I know everyone is anxious to get out to their grills for some hot dogs and beer, so I won't keep you waiting.

Let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox - 24.45 seconds [video]
For only the fourth time in his career, David Ortiz hit a pinch-hit home run. Also for only the fourth time in his career, David Ortiz trotted out a 24-second trot.

I kid, I kid. Papi busts out a quick trot every now and then, and it's nice to see it come on Sunday, after a late-inning, go-ahead, pinch-hit bomb. Very appropriate.

Houston starter J.A. Happ hit his first career home run on Sunday, coming in at a league-average 22.06 seconds. The Astros would win the game 4-2. The home run hit by Jay Bruce was not measurable. Being the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game, the Cardinals/Braves game had only one video feed, and that feed chose not to show Bruce touching home plate. What a shame.

For the rest of today's trots (including trot times for all home runs), head over to Baseball Prospectus. 

I'm not sure I've ever had a day with such a tight competition for the Home Run of the Day. Here in Milwaukee, Corey Hart hit his first, second, and third home runs of the year in the Brewers' 11-3 rout of the Nationals. In San Diego, Albert Pujols hit his first home run in over 100 plate appearances (that didn't stop him from admiring the blast). Jose Bautista continued his torrid pace of making obnoxious sportswriters say inane things with his 19th home run of the season. In Detroit, Andy Dirks hit his first career home run. Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz returned to the Rangers' lineup down in Texas and proceeded to each hit a home run to celebrate their return. For a day with only twenty-one home runs hit, it certainly seemed like every one of them was meaningful.

So what was the Home Run of the Day? Let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Jim Thome #2, Minnesota Twins - 23.19 seconds [video]
As excited as I am for all the home runs mentioned above (and, believe me, it's great seeing Corey Hart playing well), the one that made me most excited was Jim Thome's second blast of the game. The home run came in Target Field and was the 593rd of Thome's career. Like Cruz and Hamilton, this was Thome's first time in the lineup for a few weeks, having recently returned from the disabled list. What makes this more special than any of the others, though, is that the Twins were honoring Harmon Killebrew during the game. Thome is often described as the Killebrew of his generation, so the fact that he managed to sock two home runs on the day Killebrew's memory was honored takes it to a whole other level.

For the rest of today's trots (including trot times for all home runs), head over to Baseball Prospectus.

The first weekend of interleague play is now concluded, and what have we learned? Players can hit balls just as hard off opposing league pitchers as they can off their own league's pitchers. It's pretty amazing, really. I can't way for when interleague arrives in June for real (for five series in a row instead of just one) so we can learn the same lesson again.

Meanwhile, let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Asdrubal Cabrera #2, Cleveland Indians - 22.04 seconds [video]
Cabrera finished this game against the Reds a perfect five-for-five with two home runs and five RBIs. You can't ask for a more perfect game at the plate than that. For that, he bests San Francisco's Nate Schierholtz for Home Run of the Day. Schierholtz hit a blast out of AT&T Park in the bottom of the eighth inning to tie the game up. I couldn't tell if it hit the sidewalk before splashing into McCovey Cove, or if it splashed on the fly. The Giants would go on to win in the eleventh.

For the rest of today's trots (including trot times for all home runs), head over to Baseball Prospectus.

I know I've done a poor job of keeping Wezen-Ball updated over here with links and info to my other writings. I apologize for that. I'll try to keep things up-to-date a little more often. As an apology, here are a few links to some of my favorite pieces over the last month or so. Enjoy!

• A (nearly) exhaustive look at every mascot in Major League Baseball history. Help me fill in any gaps.
• A story called "How 'Scientific Baseball' Has Changed the Game" originally published in 1911.
• The umpire behind the plate for Johnny Vander Meer's second no-hitter was also an NHL ref and a Stanley Cup wining coach!
• There are three managers in baseball named Ron. Which is baseball's version of Ron Swanson?
• A boardgame from the mid-1960s called "Challenge the Yankees". Nice looking card set too.
• Remembering Manny Ramirez upon his retirement. This one gets a little Cardboard Gods-y (in a good way, I hope).
• In Tater Trot Tracker news, Peter Bourjos sets a new bar (14.02 seconds!) and we have a look at Duane Kuiper's lone trot.

I'll do a better job of keeping everyone in the loop here. In the meantime, you can see my latest posts with this Baseball Prospectus RSS feed.

I will also be doing a chat at BPro Thursday afternoon at 1pm Eastern. Everyone is welcome. Hope to see you over there!

Just wanted to let everyone who submitted a Predictions Contest entry know that, now that the contest is closed, the full list of entries is available.

Head over to the 2011 Wezen-Ball Predictions Contest form to see your (and everyone else's) contest entry. There were 143 entries total, which is pretty fantastic. I can't wait to see how this plays out come October or so.

I'll have a little more about the contest in the upcoming week or so. Thanks for playing, everyone!

Today is the last day to get your predictions in to the the 2011 Wezen-Ball Predictions Contest. I hope everyone who waited until today saw what they needed to see in yesterday's six games to make up your mind!

We now have over 130 entries for the contest. Let's try to pick it up to 150 and beyond by the end of the day. Feel free to let everyone know about it. Can't hurt, right? Yankees fans, in particular, might like to know that something like 98% of entries are picking the Red Sox to win the division.

So get to it. One last day for your chance to win 2 Free Tickets to any 2012 baseball game*! Go here for the rules. 

Now go get your vote in!

Opening Day is finally here!

And, along with it, comes the 2011 edition of the Tater Trot Tracker! Let's all do the dance of joy.

As you may know, I am now doing most of my writing over at Baseball Prospectus. This will include the Tater Trot Tracker for the 2011 season. As was the case last year, a Tater Trot Tracker post will go up around 1pm everyday; it will just go up over at Baseball Prospectus instead of here.

You will be able to find updated stats here as the season progresses, as well as the full 2010 Tater Trot Tracker archive. I'll keep this post updated with other news about the Tracker through the season, as I'm certain I will come up with more and better ways to give everyone the data.

In the meantime, if you're dying for some Tater Trot Tracker immediately, please see this breakdown of the average tater trot or this listing of some of 2010's top trots (or this one as well). 

Now let's start this 2011 season! 

I just wanted to give everybody a quick reminder that the 2011 Wezen-Ball Predictions Contest is still going on. Entries are due on Friday (so you're free to wait for the Opening Day returns before deciding on your World Series winner - I'm that generous of a guy!).

I know I said I'd update the form so that we could review what everybody's picks were, but I just haven't had the time to do that yet. I'll have to do that over the weekend. In the meantime, though, I thought some updates on the picks everyone are making might be fun. There are a whopping 116 entries as of this writing, which is just fantastic. I'm glad everyone seems to like the new form.

• The most common pick is the Mariners finishing in last place, with 107 people making that pick. The next most common is the Red Sox finishing in first, with 103 picks. They are the overwhelming division favorite.
• The Phillies have a big lead as the favorite in the NL East, with 94 picks. No other division winner has more than 69 picks in their favor (the Rangers).
• Despite Boston's edge in the predicted finishes, the Phillies have more people predicting 100-win seasons for them than do the Red Sox. It must be a comment on the difficulty of that AL East.
• On the flip side, the Royals and Pirates are virtually tied in the number of predicted 100-loss seasons. Kansas City edges out Pittsburgh in this race, with 24 predicted 100-loss seasons to Pittsburgh's 23.
• Not surprisingly, the Red Sox have more predicted World Series wins (38) than any other team, with Philly close behind (30).
• Teams getting one (and only one) World Series championship prediction include: the White Sox, the Reds, the Twins, the Marlins, and the A's. The Brewers have as many World Series Champions predictions (8) as the Yankees, and one more than the Giants.
• Adrian Gonzalez is killing the vote for AL MVP, with 53 picks. The only other candidate with double-digit picks is Evan Longoria, with 12. In the NL, it's Albert Pujols leading the way by a wide margin, with Troy Tulowitzkia, Ryan Braun, and Prince Fielder fighting for second.
• Jon Lester and Roy Halladay have strong margins in the Cy Young race, with CC Sabathia, Felix Hernandez, Cliff Lee, and Tim Lincecum also getting some votes.
• Finally, Jeremy Hellickson and Freddie Freeman are both destroying their competition in the Rookie of the Year races.

That's enough for now. I'll give a more detailed breakdown next week, once all the submissions are in. Go here for the rules. The winner of the predictions contest will receive 2 Free Tickets to any 2012 baseball game*!

Now go get your vote in!

I'm happy to announce, for the second year in a row, the Wezen-Ball MLB Predictions Contest 2011!

If you're a Wezen-Ball reader and would like to register your 2011 MLB predictions somewhere - including team wins for all 30 clubs, postseason series, and award winners - click on over here to view the Wezen-Ball MLB Predictions 2011 contest. Just follow the instructions within the document; it shouldn't be too complicated. (Currently it's not set up to review submitted entries, but I should have that fixed in the next few days. In the meantime, trust me - I received your entry!)

The winner of the predictions contest will receive 2 Free Tickets to any 2012 baseball game*!

Sweet, right? Okay, that's not exactly accurate. Because not everyone lives near a major league (or minor league) team, and because not all ticket prices are the same, the winner will actually receive a $30 gift certificate to either MLB.com or the team of their choice. In theory, that's enough money to get two tickets to any game in any city and should be nice enough incentive for those who can't make it to a game.

So here are the basic rules and scoring details for the contest.

(Click "Read More" to continue reading.)

My latest post is up over at Baseball Prospectus. With pitchers and catchers finally reporting, it seemed appropriate to celebrate the occasion in some way. You can see how I chose to celebrate above.

Earlier in the week, I wrote a post looking at the superheroes - Iron Man, Spider-Man, Batman, etc. - who can be found in baseball. Can you think of any other superheroes I may have missed? I had a lot of fun with this one, even though there were fewer superhero names than I thought there would be.

As always you can see my latest posts with this Baseball Prospectus RSS feed. Hope to see you over there!