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After throwing out baserunners at a 31% and 33% clip during his first two years in the bigs, Russell Martin has seen that percentage dip to 26.5% over the past two seasons. The league average for throwing out baserunners resides around 26%, so while Martin falls in line with the norm, the drop from his first two seasons is very noticeable. When you consider all his stats have shrunk over the same periods I guess it shouldn't be surprising. But what is surprising is 300lb. sluggers falling over themselves into second base and still beating throws.

Recently, Russell Martin has been the victim of more thefts than a Wal-Mart being guarded by members of the local senior citizen center. Of the 19 attempted swipes since the beginning of July, Martin has thrown out only 3 would be base stealers, with one of them being an attempted steal of third base. Even worse, the teams that have been successful against Martin recently are among the worse base stealing teams in the league. In fact, the Padres, Cardinals, Braves, and Brewers currently rank 25th, 27th, 28th, and 29th in total team stolen bases.

Whether poor mechanics, tiredness, or shoddy pitching has been to blame there's no denying it's been open season as of late to run on Russell Martin.