Paul DePodesta

“The baseball draft is very different from the NBA or the NFL.”

“The A's were a team with very few resources. We didn't have access to players who were obviously great, who could do it all and were always in the headlines. We couldn't afford those types of players. So we had to figure out a way of cobbling together players into a team that might be competitive.”

“There aren't 32 of them in the world that I think can be quarterbacks of Super Bowl champion teams. Supply is short.”

“Oftentimes the easy decision and comfortable decision is not the right one.”

“Scouts, by and large, are very industrious, very passionate and very loyal guys.”

“Moneyball' doesn't have anything to do with on-base percentage or statistics. It's a constant investigation of stagnant systems, to see if you can find value where it isn't readily apparent.”

“A philosophy is important so that everyone is on the same page and there's a consistency of message.”

“It's up to a manager to understand his players.”

“Baseball ultimately is a drama without a script. It's the original reality TV.”

“Even teams that win 110 games have stretches when they don't play well.”

“Cleveland and football have always held a special place in my heart.”

“If I play my home games in Coors Field, I'm probably not going to be doing a whole lot of bunting. If I play my home games in Petco Park or Dodger Stadium, it's probably going to be a more valuable tool.”

“The nice thing about baseball is that all of the possible outcomes are known - it's not quite as messy as the real world. That makes the game an excellent playground for probability.”

“Look, I loved working in baseball.”

“I played football in college and what I really wanted to do was be a football coach.”

“In disciplines as disparate as baseball, financial services, trucking and retail, people are realizing the power of data to help make better decisions.”

“Whether baseball or football, we're tasked in front offices with making decisions under uncertainty. How do you corral that uncertainty in a way to make more consistently better decisions? That's very similar.”

“I got into baseball, and everyone just started calling me a geek, like, 'There's the nerd from Harvard.' Then it took 20 years of working in baseball and me actually leaving and going to football for people to say, 'He's the baseball guy.' So maybe at some point I'll be known as a football guy too.”

“I think the hardest part, and where we have to stay the most disciplined, as much as you want a player, you can't invent him if he doesn't exist.”

“Admittedly, there will be an awful lot for me to learn, but I want nothing more than to help bring consistent, championship caliber football back to Cleveland.”