Martin, Russell

Russell Martin showed up in camp at a beefy 231 pounds which looks like it will stick a fork in what remained of his running game. The extra pounds are, according to Martin, extra muscle in response to his career low seven dingers last season. Time will tell.

The Dodgers "limited" Martin in 2009 because he had faded in the second half of 2008 and he wasn't really any worse in the second half largely because he was also bad in the first half. Martin's splits show a .330 May and a .317 July and the next high mark was .239 in August. In fact Martin's second half in 2008 was not bad as catchers go so in retrospect it looks silly unless there was a specific injury problem they were concerned with. But if the Dodgers were concerned with his endurance before, a 30+ pounds heavier Martin has to concern them a bit more. It is true that catchers have problems keeping weight on during the season, but it seems impossible that adding on the extra wear-and-tear of that poundage is going to help even if, yeah, sure, he ends up weighing more at the end of the season than otherwise.

Still, if the plan is to hit for more power, we're good with that. Even with a reduced running game, all he really needs to do is return to his power levels of 2007 and 2008 (87 RBI each year) to earn the price he is costing and then some. Given that he hit the same number of flyballs last season but had a low 5.4% HR/FB we sort of expect he will. .280-70-20-90-5. 550Abs