Well, David Ortiz didn’t set any records today, so in one respect the day was a loss. Still, there were 25 home runs hit around the league on the season’s first Saturday, including one big leaguer who slugged his first career home run, so we can’t complain too much.
Let’s get right to the trots!
Home Run of the Day: Jean Segura, Milwaukee Brewers – 20.95 seconds [video]
According to Hit Tracker Online, this wasn’t the longest home run of the night (that belonged to Segura’s fellow shortstop Starlin Castro), but it sure felt that way. Just watch that thing fly!
Slowest Trot: Starlin Castro, Chicago Cubs – 26.19 seconds [video]
This is the problem with ballparks that look deep. Even when the longest home run of the night is hit in one, it doesn’t look all that impressive. Deep, expansive bleachers just eat the ball up. I wrote about this when Justin Upton moved from Arizona to Atlanta (and now he’s moved to Petco Park, which I used as my extreme example in the piece!). We know its a longer home run in our heads, but it doesn’t mean the same in our hearts. Such is life.
Quickest Trot: Anthony Gose, Detroit Tigers – 18.11 seconds [video]
Gose led off the game in Cleveland with a wall-scraper on the second pitch of the game and it was enough to hold the quickest trot crown all day. For the first time all year, though, we had a few people vie for the title. Both Alejandro de Aza and Chris Coghlan clocked in with 18-second trots yesterday afternoon. Could be a good sign of things to come.
All of Today's Trots Starlin Castro....26.19 Mike Olt..........21.29 Nelson Cruz.......24.57 Jean Segura.......20.95 Matt Adams........24.26 Freddie Freeman...20.81 Chris Davis.......24.01 Marwin Gonzalez...20.47 Wilson Ramos......23.42 Mike Moustakas....20.09 Adam LaRoche......23.36 Kole Calhoun......20 Nolan Arenado.....23.13 Tim Beckham.......19.95 Jonathan Schoop...22.95 Chris Coghlan.....18.81 Salvador Perez....22.56 Alejandro De Aza..18.45 Chris Young.......22.54 Anthony Gose......18.11 Todd Frazier......22.48 Joaquin Arias.....n/a Geovany Soto......22.45 Dustin Ackley.....n/a Paul Goldschmidt..21.3
Click here for the ongoing 2015 Tater Trot Tracker Leaderboard. You can also follow @TaterTrotTrkr on Twitter for more up-to-the-minute trot times.
