I'm not a big fan of any defensive stats based on observers arbitrarily deciding whether a ball was hit in a fielder's zone, which wipes out a majority of the sabermetric fielding stats.
One stat I have found to be accurate is "Total Fielding Runs Above Average per 1,250 Innings" (more commonly known as "Rtot/yr"). The statistical calculation makes logical sense, and the results are very consistent with perceived defensive value.
Here's Damon's past 3 seasons in Rtot/yr as a LF. The exact median for a position is 0, and +5/-5 is usually about the threshold where you can say a player was good or bad.
2007 - 10.22008 - 26.42009 - 6.7
For his career, Damon is a -4.0 as a CF and a 11.5 as a LF. This would seem to support the assertions that Damon was a below average defensive CF, but an above average (though declining) defensive LF.
I'm personally against the M's signing Damon because of his offense. The speed/instinct players age the worst, and Damon's power production was a result of the new Yankee stadium (.288/.380/.509 at home, .269/.332/.444 on the road). For his age 36 season in Safeco, I think we'd be looking at a very strong possibility for a .750 OPS type season.
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On another note related to Rtot/yr, I needed to put together a list of the MLB CF's in this stat for another discussion. Surprisingly, this stat suggests Gutierrez is not only a strong defensive CF, but the best in baseball by a wide margin.
Player: 2009 Rtot/yr, Career Rtot/yr Carlos Beltran: 11.2, 6.6 **2008 Marlon Byrd: 1.5, -1.3 Melky Cabrera: -12.4, 5.4 Mike Cameron: 5.2, 7.6 Jacoby Ellsbury: -8.6, -1.9 Dexter Fowler: -14.7, -15.0 Kosuke Fukudome: -1.6, -6.9 Curtis Granderson: 3.5, 3.9 Franklin Gutierrez: 25.4, 24.8 Tony Gwynn Jr.: -13.7, -10.0 Josh Hamilton: -1.1, 5.9 **2008Torii Hunter: 13.8, -2.3Adam Jones: 3.1, 10.0Matt Kemp: 4.2, -0.4 Mark Kotsay: -7.4, 0.5 **2008 Nook Logan: 8.6, 10.3 Nate McLouth: -2.1, -5.5 Cody Ross: -13.6, -4.4 Aaron Rowand: 3.2, 4.6 Grady Sizemore: 8.2, 7.3 B.J. Upton: 6.5, 12.1 Shane Victorino: -6.9, 1.2 Vernon Wells: -9.9, -0.9 Chris Young: -0.5, -5.7
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