August 9, 2011

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for August 8

by Larry Granillo

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Things tend to chill out a bit on Mondays, and yesterday seemed to follow the trend. There was only one multi-home run day and not a single player hit his first career home run. You see? Boring. Well, except maybe for the seven home runs in the Rockies/Reds game in Cincinnati or the lovely trots from David Ortiz and Todd Helton or the walkoff home run or...

Let's get to those trots, shall we?

Home Run of the Day: Casey Kotchman, Tampa Bay Rays - 21.2* seconds [video]
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh, Casey Kotchman tied the game up for the Rays with a single up the middle (advancing on the throw). Tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Kotchman won the game for the Rays with a first-pitch home run to deep centerfield. That's what you call a good day.

Slowest Trot: David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox - 28.13 seconds [video]
Does Todd Helton get angry when he realizes that he and David Ortiz hit home runs on the same day, or is he happy with the second-slowest trot of the day? It seems like a blast from Papi is the only way to knock Helton off the slowest trot leaderboard. Helton, at 27.29 seconds, was less than a second behind Ortiz's 28.13 seconds. The next slowest trot is more than 3 seconds quicker than Helton.

Quickest Trot: Jay Bruce, Cincinnati Reds - 20.12 seconds [video]
The quickest trot of the night and it took more than 20 seconds. This happens 3 or 4 times a year, but rarely, if ever, on a night when more than twenty home runs were hit.

All of Today's Trots

David Ortiz............28.13    Greg Dobbs.........22.04
Todd Helton............27.29    Gordon Beckham.....21.92
Brandon Phillips.......24.11    Nelson Cruz........21.9
John Buck..............23.83    Seth Smith #1......21.88
Alex Gonzalez..........23.59    David Wright.......21.76
Seth Smith #2..........23.56    J.J. Hardy.........21.58
A.J. Pierzynski........22.84    J.D. Martinez......21.21
Shane Victorino........22.72    Casey Kotchman.....21.2*
Carlos Gonzalez........22.71*   Jason Bay..........20.79
Henry Blanco...........22.43    Jason Kubel........20.56
Jarrod Saltalamacchia..22.41    Drew Stubbs........20.4
Angel Pagan............22.16    Jay Bruce..........20.12