For those of you who may have missed it, yesterday’s Tater Trot Tracker post went up pretty late in the day. You can find it here. Now on to today’s (yesterday’s?) 13 home runs from across the league.
Home Run of the Day: Bronson Arroyo, Cincinnati Reds (Trot Time: 22.07 seconds) [video]
Apparently I haven’t done as great of a job highlighting home runs hit by pitchers as I thought I had. With Arroyo’s shot yesterday, he is now the sixth pitcher to hit a home run this year. I’ve talked about the two that Yovani Gallardo hit, as well as the grand slam Brad Penny hit, and the home run reliever Gustavo Chacin hit. The other two pitcher-home runs were hit by Edwin Jackson on April 11 (23.77 second trot) and Micah Owings on May 7 (20.97 second trot). The average pitcher’s home run trot is currently 23.75 seconds. Both Penny’s and Chacin’s trots were quite slow (26.11 and 27.28 seconds, respectively), but those are the two extremes. Gallardo’s first was 24.14 seconds, and Edwin Jackson‘s was 23.77. The fastest belonged to Owings.
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Slowest Trot: Vladimir Guerrero, Texas Rangers – 26.43 seconds [video]
I’m running out of things to say about Vlad’s slow trots. The man can mash the ball, he has no knees, and he enjoys watching his shots fly. That’s the perfect recipe. That blast that he watched sail out of the park last night, though, was something else. When balls are hit that hard, they almost demand a slow bat-drop-and-walk-with-eyes-to-the-sky response.
Quickest Trot: Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds – 17.95 seconds [video]
Another quick run from Joey Votto, and only a hair faster than Jason Heyward’s 18.06 second trot (nice to see him back racing around the bases). It’s funny, I get messages all the time on Twitter from people who notice a super-quick or super-slow trot time, and Votto’s trot yesterday was no exception. Most of the time, though, the trots end up being pretty fast or pretty slow – like Votto’s trot yesterday – but rarely fast or slow enough to crack the top ten. I find this interesting because it helps to illustrate just how fast & slow these extreme trots are. If you thought Votto’s trot was fast, for example, just wait until you see an Adam Rosales or Chris Heisey trot. Now those are fast. (Not that I don’t appreciate the tips on Twitter – I really do. They help me learn about quick/slow trots much earlier than I would have otherwise. I just like how it helps us see just how fast/slow those other trots were.)
