DAVE CAMERON, who runs the baseball statistics website FanGraphs, has "accepted a position with the Padres" and will serve as a senior analyst in the team's research and development department, according to Dennis Lin of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Cameron starts next week and will "communicate with the various levels of baseball operations, bringing an outsider’s view while gaining knowledge of a franchise’s inner workings." Cameron said, "There’s a lot of stuff that from a public perspective we don’t have access to. There’s a lot of guys with the Padres that see the game in a different way and have a lot to add that I don’t see." Lin notes Padres Exec VP & GM A.J. PRELLER "initially called to gauge Cameron's interest," and Cameron then met with manager ANDY GREEN last month at the winter meetings. Cameron "will split time between San Diego and Oregon." Cameron "emerged as one of the online community’s prominent voices over the last decade." He previously wrote for Baseball Prospectus, ESPN, Fox Sports and The Wall Street Journal (SANDIEGOUNIONTRIBUNE.com, 1/10).
