wilson.......19.83* Mark Reynolds.....21.71 Kelly Johnson.....19.74 Mitch Moreland....21.42 Miguel Olivo......19.19 Adam Lind #2......21.27 Elvis Andrus......18.77 Mark Teixeira #2..21.24
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been waiting for this all day. kinda surprising that Ramos won by "only" 3 seconds.
I get the unwritten rules AND I loved Matt Williams as a player, but really, the fact that he got apoplectic over this is kinda ridiculous.
Yeah. I was shocked that it only came to ~29 seconds. The way he was plodding after second base, I thought for sure we'd see something over 30 seconds (just goes to show how hard that 30-second barrier really is). Also, having to compete against a trot from Miguel Cabrera makes it difficult to run away with things.
I imagine it was a combination of the trot and everything else that had been going on that made him so upset.
And I might as well take this opportunity to plug the Tater Trot Tracker twitter account. If you see something like this, please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter (or email). If I had known about the Ramos trot since yesterday, I may have been able to address it much sooner. I can't be watching 30 teams at once!
The Tater Trot Tracker twitter account is @TaterTrotTrkr (there's also @wezen_ball).
Thanks.