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GREENSBORO - Crouched behind home plate and obscured by his mask, Chris Hatcher sits. Waiting. Watching. Daring you to run.

To even have a chance at stealing a base on him you've got to extend your secondary lead. But stray too far from first and he'll pick you off in a heartbeat. So go ahead. Test him -- if you dare.

Hatcher's knack for gunning down runners isn't a newly developed talent. The Greensboro Grasshoppers' starting catcher has been throwing out would-be thieves since high school -- a major reason why the Florida Marlins selected him in the fifth round of last year's draft.

"He's been throwing out guys since the first day we got him," said Anthony Iapoce, the Hoppers' hitting coach. "Hatcher's a guy, you don't really have to tell him too much. You just kind of work him out and he figures it out on his own. He likes the challenge."

With the help of one of the better arms in the league, Hatcher has thrown out 53 of 119 potential base-stealers this season. His 45 percent success rate has managers and runners taking notice. In May, 44 runners attempted to steal with Hatcher behind home plate. This month, he's been tested 11 times.

"He's real energetic, and catchers who are energetic and have a gun are gonna throw guys out," Iapoce said. "He gets rid of the ball quick, his footwork is there and he just keeps working on it."

It is Hatcher's work ethic that helped him improve his accuracy and quickness through the first three months of the season. After allowing 22 out of 28 runners to reach in April, he threw out 43 percent (19 of 44) of potential pilferers in May and 71 percent (12 of 17) in June.

And it's no coincidence that as Hatcher's efficiency has skyrocketed, runners bold enough to test his arm have plummeted.

"A lot of guys aren't stealing on him because they know of his ability," said pitcher Graham Taylor, who was promoted to Jupiter of the Florida State League on Sunday. "Once they've seen him throw somebody out, they realize they've got to get a pretty good jump otherwise they won't make it."

Hatcher, who graduated from UNC Wilmington in 2006, would prefer that they kept running. He welcomes the challenge of testing his skill set against the South Atlantic League's fastest.

"To be honest, I'm daring him to run," Hatcher said. "I'm just hoping my pitcher will give me a good pitch to throw on and a pretty decent time to the plate. That's my challenge for the day. Hitting is extra for me, but if I can throw that guy out, it helps the team. So I look at it as a challenge every time somebody gets on first base."

When a runner does get on, the real fun begins. Without shifting his focus from his pitcher's delivery, Hatcher tracks the runner out of the corner of his right eye. If the runner goes, Hatcher is up and firing as the ball hits his glove.

"You know when a guy's running, and it just all happens from there," Hatcher said. "You focus on the pitch and just paddle it to your hand and get rid of it."

Hatcher's combination of arm strength, accuracy and quickness could get the first-year Hoppers player to the next level.

"The quicker you can get rid of it in professional baseball with a very strong, accurate arm, you're going to do well," Rodriguez said.

On a team lacking a dominant strikeout pitcher, an extra out here or there is often the difference between a win and a loss. If Hatcher can atone for a walk or erase a hit with a pickoff at first or a laser to second, it can keep the Hoppers in the game.

"They're going to put the ball in play for the most part," Hatcher said. "If we can limit the base runners, that limits the runs we give up. So I think it's very good that our pitchers let our defense work.

"They help me by throwing the ball down in the zone, by getting ground balls, by putting good times on the plate. So it's my job to help them cut down on base runners."

For a pitcher, a little reassurance can go a long way.

"You know that late in the game you can bounce one and he'll block it," Iapoce said of Hatcher. "Or when there's a base stealer on late in the game, they might not want to test him.

"But the pitchers have been doing a better job holding the runners and just giving him a chance. That's all that he asks them for is just, 'Give me a chance to throw the guy out and I'll do it.' "

With a list of victims that includes several of the top base stealers in the SAL, Hatcher's reputation is growing. But how well would he match up against the league leader, teammate John Raynor?

"We talk some trash and I tell him he can't get me," quipped Raynor, who also was a teammate of Hatcher's at UNC Wilmington. "But he's got a cannon, so he might get lucky a couple times out of 10."

Hatcher likes his chances a little more.

He cited an intra-squad scrimmage when both players were at UNC-W in which he claimed he "embarrassed" Raynor.

"You give me a pitcher that can bring it fast to the plate, I'll get him every time." Hatcher said. "He's not that fast."

Contact Matt Brooks at 373-7047 or mbrooks@news-record.com