Doing the impossible

Buster Posey, LinkedIn influencer

Buster Posey • 3rd+Premium
President of Baseball Operations @SFGiants | Baseball Leadership Making Memories Director @SFGiants | 2d

2 days ago • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn

Greg Johnson: “Buster, how fast do you think you can fill out a pitching staff, and have them in the organization?”

He wanted me to staff up both a rotation and a bullpen.

I ran through the execution:

- How many interviews do I need to execute to get 4 quality people?
- - At least 40 roster meetings.
- - Probably 100 15-minute disqualifying scouting sessions
- - Probably 200 interested applications from agents on behalf of their clients
- Once I find them, they need to be convinced to come to San Francisco despite the high state taxes and intensely mediocre team.

Me: “Realistically I can get it done in 3 months.”

Greg Johnson: “I want you do to it in 30 days.”

Me: “That is impossible.”

Greg Johnson: (leaning in a looking me directly in my eye) “Great, there is no competition when you do the impossible.”

Me: “Okay then.” 😬

I worked my ass off and after 30 days I had 4 new pitchers in our organization that had been through medical checks and onboarding. Did these pitchers have some warts? Sure, but the important thing is that they signed early, filling out our roster like Mr. Greg Johnson had asked me to do.

The pitchers were drinking the protein shakes I’d purchased, using the training equipment I’d authorized, in the Papago facility I took over, while following the training processes I’d built.

I think about that conversation almost weekly.

Had he not pushed me like that then there is no way I would have gone for it and gotten 4 people in 30 days.

It is constant reminder to me about how limiting it is to be trapped by our own mindset and sense of what is reasonable.

Jason Foley will be injured for at least the first half of 2025, but you can’t let that limit you.

Impossible doesn’t mean that it is impossible.

It just means that no one has done it yet.

So why not be the first one?

Because,

There really is no competition when you do the impossible. 🔥 🔥 🔥