John Shea digs deep into the complex world of the SF Giants ownership group as fans ask, "Who is responsible?"

0:00the lead. Swing and there's a high drive into deep left field way back goes Torres at the one and track at the wall. Harriott. Spill on. Left field toward left setter and well back into the bleachers. That's an impressive opposite field home run by Bryce Eldridge to give the Giants a one nothing lead. The great John Miller. Bryce Eldridge continues to give you hope with that op-o taco last night and the Giants go for the sweep this afternoon right here on the sports leader will have award winning diamond notes in the such at about 1145. Join by the great John Shay you've got to see his latest in the SF standard it is figuring out the hierarchy of a Giants ownership and it wasn't easy really great read you should check it out right now. John is sponsored by good friends at Friedman's appliance proudly serving all of Northern California with a wide selection of luxury appliances visit them in Pleasant Hill to see

1:01the Friedman's difference and by our good friends at Sir side it's not a Celtser it's Sir side proud partner of the Giants as John Shay says here at John Shay. Hey who owns the San Francisco Giants the answer is more complicated than you think months and months of work and it is a great piece but that's what you expect out of the great John Shay and he joins us now courtesy of the we guess line. How are you? Hey great John hey thanks for the plug man. Man I loved it I was like I you know you think you know and then you don't know and I mean I had a general idea but then like you said there's there's so many layers to this whole thing. I don't know if you can explain the piece and when fell swoop but maybe what did you learn about ownership that maybe you didn't know before. Well no thanks I mean we went in to kind of tackle the evolution of the Giants ownership group which is 34 years in the making from the gathering that got together to keep the team in San Francisco after the league president Bill Whiten all the national league owners

2:06including the O'Malley's in LA said no we ain't allowing this team to move to Florida for the 93 season so this new group of San Francisco based investors came in and next thing you know very bond showed up and Dusty is the manager and they they go from a horrible team bound for Florida to a team that 103 1.6 million to 2.6 million in attendance overnight and from that group of 18 initial investors 10 still remain in other words either the original folks or the air slash families of those folks. So 10 still remain but that 18 member partnership is now 36 and includes private equity and includes Buster Posey and includes another fellow Richard Chavitch who I did a Q&A with that's now online he's one of the newer investors though he's not private equity as much as it's just

3:10a kind of family money. Back then to be short here and explain the investors invested to save the team and now investors are investing not to save the team because the team was saved many decades ago but to make money that's what private equity is about they have no power in the structure of ownership but they do supply capital to allow them to upgrade the ballpark or whatever and it's it's we did kind of a family tree as well with within the story that kind of explained who was there originally who remains and who is new and the percentage of the shares and it was wonderful project to be involved with at the standard because I did interview quite a few of the investors which you don't you know normally see and whether it's the Sassakala family or the Nibb family or the buyer family or David Jenkins and also Busser Posey who kind of explained how this board of directors works

4:17and his part in it the business side the baseball side and how many times a year they need and what they talk about and they deal there for him and as he says he spends 99% of his time as president of baseball operation and 1% on the board because that's kind of where his focus is especially during the season and and kind of how perspective players are brought up and addressed and suggested to the board and whose chairman is Greg Johnson so we go through the history of the board the history of the frontman the history of the ownership overall to the point now where okay here's a season that's not good and there have been issues including with ownership where where the fans of kind of pushback and complained and you know what's next so we we try to address everything and tackle it all it's great it's just a great piece and I encourage all Giants fans to read it and you kind

5:19of started to take us down the road that I think most fans are interested in where you point out at the top obviously it's official now the Giants will miss the playoffs in the ninth time in 10 years and everybody wants to blame Buster or Greg Johnson or whatever and you talk about this board so what is the protocol in terms of and money doesn't buy everything but what's the protocol so Buster wants to get you know a free age at this offseason or whatever the case may be and you talk about this in the piece he's got a number that's set so does he have to address the board how exactly does it work in terms of how Buster has to get things done when you have this many people involved in the decision making yeah as Buster shared obviously he and Zach Najyan the GM and the rest of the baseball operations department including the analytics folks we'll get together to devise a plan or suggest a plan or proposal and for the big money guys as opposed to the back end of the rotation you see daily transactions people waived people brought up from AAA people

6:24put on the injured list the board isn't involved with that at all I mean that's Buster and company doing all that stuff I mean you could call it Manushi you know these are people's lives but but there are daily transactions that you see with the pitching staff and the line up and everything else because there are injuries and there are collabs and there are waivers and everything like but for the big decisions they go through Greg Johnson Buster and Zach present a plan they suggested and there's seven people on the board and five of those people by the way stem from the initial ownership and so there only two including Buster who were not in that first ownership group back in 92 93 so there there is you know some and you know this ownership group by the way is like top five and longest tenured in the majors you know you have the Steinbredders and the Reimstorps and you know Detroit Colorado in the Giants are right up there in terms of longest ten year so

7:31people have been around people know the history and legacy of the team but they you know do have limits restrictions I mean they're not going to have a payroll like the Dodgers nobody does and nor the deferred money because it's never been offered that way I mean if Otate came here he would have had the exact same salary and structure with his contract but but obviously he took the Dodgers and many other Japanese players followed so we're at a point now where okay this is one of the worst seasons in San Francisco history now what but the minor league system is the best it has been since a young Buster and Madison Bumgarner showed up with with short hair playing for single A and and wondering what was next in their lives and and so all these years later suddenly the farm system is fourth or fifth best in in in in the industry so what do you do you you go to the

8:37board and say I want big name creations like like Devers and a Dom as well no you're probably not going to see that but you might see some more mid-level spending I mean if you look at the free agent market it is not extremely deep and I'm talking you know beyond the big names like Tarek Scouball who who actually was raised and hayford and then then moved to Arizona with his family as a kid but that would be a nice story but I mean there are some some names that could help but you got to ask the question and I'm sure they're having these conversations you kind of pump on next season and develop or do you try to win next season and then you got to think well is next season even going to happen with the collective bargaining agreement and the expected lockout on December 1st and the labor strife to come will there be a spring training will this season start on time probably not I don't know I can't say for sure but if there's if there's

9:39any hesitation it's like hey man the major leagues won't be happening but the minor leagues will so let's not call up all these young dudes and put them on the 40 man because like the parks harbors of the world because now you're you're going to kind of burn their time and they won't be able to develop on the 40 man roster next summer keep them in the minors and let them keep playing triple A or whatever so there are a lot of conversations behind the scenes but to answer your question yeah the big money stuff the big name stuff that goes through Greg Johnson and the board that's interesting John shea is joining us at john shea hey we'll get to some giant stuff in just a second but it's got a really fascinating article right now who owns the San Francisco Giants the year answer is more complicated than you think I think if you're a giant fan you really got to read it to understand the one thing the one thing and then we'll get off of this and we'll get into some some actual giants talk but the private equity firms and you know like you said they're not they don't want to be involved in the baseball thing and they're not making decisions it's financial for them so how has because all that all the ownership groups are doing this how has private

10:43equity changed ownership because they're they're bottom line people they don't like winning losing now what where's my money I want my money out I want to make money how do how do the how does private equity change things as far as ownership is concerned right because in recent years six street arctose and thriving turn over they all bought into the giants and it's like they buy in this private equity so it's nothing they don't care about the team they don't care about the the future they don't care about anything except making money and providing capital to the teams that they imagine will invest well to to to make the organization more profitable in a long run so it's funny because those three private equity firms best in multiple teams like arctose has invested in six different clubs they have money in both the giants and Dodgers so imagine Walter O'Malley investing in the giants or for a stone them buying into the Dodgers I mean that just was never a thing until now in 2019 MLB came up with a new

11:48rule and the other leagues followed that hey you private equity could be part of multiple franchises it just can't be more than 15% within with any firm and can't be more than 30% with combined firms and also they have zero say on anything that has to do with the team including on the field and they can't be on the board of directors it's just passive money it's just money here you go we're part of the team six street bought 10% of the club so that's a lot of money when you think this club has worked four billion dollars so what what they do they provide capital and as Larry Berra explained you know this this ballpark it while you know I I still think it's new but it's what 26 27 years old and there are improvements needed and what this private equity does is provide capital so that could happen and it also helps across the way with with the mission rock complex you know so that they're also involved in in the real estate side of the of the team

12:55but but it's like that's kind of typical with a lot of these clubs now you look at the NBA the NFL or Major League Baseball you see a lot of private equity firms buying in so it's not uncommon but it's just another layer like you said of this whole story and how this ownership evolved yeah I think it's it's amazingly because like you said I mean it makes a heck of a lot of sense you're gonna invest in teams everybody sees how how much teams are going up we're seeing the Padres get sold and you know and obviously the Lakers and the NBA we're seeing teams get sold and it's always up up up up up so all of a sudden you're like oh okay and you know the angels just get sold they made a ton of money so all of a sudden you know I imagine that we're gonna see more private equity firms and that's a great piece I really enjoyed it as far as on the field is concerned what obviously Giants fans are looking for right now it's just kind of a array of sunshine and really Bryce Eldridge has been doing it all season long but all the sudden last night he hits the opposite field home run I mean he really looks legit my question is would they ever approach

14:00him like a lot of these teams speaking of you know money would they ever approach him and try to get something done and buy out his arbears well it's probably the last thing on their mind right now with the CBT you know but in a normal year of course I mean that's you know I don't I don't want to make this sound goofy or or tainted or anything but in a lot of ways the the giants are becoming like the Billy Dean A's in other words a very good farm system a lot of young players and yeah extend them through the arbears but never arbitration through the arbears but never for agency that that's what Billy Dean always did and he talked about oh yeah we could give chat men are often you know extensions through that never happened that was never gonna happen and now with the new A's under Fisher who who play and God knows where the only reason they're paying top dollar for guys is to get to a certain amount with payroll so they could get revenue sharing

15:03that's all it's about it's not about getting the team any better because the teams know better they just have they haven't figured out pitching blah blah blah but with with the giants it just seems like for the first time and ever you know fuster pay posing made all these moves at the last two trade deadlines to bring in a bunch of prospects they had the number four pit they're doing great internationally with with the top signy in consecutive years Joshua and Gonzalez and Luis Hernandez both middle infielders with San Jose opening the playoffs this week so the farm system is so much better so the future is more upbeat it's more encouraging and so some serious conversations need to be had on you know do what do we do with the CBA what do we do with with next year and do we look to 28 rather than 27 so it's pretty fascinating because they still have you know they have they have debars they have a domus they have Lee they have Chapman still under contract through all

16:05those years but they have a lot of youth coming up I mean I you know both Davidson hopefully will be the left fielder next year you know that that's something and whether they go with Jonah Cox and Drew Gilbert is a center field platoon that's looked pretty good recently Casey Schmidt will be healthy will he be the second base and you stick with jungle Lee and right field I don't think he's really tradable I don't think the teams are lining up for a guy like him but with the free agency the way it is and the industry being shut down December 1st given you only a couple of weeks a few yeah from from the five days after the final world series game till December 1st there's the only time you can sign free agents until it's all resolved who knows next next spring or whenever so it's like okay what what do you do do you do you actually think about signing these guys you know maybe they get a guy like Kevin Gossman who's who's mid 30s maybe not a great year this year

17:08but he's one of Logan Webb's allies he really looked up to him and Gossman was here and you know he would be a good maybe role model for some of these young guys I mean the Casey Mise Michael King they're all out there for Eddie Peralta then Clay Holmes maybe but mostly they need not to worry about the everyday lineup as much as the rotation and especially that bolt head I think David Bednar the older brother the Giants prospect the Yankee Closer is a free agent the blessiast the guy in that land the Braves have a left-hander who's who's a free agent Adrian more home and and you know he he could be a good clothing so and I I just think that they need a whole bunch of warm bodies and they can't they can't be restrictive that way they just need to bring a bunch of guys into spring training and figure it out because it certainly didn't work this year yeah no doubt John thank you so much I always learned a ton when we when we have you on but this is a great

18:09piece very illuminating and like I said everybody should read it but great stuff is always always love a few minutes and we'll talk to you next week okay thanks John