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August 3, 2012

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for August 2

by Larry Granillo

Sixteen home runs on Thursday. That's a far cry from the 42 that were hit just the day before. My tater trot tracking hand thanks you, major league sluggers.

Now how about some trots?

Home Run of the Day: Eddy Rodriguez, San Diego Padres - 20.01 seconds [video]
The downside of having so few home runs hit around the league is that there are fewer options for Home Run of the Day. Thankfully, San Diego's Eddy Rodriguez makes everything easy. A 26-year-old career minor leaguer making his major league debut, Rodriguez hit a nice home run into the leftfield power alley at Great American Ballpark in his very first big league at-bat. The home run was hit off Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto, who hadn't given up a home run since May 25.

Slowest Trot: Kendrys Morales, Los Angeles Angels - 24.86 seconds [video]
A big blast from Morales. The trot, while slow (as is to be expected with Morales), was far from impressive. The next slowest trot among the day's home run hitters was from Wilin Rosario, who came in at 24.4 seconds.

Cleveland's Carlos Santana hit a clear home run in Kansas City on Thursday. Everyone in the park could tell it was gone except Santana, who decided to stop at second base for a moment to untie his shin guard. It didn't take him long to realize that he needed to continue the trot, but it was enough to make the trot time invalid. All trots must be continuous.

Quickest Trot: Josh Rutledge, Colorado Rockies - 18.44* seconds [video]
Rutledge most certainly finished this trot quicker than 18.44 seconds. However, both feeds of the game showed an unforgiving angle of Rutledge crossing home plate. The 18.44 time likely represents Rutledge's time 1 or 2 steps past the plate. It was the only trot to break the 20-second barrier on the day.

All of Today's Trots

Kendrys Morales...24.86    Eric Hosmer.......21.69
Wilin Rosario.....24.4     Todd Frazier......21.41
Cameron Maybin....24.32    Ian Kinsler.......21.03
Brian Dozier......24.29*   Alex Gordon.......20.85
Adam LaRoche......24.07    Mark Trumbo.......20.41
Josh Reddick......23.88    Eddy Rodriguez....20.01
Alberto Callaspo..23.48    Josh Rutledge.....18.44*
Nelson Cruz.......22.78    Carlos Santana....n/a

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.