Fair question ... but, do you read Fangraphs or USSM?
Every time there is a statement a la "the correct salary for Raul Ibanez was at most $5m per year, but the Phillies paid $10.5m, per, making this one of the worst overpays of the decade"-- as was in fact adjudged with Ibanez' Philadelphia contract --
This incorporates the assumption that UZR's assessment of -14 runs per season must be included in the "correct" evaluation of him. (14 runs = $5-6m of value per season).
EVERY time a fangraphs or USSM author "calculates" an overpay, and bashes the GM for his stupidity, the UZR values are the basis.
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The culture of UZR-is-the-intelligent-basis-of-valuation is what permeates discussions around the blog-o-sphere ... and leads to the "why do I even have to mention this; science solved it years ago" comments that Mike Carp and Carlos Peguero will obviously give back any offensive runs with their gloves. (But they are tolerated at the moment, only because the M's are BELOW RLP at so many positions.)
Every time you read "a run saved is as good as a run scored", that means "the third column on this chart is as valid as the first one."
Straw man? UZR dogma is the monster that ate Cleveland. :- )
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You can google examples as well as I can, so will leave that to you, but we've already been through this to the tune of 10's of 1000's of words here at SSI, bro'. You can site-search KGaffney's comments on the subject for a start.
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True, lately the opposing army has been retreating from foxhole to foxhole, due to incoming fire such as Raul Ibanez' fluctuating UZR's following their condemnation of his contract.
Nowadays you hear a lot of hedging along the lines of "well, maybe it takes at least 3-4 years' worth of UZR to get a reliable fix." This retreat is in large part due to sites like SSI that opposed the superficial GM-bashing and the UZR dogma that underlaid it.
Fair Q. Hope that answers it.
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