Statz: “You ever read Moneyball? The numbers don’t lie.”

“Yeah, we’ve already got Ha-Seong Kim at short,” acknowledges Padres game-analysis guru Sam Statz when asked about the Padres’ offseason spending spree. “And yeah, when [Fernando] Tatis gets back from suspension, we’ll have two shortstops. And yeah, now that we’ve picked up [Xander] Bogaerts, we’ve got one, two, count ‘em, three shortstops. What of it? We didn’t go to the NLCS this year by playing the way we’ve always played. And we’re not going to get to the World Series next year by playing the way anyone’s always played. Are we going to give up a certain number of hits by going without a right fielder and third baseman? You be we are. But I’ve crunched the numbers into a fine powder, then snorted that powder and crunched them again but harder this time, and I’m here to tell you: whatever we give up is going to be nothing compared to what we gain. This is how we win.”