September 17, 2012

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for September 16

by Larry Granillo

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After yesterday's games, there are now exactly two weekends of regular season baseball left. And, lucky for us, things are just now getting really interesting! With the recent poor play by Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and St. Louis, we are on the verge of seeing three possible playoff teams choke in the final month of the season. Of course, a lot can happen in 17 games...

Let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Anthony Rizzo, Chicago Cubs #2 - 24.14 seconds [video]
It was the same story all weekend. The Pirates, once (fairly recently) tied for first in their division, are fighting for their lives as they sink closer and closer to a sub-.500 record. They showed some life against the Cubs, taking the lead on big home runs from their star players. On Sunday, it was Pedro Alvarez hitting his second home run of the game, a three-run blast to put Pittsburgh up 9-6 in the sixth. It didn't last, however. Anthony Rizzo answered with his own second home run of the game, this one a grand slam in the bottom half of the inning to give the Cubs the 10-6 lead that they never relinquished. These are devastating losses for the Pirates, who now sit only one game above the .500 line.

Also on Sunday, Ryan Braun clubbed his own pair of home runs. The first was the 200th bomb of his career; the second, the 40th home run of the season. On any other day, Braun's big hits would give him Home Run of the Day.

Slowest Trot: Alex White, Colorado Rockies - 24.91 seconds [video]
The Colorado pitcher hit his second home run in as many starts on Sunday. The three-run blast gave Colorado the early 3-1 lead. White apparently nearly missed first base on his trot before going back to make sure he touched the bag. The video does not show White's misstep, however.

The slowest home run of the weekend belonged to Justin Maxwell, who rounded the bases on Friday in 25.81 seconds. The just squeezes out Carlos Lee and Billy Butler, who came home in 25.77 and 25.64 seconds, respectively, on Saturday.

Quickest Trot: Carlos Corporan, Houston Astros - 18.92 seconds [video]
A big win for Houston, as the Astros enjoyed the role of spoiler against Philadelphia's playoff hopes and continued to hold off the 100-loss mark. The next quickest trot on Sunday was from Colorado's Matt McBride, who made it home in 18.99 seconds on his first career tater trot.

Friday night was a quick night in baseball. Curtis Granderson and Bryce Harper dueled for the quickest trot of the night, with Granderson beating out the rookie with his 17.66 second trot (to Harper's 17.77 seconds). On Saturday, the quickest trots were only marginally slower. Granderon again won the day, with an 18.01 second trot to Jason Heyward's 18.07 seconds.

All of Today's Trots

Alex White..........24.91  Justin Smoak........22.48
Pedro Alvarez #2....24.62  Adrian Beltre.......22.25
Dayan Viciedo.......24.59  Josh Reddick........22.24
Pedro Alvarez #1....24.47  Mark Trumbo.........21.83
Aramis Ramirez......24.34
Rod Barajas.........24.28  Chase Headley.......21.49
Anthony Rizzo #1....24.24  Matt Wieters #1.....21.48
Anthongy Rizzo #2...24.14  Joe Mauer...........21.46
Miguel Cabrera......24     Ryan Braun #1.......21.25
Andre Ethier........23.79  Ryan Braun #2.......21.01
Stephen Drew........23.78  Bobby Abreu.........20.94
Adeiny Hechavarria..23.68  Scott Moore.........20.4
Adam Dunn...........23.37
Russell Martin......23.06  Ben Zobrist.........20.02
Matt Wieters #2.....22.88  Joe Mather..........19.7
Justin Upton........22.72  Matt McBride........18.99
Josh Rutledge.......22.56* Carlos Corporan.....18.92

Saturday's Trots

Carlos Lee.........25.77  Buster Posey.......21.99
Billy Butler.......25.64  Freddie Freeman....21.95
Paul Konerko.......24.8   Stephen Drew.......21.86
Miguel Cabrera.....24.54  Salvador Perez.....21.84*
Adam LaRoche.......24.51  Justin Smoak.......21.7*
Jesus Guzman.......23.75  Clint Barmes.......21.29
Mike Napoli........23.65  Eduardo Nunez......21.11
Ike Davis..........23.58  Justin Maxwell.....20.79
Rickie Weeks.......23.34  Allen Craig........20.71
Trevor Plouffe.....23.31  Cody Ross..........20.3
Evan Longoria......23.11  Dustin Ackley......20.27
Kendrys Morales....23.04  Andrew McCutchen...20.06*
Mark Ellis.........22.68  Justin Upton.......18.32
Ryan Ludwick.......22.56  Jason Heyward......18.07
Nate McLouth.......22.48  Curtis Granderson..18.01

Friday's Trots

Justin Maxwell.....25.81  Jimmy Rollins......21.2
Starlin Castro.....25.14  Jeff Francoeur.....21.17
Luis Cruz..........24.68  Lucas Duda.........21.13
Kendrys Morales....24.61  Andrew McCutchen...21.01
Alex Rodriguez.....24.46  Matt Downs.........20.95
Domonic Brown......24.42  Hunter Pence.......20.83
Billy Butler.......24.27* Matt Carpenter.....20.78
Andre Ethier.......23.79* Yoenis Cespedes....20.14
Matt Holliday......23.09  Yonder Alonso......20.11
Chris Nelson.......22.51  Josh Hamilton......20
Greg Dobbs.........22.32  Michael Moustakas..19.98
Chris Davis........22.27  BJ Upton...........19.75
Kevin Youkilis.....22.15  Charlie Blackmon...18.89
Ryan Lavarnway.....21.83  Bryce Harper.......17.77
Daniel Murphy......21.75  Curtis Granderson..17.66
Yadier Molina......21.52  Ian Kinsler........n/a
Michael Saunders...21.4

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.