In Toronto, Detroit's Justin Verlander threw the second no-hitter of his career, blanking the Blue Jays with a four-strikeout, one-walk performance. It was the second no-hitter of the week (and, to Brewers fans, very nearly the third, after Yovani Gallardo came oh-so-close to throwing his own no-hitter in St. Louis). I don't care what some people are saying – I still love hearing that a no-hitter was thrown. Some things are impressive in their own right, and don't need to be broken down and dissected.
Enough of that. Let's get to the trots.
Home Run of the Day: Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies – 24.74* seconds [video]
Alex Avila hit a home run in support of Verlander's no-no. The Tigers ended up winning the game 9-0, though, so I'm not sure Avila's blast was all that key. Howard's monster blast went to straightaway center and was hit off of Atlanta's uber-prospect Julio Teheran. On a night light with home runs, it's as good a candidate as any for Home Run of the Day.
Slowest Trot: Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies – 24.74* seconds [video]
There's something about Ryan Howard when he hits a home run. He just has the perfect look of a slugger, and nothing shows it better than the brief pose he gives at home plate after each home run. His trot around the bases is similar: it's certainly slow, but not obscenely or insultingly slow. It's exactly what you would expect from a slugger, and Howard seems to enjoy fitting that bill.
Quickest Trot: Michael Young, Texas Rangers – 18.3 seconds [video]
B.J. Upton and Blake Dewitt also had themselves a pair of nice, quick trots on Saturday, but Young easily outpaced them. It's a clear continuation of his 2010 trotting ways, when he was the fifth quickest trotter in the majors. With his two home runs, 26 RBIs, and league leading 47 hits for the Rangers, he'll have plenty more chances to get back on the leaderboard. I wonder how certain Rangers fans feel about that.
All of Today's Trots Ryan Howard.......24.74* John Buck.........21.78 Nick Swisher......24.58 Carlos Pena.......21.58 Justin Upton......23.65 Alex Avila........21.2 Lyle Overbay......23.23 Cliff Pennington..20.07 Dioner Navarro....22.49 David Murphy......19.92 Jhonny Peralta....22.3 B.J. Upton........19.69 Evan Longoria.....22.21 Blake Dewitt......19.39 Vernon Wells......22.11 Michael Young.....18.3
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I mean this very respectfully, I really do. And I've enjoyed your "Wezen-ball" articles, so let this not be taken as an indictment of you as a writer. But you must have better things than this to do with your time. Maybe tracking how far the homers went, or in what directions, or, I don't know, any other piece of information that may have some predictive or even merely descriptive relevance regarding actual player performance. Sorry to be so blunt. I'm sure I'll get a bunch of "minuses" from the faithful herd, but so be it. Tired of trot times.
Besides, there's a good reason Larry's not doing distances and directions on homers: http://www.hittrackeronline.com/ already exists.
I agree with the other two responses to this. If you don't like this, don't read it. No one's holding you at gunpoint (and if they are, then I'm sorry to hear that). These articles provide a fun, unique perspective, and I'm looking forward to seeing more.
holgado's comment is fair. When I started the Tracker last year, I was wary of putting it in a daily feed because I know it's not for everyone. Here at BPro, the daily feed is the only way to go.
And the Tracker *must* be done on a daily basis. Skipping any single day could mean missing an important or memorable trot. And, for as much time as it does take me (usually about 45 mins of my lunch hour, which isn't too bad), it would only get worse if I had to catch up on multiple days worth of trots. It's worth it to me, though, because I think it's a fun way to watch the games while giving a reason to pay attention to all 30 teams. I'm glad to see others here are enjoying the series as well.
I am well aware that I'm not being forced to read these. And in fact, I would go so far as to say that I am religious about not reading them. They're clogging up the "Blogs" section of the BP front page, is all. I do actually read some of the other posts from that section (e.g., KG's minor league updates, and as I mentioned, Larry's Wezen-Ball stuff), but it's harder to get to them when over a third of the posts listed on the front page are about trot times, and another third are posts with links to other sites' content (the "Paper Trail" series).
Yeah it's a couple of extra mouse clicks, no skin off my back, I guess. Just having a hard time understanding the value added of this series, even solely based on the "fun" quotient. That is, it hardly seems "fun" to read how Justin Upton took 0.42 seconds longer than Lyle Overbay to round the bases (leaving aside the fact that stopwatch reaction time error means that the precision of all of these times is an illusion to begin with). And on the non-fun side, since it neither helps us better understand player value or better predict future player performance, it just seems a bit out of place on this site.
This comment, as my first, was not "necessary." But it's my opinion, and I stated it respectfully, as constructive criticism to an author whose work I otherwise genuinely enjoy. I appreciate that not everyone agrees. And by all means, readers of BP, if you love you your trot times, continue to speak up and let Larry know, and I'll stand even further corrected.
(Btw, I just measured how much extra time it takes me to click through to the main blogs page. 0.73 seconds. I'll try to provide an update on how long it takes me tomorrow, and each day for the rest of the season. It'll be "fun"!)
Guess you'll just have to live with some people find something interesting and/or fun that you don't. Maybe you can lobby to have the blog section expanded?