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I was at Opening Day in Milwaukee yesterday. For most the game, I was a big fan of the home run trot, since Rickie Weeks' third inning laser was the only run of the game for a long while. And then Takashi Saito came in to pitch the eighth, giving up solo home runs to Martin Prado and Dan Uggla. Suddenly, I wasn't that big of a fan of the trot anymore.

Remarkably, that total of three home runs hit in the Braves-Brewers tilt was the high-water mark for home runs yesterday. In six games, there were a grand total of 11 homers hit. That kind of thing makes things easy for the Tater Trot Tracker, though maybe not as much fun for the fans.

I'm not complaining. Let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Nelson Cruz, Texas Rangers – 22.33 seconds [video]
I know, I know. Cruz was already the Home Run of the Day for Sunday. His bomb yesterday, though, put Cruz in rarefied air: he is now one of only three players in history to have hit a home run in each of the first four games of the season. He joins 1998 Mark McGwire and 1971 Willie Mays on that list. Two pretty good names. Elvis Andrus also a hit a home run in the Rangers win over the Mariners. It was his first home run in 705 at-bats. Andrus is not exactly in the same league as Cruz.

Slowest Trot: Alfonso Soriano, Chicago Cubs – 24.32 seconds [video]
As the season progresses, it's likely that we'll be seeing a lot of Soriano here in the Slowest Trot spot (provided he continues to hit home runs). It is unlikely, however, that we'll see him or anyone else with a slowest trot of only 24.32 seconds too often. There are almost always one or two trots slower than that everyday. Soriano just had the misfortune of notching that speed on a day where there weren't many home runs hit.

Quickest Trot: Martin Prado, Atlanta Braves – 19.51 seconds [video]
The home run by Dan Uggla, only a couple of batters later, was nearly as fast, coming in at 19.89 seconds. Prado and Uggla were the only two trots to drop below the 20-second mark on Monday Just for the record: the quick trots do not make me feel even slightly better about that eighth inning.

Thank you for reading

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