I like Russell Martin, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher. So do most Dodgers fans, who applaud him warmly and rarely criticize him and never (to my memory) have booed him. He’s an intelligent young man, even something of a team spokesman, at age 26. He is durable, and he wants to play every day. Admirable qualities, all.

But it probably is his generic popularity that is limiting discussion of an unpleasant topic.

To wit: Martin continues to trend down as an effective catcher and hitter, and has been doing so since the first half of his 2007 season, when he was an All-Star, and deservedly so.

The Dodgers have a semi-comfortable lead in the NL West. But if Martin were performing as he did in his rookie season, 2006, or as he did in the first half of 2007, the lead would be bigger.

Let’s consider some numbers:

Through 98 games and 349 at-bats, Martin has three home runs and 33 RBI, putting him on pace for five and 51 — which would be career lows. By uncomfortable margins.

He has only 13 doubles and zero triples. Again, on a pace for career lows.

His total 16 extra-base hits make him about as punchless as any everyday player out there.

He also is anything but impressive as a catcher. Runners are stealing on him at a 72 percent success rate, which is above (and that’s not good) his career average and significantly higher than his rate of 67 percent from his Gold Glove year, 2007.

Almost half (seven) of his meager extra-base hit total has come with no one on base. And his batting average with runners in scoring position (.245) lags behind even his modest overall BA (.266).

His “good” stats are these:  He has scored 45 runs, which is pretty good for a catcher, and his on-base percentage is a healthy .374, thanks to 53 walks. Also, Dodgers pitchers have a lower ERA (3.49) with him behind the plate than they do with backup Brad Ausmus (4.27), though Ausmus has only 17 starts (a small sample) … and base-stealers are successful only 62 percent of the time against Ausmus.

Reputations in sports, which are perception-driven, tend to lag behind reality. Most of us tend to think of Russell Martin as the very good 2007 player who was a significant contributor to the offense, with 19 homers, 87 runs and 87 RBI. A heck of a year for a catcher.

But in this Dodgers lineup, which is second in the National League in scoring, Martin is conspicuous by his lack of production. It’s time to acknowledge that. Even if we like Russell Martin, and prefer to think of him as the power-hitting clutch performer he was for much of his first two seasons in the bigs. He is easily the most feeble regular in the 2009 lineup. In fact, his extra-base total actually trails that of legendary singles-hitter Juan Pierre (19-16) and he has driven in only six more runs than Pierre (33-27) in 103 more at-bats.

And we should mention that Martin, once a serious base-stealing threat, has only eight steals this season and has been caught six times. He was 18-for-24, in stealing, just last year.

Among catchers with enough at-bats to qualify for a batting title, yes, Martin holds up fairly well. Of those nine guys, only three have scored more runs (Mauer, Martinez, Suzuki). One (Kendall) actually has ever fewer extra-base hits and two (Kendall, Pierzynski) have fewer RBI. And Martin’s OBP is eclipsed only by Mauer, a true star.

But there seems to be a case here that Martin is still playing too often, which wasn’t supposed to happen this year. He is on pace for 538 at-bats, which is no significant relief from the 553 at-bats he got last year. With Brad Ausmus hitting a very un-Ausmus like .328 with an OBP of .384, it seems as if Joe Torre ought to give Martin a few more off days.

Maybe playing Ausmus twice a week, instead of once a week, will expose Ausmus as the lightweight hitter he has been, historically. And if it doesn’t, well, then you’re ahead of the game. In the meantime, Russell Martin has gotten a bit more rest, and perhaps the pop starts to return to his bat, and the spring into his legs.

Right now, the numbers say Russell Martin is not a good baseball player. Though most Dodgers fans probably have not tumbled to that reality.