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00:00Remember, you know what I thought coming out of today?
00:03And great to see the assembled media.
00:06I will tell you this, there was a little bit
00:10of a buzz in the room.
00:11There was an excitement.
00:12And this is not a room that was filled with fans.
00:15Sure, a lot of the people there worked
00:16for the San Francisco Giants, so they're excited.
00:19But even the media, like there's just one of those things.
00:22When you walk into a room, what's the feel?
00:25I can remember being in the room
00:27the day that they hired Gabe Kopler.
00:29And the feeling in the room was.
00:32It was anger, yeah.
00:33I'm not comfortable with this.
00:35And like question one, two, three, and four was like,
00:37so about that pass with the Dodgers.
00:39Totally.
00:40You know what I mean?
00:41And then you have various Farhan press conferences
00:44at different times throughout the last six years.
00:47And you walk into a room and there's a vibe, right?
00:49After 107 wins, you walk in and everybody's peacocking.
00:53And then a couple of years later, you walk in
00:55and you're like, what the hell's going on around here?
00:57I'm like, why does that guy not have a job?
01:00And this guy has a job or whatever.
01:02You walked into the room today
01:04and everybody was just smiling.
01:07Giddy.
01:08It felt like everybody had just taken a shower
01:10after a hike.
01:12Right.
01:13That's the best way I can describe it.
01:14It's not like, okay, we're done, everything's wonderful.
01:18But that's how it felt.
01:19You sit down on the couch with a drink
01:22after a shower, after a long hike.
01:25When you take your shoes off that first time
01:28and you have to peel your socks off
01:30and then your feet are like, ah, starting to cool off.
01:33And then slowly you hop in the shower
01:36and after that first 60 seconds of rinse,
01:38you're like, oh my God.
01:40Yeah, I didn't realize how dirty I was.
01:42So that's how it felt walking in.
01:43That's a good call, I'm gonna give you a four.
01:46And then Buster's first few comments
01:47I think are gonna land well with fans,
01:49which to me, I would summarize by saying,
01:52look, we need good baseball players.
01:56Really good baseball players who will create memories
01:58for you and your family.
01:59I thought that was a great way to start the whole thing.
02:02But then after that, the rest of the way,
02:05and this is not a bad thing.
02:07This should have been expected.
02:08He's 37 years old.
02:10And at least if you listen to him tell the story,
02:13he essentially thought of this as an idea
02:16about four or five weeks ago.
02:17He's 37?
02:19He's 37 years old.
02:20Oh my God, he's a baby.
02:21He's a little pup.
02:22He should still be playing.
02:23He's a cute little thing and maybe he will.
02:26Pete Rose, rest in peace, played till he was 45.
02:29Buster, what are you doing?
02:3037.
02:31Yeah.
02:3237 years old.
02:33Quitter.
02:34So.
02:34Sorry.
02:35So then the rest of the press conference happened
02:39and I went, oh my gosh.
02:41I love that you just called him a pup.
02:43Buster Posey is the Bryce Eldridge of baseball executives.
02:49And so the excitement is warranted.
02:52The good feelings, the good vibes, it's all warranted.
02:56I think the optimistic predictions, they are warranted.
03:00But make no mistake, he's green.
03:02Green.
03:04Now that is a green banana.
03:07As far as this role is concerned.
03:10And he's Buster, so he's not gonna just go out there
03:12and be like, all right, we need a short stop.
03:15Like that's never the way he's been.
03:17So I get why his answers didn't sound like that.
03:20But as you got deeper into the conversation,
03:22there's a lot of answers that he either doesn't have yet
03:25or he's not willing to share yet.
03:27And that is because I think you could feel
03:30that Buster's like, look, we're taking this job
03:33and then we got a lot of things to learn here
03:37and figure out in the next few months.
03:39I don't think they tried to hide that.
03:40That's a good thing.
03:42But fans should also know that.
03:43Buster is not gonna come into this all seasoned
03:47as if he's built franchises before.
03:50And he hasn't.
03:51And so really what it comes down to
03:53is what Tim Roy might call a delegation sensation.
03:57Because as the president of the baseball ops,
04:02you need to surround yourself with good people.
04:04And he said already,
04:06what's the first thing you're gonna do?
04:07Well, I'm gonna look to hire a GM
04:10and I'm gonna get off the phone here.
04:12I'm gonna get off the stage today
04:14and I'm gonna go out and find candidates
04:16and start interviews and find my right-hand man or woman.
04:21I think he said girl, but he meant person.
04:24Man or woman, doesn't matter.
04:26Somebody with real GM experience.
04:29So he's gonna find that person.
04:30Then you're gonna look for scouting
04:32and you're gonna look at what you wanna do
04:33with your scouting department.
04:34And it seems to him that scouting is more important
04:38than maybe it was for Farhan Zaidi.
04:40I don't know what the scouting was like.
04:41I do know that he recently fired four scouts
04:45within the last month.
04:46And so it sounds like Buster Posey's
04:49more interested in scouting than the previous regime.
04:52So you hire a GM, you look at scouting,
04:55you figure out what you can do
04:56to get your talent evaluation better.
04:59And then you set about looking at this roster.
05:02And then you get into the off season,
05:03which will be in about a month
05:04after the baseball playoffs are over
05:06and you make decisions about your players
05:09and you look at other players
05:10and then the winter meetings and all the rest of it.
05:12So I love what he said about approaching it
05:15the way he did as a player, which is day-to-day.
05:18So today is October 1st.
05:20What can he do today to advance his franchise,
05:25advance his cause as the new Pobo?
05:27Well, this is one of the questions that was thrown to him.
05:31And it was, I think, as things were developing,
05:34it was a question in the room of like,
05:35okay, you're in charge, you want to hire a GM quickly.
05:39Like, are you down in the clubhouse most days?
05:43Are you going on every road trip?
05:45Are you on the plane?
05:46Are you making every decision
05:49or are you handing some of that stuff off?
05:52So that was asked of him.
05:54Here's what he said.
05:55I think that remains to be seen.
05:57Again, I mentioned empowering.
05:59We're going to bring in a GM.
06:01And I think once that comes in,
06:02some of the delegation will take shape a little bit more.
06:05I want to be as useful as I can
06:09to be with all the people that I'm working with,
06:11but also having in mind and understanding
06:13that it's somewhat of a delicate balancing act
06:17to where I don't want to be the type of leader
06:19that is constantly feeling like somebody's,
06:21I'm looking over somebody's shoulder as well.
06:22So I think a lot of that is going to be handled
06:25over these next weeks, month,
06:27as we start to have more conversations
06:29and get synced up more.
06:31So I think what you can hear there is, for instance,
06:34this is almost like Kyle Shanahan
06:37hiring an offensive coordinator.
06:39That's what Farhan did with Pete Pattila.
06:41Oh, Pete Pattila's the GM.
06:43And then you never heard his name ever again.
06:45That's a good call.
06:45Kyle Shanahan hiring an offensive coordinator.
06:48We know who's in charge.
06:50Buster Posey's actually going to have
06:51an offensive coordinator.
06:54And you mentioned man or woman.
06:55I'll tell you, one of the very first names
06:57that comes to mind is Kim Ng,
06:59who is no longer with the Florida or Miami Marlins,
07:01whatever you want to call them.
07:03She is tremendous.
07:05She is sharp.
07:06She is experienced.
07:07She has had the role.
07:08That, I think, would be...
07:10And I think there are a few names out there
07:12that are interesting to me.
07:13That's just one of them.
07:14But that kind of a GM,
07:17like actually a GM.
07:19Right, somebody who knows baseball,
07:21somebody who's been in baseball,
07:22and somebody who can oversee
07:24all parts of an organization from scouting,
07:27roster management, salary management,
07:30and all the rest of it,
07:31and somebody that Buster Posey can lean on
07:33for their expertise.
07:34Because you mentioned it,
07:36Buster Posey comes in with no experience, zero,
07:39other than coming in and making
07:41the Matt Chapman deal happen,
07:43and whether or not he played a huge role in it,
07:46it seems like he stepped in at the last minute
07:48and talked to Matt Chapman and said,
07:50you want to be here?
07:51We want you here.
07:53Let's do this.
07:53And so he kind of closed that deal
07:55based on the reports that I've heard.
07:57And so that might have been his first act,
08:00but the fact that Matt Chapman is here,
08:03Matt Chapman is probably as close to a guy
08:07as Buster Posey as there is on this team.
08:10I mean, a guy who's going to show up every day,
08:12a good solid dude,
08:13somebody who loves baseball,
08:16plays it the right way.
08:17So I'm looking for Buster to build this franchise,
08:20build this organization in the model of himself
08:24and Matt Chapman.
08:25Okay, so that's a fun question, by the way.
08:28Yeah.
08:29And I know the media and Scott Boras
08:31sparred over who signed Matt Chapman.
08:34Right.
08:35Well, let's put a couple puzzle pieces together
08:37on some things that I heard today.
08:38Matt Chapman's new extension was signed
08:41on September 5th.
08:42Obviously, that means there had been discussion
08:45leading up to September 5th.
08:46We also heard it came together rather quickly.
08:48So maybe, I don't know,
08:49go back about a couple of weeks before that,
08:51but September 5th is when it was signed.
08:55I sat next to Greg Johnson.
08:57This was after the whole press conference was over.
09:00Because everybody splits off and-
09:02Totally.
09:02One of those today.
09:03Well, it goes to their corners.
09:04And I eavesdropped on Greg Johnson talking-
09:08You eavesdropped on SOP.
09:10Yeah, I was part of the assembled group.
09:12You're hustling.
09:13And Kawakami asked him,
09:16when did this become a thing?
09:17Because everyone's like, oh, Farhan, are they gonna,
09:20like, when did they decide?
09:21When was Buster Posey gonna become the guy?
09:24Greg Johnson goes, about a month ago.
09:28About a month ago.
09:29Today's October 1st.
09:30So what's about a month ago?
09:32A month ago would be about September 1st.
09:34Look at you, puzzle pieces.
09:36Matt Chapman was signed on September 5th.
09:38So who signed the deal?
09:40Farhan was already gone.
09:41I'm gonna call you Rubik's Cube.
09:43It's not that complex.
09:44I didn't really do much there.
09:46No, that was impressive.
09:47You brought it home.