Friday, February 6, 2009

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.

4 comments:

Nate said...

Boz did make a completely factually correct statement though, which is in itself cause for celebration.

Steven said...

A factually accurate statement presented completely out of context to support a completely wrong assertion... boy, we are really reaching for things to feel good about.

Nate said...

[B]oy, we are really reaching for things to feel good about.

Just wait 'til the season starts!

Mike said...

[Dunn] should be a DH.

Given his abysmal defense -- for which I have heretofore failed to account as I should -- I cannot in conscience disagree. And that, I'm afraid, will (or, at any rate, ought to) give the Halos the edge.