A quick note to try and match Kristopher Negron’s speed around the bases…
Before Monday night, the quickest trot of the season belonged to Carlos Gomez, who sprinted around the bases at Miller Park in 16.18 seconds on April 1. It was his first home run of the season and came in Game #2. As a Brewers fan (and Gomez fan), I hoped that that time would sit atop the leaderboard all season long. Thanks to a pinch-hit home run from Cincinnati’s Kristopher Negron (also in Miller Park!), those hopes have ended.
On the first pitch he saw from new Brewers reliever Will Smith, Negron sent a wall-scraping pop-up to the opposite field that landed in the bullpen. It was only Negron’s second hit of the season and second home run. Much like home run #1 (which clocked in at 16.97 seconds last week), Negron ran all-out on his tater trot. The final trot time of 16.12 seconds was good enough to edge out Gomez’s early-season sprint for the quickest trot of the season — and all that despite his obvious slowing down at the plate. If he had run through the bag, Negron could have given us the elusive 15-second trot!
One interesting note. Apparently, Fox Sports Ohio took a stop-watch to Negron’s trot after the game last night. You can see their results here. Much like ESPN last week, they clocked Negron at a much faster time than he actually earned. The error seems to stem from both companies starting the watch after the ball touches the bat, probably at the point where Negron starts to run. That seems like a logical choice to start the clock but, thanks to every player behaving differently after a home run, it allows for too much subjectivity. The only objective way to measure a tater trot is from the crack of the bat to the stomp of the foot. With that measure, Negron has the fifth-fastest trot time of the entire tater trot-era.
