Boz Leaves Me No Choice but to Pile On

I've picked on Boz more than my fair share, and one of my new year's resolutions was to try to find a way to appreciate the guy, since a lot of people do seem to respect his long-view knowledge of the game, writing ability, basic love of baseball. I was a little tempted to post about his latest abuses of cherry-picked stats to back his argument to sign Adam Dunn (a position I have advocated since the start of the off-season), but then Harper did it for me, and I was back resolved to be charitable to ol' Boz.

But then, in yesterday's chat, in the middle of his latest completely over-the-top, hagiographic Dunn-inspired orgy, we get this:

Also, on defense, Dunn has slightly above-average career range factor numbers at both LF and 1st base (128 MLB games) per 9 innings.

Let's be clear. No two ways about it. Adam Dunn is a total and complete hack in the field. If Clint's charisma could be rendered as fielding performance, it would be Dunn. If you had to pick a fielder who was as bad at defense as Mike Brown was as FEMA administrator, Dunn is your man. He's terrible.

Here are his UZR/150 numbers as a LF for the last 4 seasons (this tells you the number of runs allowed above or below average the fielder is over 150 games, roughly a full defensive season since no one plays all 9 innings of 162 games):

2005: -14.7
2006: -11.0
2007: -16.3
2008: -13.5

Last year, counting the time the D'Backs foolishly stuck him in RF, his overall OF UZR/150 was -22.6. That's not a typo. That means he cost his teams more than two full games with his glove over the season while playing at the far left (easy) end of the defensive spectrum.

I could dig up the Rate2s and the PMRs and Dewan plus-minus ratings, but what's the point. They all say the same thing. Dunn is a hack in the field, and significant portion of the value of his bat is given right back in the field. He should be a DH. And Boz should retire.