On The Bright Side

Tribe catcher Victor Martinez may only have 10 extra base hits to date, and has not hit a home run yet despite batting .292, but during a day that will likely be filled with what’s wrong with the Indians – why not point out something positive?

The above chart (courtesy of Yahoo!) is a list of the worst and best year-to-date performances behind the plate.  Typically, V-Mart has been among the worst in baseball when it comes to throwing runners out on the base paths.  However, our #41 is currently second in the Major’s to Milwaukee’s Jason Kendall, tossing out 44 percent of would-be thieves. 

A stat that I admittedly thought was a fluke, Martinez actually improved his number over the last week, tossing out one of two attempts.  But for a guy with a career caught stealing percentage of 25.4, his current rate is pretty darn good.

I could mention that Victor is coming off of the month of May that saw him hit .221 with an OPS of .548, but we’re only going to focus on the positive here.  Hey, how about that 2008  caught stealing number!?