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M.T. Karthik

~ midcareer archive, 1977 – 2017 plus 2022

M.T. Karthik

Tag Archives: best

The Trade Deadline Was Smart and Effective Use of The SF Giants System Under Sabean, Boch, and Evans

02 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by mtk in Commentary, SFG Off Day Posts

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3B, baseball, baseman, best, Bochy, Bruce, cain, Casey, coach, coaching, Cody, deadline, duffy, Francisco, giants, Hudson, hunter, Jake, marco, matt, McGehee, mlb, Moore, Pabl, Peavy, pence, pitchers, Romo, Ross, Ryan, San, Sandoval, scutaro, Sergio, sf, smith, staff, theriot, third, Tim, trade, Will

A lot of fans were emotional yesterday upon hearing the news the SF Giants had traded Matt Duffy, but I was surprised long-time fan Grant Brisbee was among them – he practically wept. I figured old guys like us were used to the business of baseball and would leap to the evaluation of the statistics of the swap – which he did of course, through his tears.

Me, I found the trade an excellent use of a system we’ve developed with great effort and the right balance of stats and human evaluation in the near-decade since Barry Lamar stalked off into the sunset of post-Giants life.

Sure, I’ll miss Matt Duffy, but he only played for us for two years. It was an intense and impressive couple of years because he had to step into Pablo Sandoval’s big shoes, but I don’t grow that attached to players that fast no matter who they are. It takes me a while to want to make someone “untouchable,” as Posey and Bumgarner are.

Actually, I can remember when fans – terrified about the absence of Panda and failure of McGehee – wanted to trade Matt Duffy for a “real third baseman,” in his rookie year.

And speaking of Panda – a home grown third baseman who was with us through three World Series wins and instrumental in at least one – I do and will miss the Pablo we all loved: an incredible Giant, with huge personality, beloved for his simple, crazy humanity.

Besides, I know Matt Duffy has a long career ahead of him and will excel wherever he plays. I will be watching this guy for a few years to come and heck, he could end up back with us with the way the business of baseball works.

We have done what we set out to do. We have grown our talent at home and added missing pieces to create championship teams, not once, but thrice in the last six years. It has been a stunning achievement, and I think a lot of fans have taken the subtle moves for granted.

It was inevitable that at least one or two or even some of all this home grown talent would have to be used as chips to gain the missing pieces needed. In this case we gave up a lot to get the specific missing elements of our pitching staff, and I for one, am glad we had the guts and aggressiveness to go all-in.

I do not know if Matt Moore and Will Smith are the answer, but I DO know that once they get in Buster Posey’s capable hands for the month of August they’re likely to be much better prepared for a championship run than they have ever been in their lives.

What the Giants have done these last six years is almost unheard of in the modern era. We have kept our coaching staff intact, core players aboard in Posey, Bumgarner, Cain, Lopez and Romo. Turned homegrown talent such as The Brandons, Crawford and Belt, into All-Stars and snagged and locked-up Hunter Pence.

We managed Angel Pagan and Gregor Blanco in balance with rotating OFs. We squeezed the last bits of greatness from Cody Ross, Marco Scutaro, Ryan Theriot, Jake Peavy and Tim Hudson.

We’ve had great coaching at farm club levels resulting in consistently good play from rookies and newcomers to the team. Bruce Bochy is a first-ballot Hall of Fame Manager at this point, and his staff, again mostly intact (MISS YOU, FLAN!) are an amazing group.

If we had rested on our laurels and not made a trade for the essential relief and starting pitching support we needed, I’m not sure we could beat this year’s Cubs. Now I feel we have a legitimate shot not only to achieve that in Bochy vs. Maddon I, but go on to win it all.

Matt, you were a great Giant and that is what made you valuable and in-demand. We will miss you and I wish you all the best in Tampa. I am confident you will excel. I hear you are returning to SS and it must be cool to be with your Dirtbag mentor, Evan Longoria. Enjoy yourself and knock ’em dead.

Meanwhile, turning back to August …

Welcome aboard Matt Moore and Will Smith. Get your gear from Murph, perk up and pay attention. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND LISTENING TO BUSTER POSEY.

Let’s all pull it together and go out there and Even-Year-the-Shit-Outta-This-Thing.

Go Giants,

Love,

MTK

 

I Concede. I’d Rather You Awesome Guys Just Go Out and Enjoy Some Games

20 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by mtk in Uncategorized

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Tags

baseball, best, champions, corner, fading, Francisco, giants, Karthik, League, major, mlb, moments, mtk, National, nl, San, series, sf, world

Go out and have fun.

It’s a shame the season turned out like it did, but not really.

After a weird-bad opening we OWNED May, June swooned, badassed July, and had the bottom fall out in August – injuries.

But there are so many reasons to be proud.

Special Thank You to @Madison05587725 Bumgarner #MadBum You make us all want to play hard,work hard and win. Never Change #TheLegendOfMadbum

Thank you @bcraw35 for quietly having your most outstanding season yet. Love your laid-back, get-it-done style. You are the #NLGoldGlove SS.

Wow! What a ride you young guys gave us! Thanks! @kelbytomlinson, @JoshOsich and especially @JoePanik and @mm_duffy for outstanding play!

Thanks for great stuff this season (good quotes, AlPav) @AlexPavlovic @hankschulman(Get Well, Hank) @extrabaggs @baseballmarty @JohnSheaHey

I really wish, Aoki-san, we could’ve gotten you, Marlon @mjbsr6 and @MikeLeake44 a World Series Championship ring. Thanks to all. @sfgiants

Thank you vets @MikeLeake44, Nori Aoki, @JakePeavy_44, Tim Hudson and especially Marlon Byrd @mjbsr6 for joining our team, giving your all.

Thank you @kelbytomlinson, @JoePanik, @JoshOsich and especially @mm_duffy for outstanding play from rookie/first year @sfgiants @knbr @mlb

Well, we will have won half of the last six world series after this one is played. I’d like to see the Cubs take it all. #Maddon #OddYear

Believe We Can Win Back-To-Back World Series with Champs Blood

09 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by mtk in Commentary

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Tags

#championshipblood #champsblood, back, back-to-back, baseball, believe, best, can, champions, championship, commentary, corner, giants, Karthik, mlb, mtk, series, sf, to, win, world

Sigh. At this moment we’ve lost three of four games in Chicago and are down 2-0 in the last.

Last night, Brian Murphy, typically, doomsaid in the towel;

but our pitching is a hot mess from starters to the ‘pen and losing Joe Panik has sent our batting order round the bend. It’s an odd year and we look cooked. So Brian took to roasting the team.

This was the day after George Kontos muted me on twitter for sending a tweet saying the ‘pen has to tighten up … I suggested maybe we should all go out and throw darts together.

Yo, George! I meant it seriously! as a stimulant, let’s go to a bar and throw some darts in a few friendly competitive rounds of “cricket” to get the juices flowing – a little less oversensitivity and a little more performance appreciated, kid. It isn’t just sixteen-year-old girls who like your hair out here. It’s also long-time Giants fans who have seen a LOT of relievers come and go. I like you, man. You’ve improved a lot. But don’t get your panties in a wad when I beg you and your pals to focus and play better.

Anyway, let’s put all that aside. Because this bad mojo and weird vibage needs to fall away.

I say we’ve been here before and we can defeat The Odd Year Curse because we have the talent and we have the experience and our management knows what they’re doing.

Bochy

We’re only missing the timing.

and I think that’s starting to come together even as we make mistakes. Roberto Kelly at 3rd has been a learning experience, but I think he has climbed that steep curve swiftly. Same can be said for Cain. Everybody keeps dogging the big horse, but I see a work-in-recovery-in-progress. He knows the game. He is still hitting 92 occasionally. He can peak in September for all we know.

Jake Peavy, already looking better generally, may come through like he did last year at this time. He is way better than we expected when he came off the DL.

In 2010, we went through this game in August against the Reds and it was a seriously low point for the team. REALLY READ the entire blog entry of that  game. I wrote it in one fell swoop after the game happened and I think you’ll feel it. At that moment we were severely sunk. And what we did from that game on, was epic.

I am pretty sure the Sabean/Bochy private meeting with the guys that Brian Murphy refers to in his post happened immediately after that particular game. I am trying to get you someplace we have been before but with DEPTH.

Now in the 2012 season we faced the departure of Melky Cabrera. We were at the game almost exactly three years ago when it was announced Melky had tested positive and would be gone. Woah, what a weird vibe. Lincecum vs. Strasburg at AT&T. There were Milkmen and Milkmaids at the game … dressed! They were selling hats!

But again, everybody said after Melky was gone we couldn’t do it. And we swept the Tigers in epic style, with Panda’s three including two off Verlander and Cain outdueling Scherzer and my favorite closeout ever: Sergio Romo’s fastball – NOT SLIDER – getting Miguel Cabrera looking … ohhhhhhhhh, god … that is nice.

2014 came with it’s own challenges, but we were full strength and with Panda and Madbum and Posey and Cain and the whole machine working. Out here in the Bay, we knew what nobody in the country knew – that these guys have #ChampionshipBlood.

Ishikawa had to go yard. Panik had to draw that 9th inning walk so we could go nine more innings and finally win off the Belt homer in the top of the 18th. It all had to happen. For the rest of the country it was hard to chew and swallow. But we knew we’re the best.

We are the best TEAM around. We play as a team and we pick each other up. Every other night another hero. #25GuysOneCommonGoal

So there we were without home field advantage and we had to be the bad guys by beating the darlings of the nation in their house. We sent Madbum out there to handle it. He mowed ’em down in epic fashion.

(btw, Peavy’s still in and it’s still 2-0 Cubs in the 4th)

It would be easy to give up to the odd-year phenomenon. I say, don’t.

The National League is intensely competitive this year and the Mets, Nationals, Dodgers, Cardinals, Cubs, Pirates and others beat each other up as much as they beat us up; so anything can still happen. We gotta play smart, stay healthy, and win the right ones.

I think Bochy and upper management are staring intensely at the health and well-being of guys and trying to get ahead of that process. The absence of Joe Panik in Chicago this week speaks to that. (I even got to a point where I thought, maybe Boch doesn’t want Maddon to even see Panik – we do have to face them again this month after all).

So because of all this intense competition, we can win the division. I will repeat that: We can win the division. I’ve been using the hashtag #SeizeTheDivision because once we grab it we cannot let go.

I think if we field Aoki, Panik, Duffy, Posey, Pence, Belt, Crawford, Blanco and Maxwell.

And if we have Bumgarner, Heston, Peavy and Cain as starters and Kontos, Affeldt, Lopez, Osich, Vogey, Romo, Strickland and Lincecum as relievers

by August 20th.

And if those guys, are supported by Pagan and Hudson, Susac and Sanchez … we can spend the last six weeks of the season actually winning this thing.

I believe in that group of guys for the last six weeks, but the math has it that we play the Cubs again, and the Pirates, the Nationals, the Cardinals TWICE (who are due for some losses) and the Astros this next few weeks. So it may not happen right off.

This is the worst stretch of our schedule. All we have to do is what Rich Aurilia said and go .500 during this stretch to stay in the mix.

I think this year the NL is going to come down to the wire like in 2011 when the Cardinals went crazy and the Red Sox tanked and we all watched four TVs on the last night of the season.

and I think if we are smart we can take advantage of that. We can time Bumgarner right because we have lots of starters. We can sneak wins in when they matter most in the last few weeks of the season by juggling our talent.

We can do this.

I believe.

Let’s Go Giants!

Let’s win Back-to-Back and be a true #SFDynasty Tighten up, play the game right and with 25 Guys sharing One Common Goal, let’s Win Today!

It is the 7th inning in today’s final game at Wrigley and we are still down 2-0, so while I was writing this it sounds like Jake Peavy after giving up the initial coupla runs settled down and Arrieta is rolling along. I don’t know. I do know we can prey on a bullpen with only a two-run deficit and I do know that I love our community and I hope you all read this and believe we can do this. We can win back-to-back. We can turn all this around on a dime and take over.

BECAUSE WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIEND.

AND WE’LL KEEP ON FIGHTING TILL THE END.

Let’s go Giants!

Hearty Congrats to Hot Joy! Bon Appétit! Top 10 Best New

19 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by mtk in food

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Tags

appetit, award, best, bon, congratulations, done, felicidades, felicitations, Hot, Joy, new, reservations, restaurants, ten, top, well

DSCN6718

(photo: OMM)

Heartiest congratulations to Hot Joy restaurant for being named by Bon Appétit one of the Ten Best New Restaurants of 2014.

Immediate Thoughts:

1. Wow! (PROUD)

2. cannot wait to come and dine!

3. assume reservations are going to be nutty for a while …

4. check site: yup.

(from Hot Joy’s site)

We stop taking same-day reservations at 3 p.m.

In an effort to keep things together, we only accept reservations via email: info@hotjoysa.com.

For dinner reservations, we accept requests up until 3pm of that day, but we do save half of our restaurant for walk-in customers, and the bar is always first come first serve. For lunch reservations, we accept requests up until 7pm the day before. Menu link

(click the menu link for the current menu at one of the best new restaurants in the nation)

But, Hot Joy! wow! well done! I will look at calendar and book a seat sooooooooon. cannot wait!

Home In San Antone bows.

personal bests, bowling

01 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by mtk in North Oakland, our son, performance

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

best, bowling, Karthik, milan, mtk, ocean, omm, personal, scores

MTKpersonalbest

 

OMM personalbest

The Major League Baseball All Star Game

11 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by mtk in baseball, S.F.

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Tags

#asg, all, bases, best, cabrera, cain, first, game, home, Karthik, League, loaded, major, matt, melky, mlb, mtk, MVP, pablo, run, Sandoval, star, triple

The San Francisco Giants OWNed major league baseball’s All-Star Game.

Our pitcher started, was best and got the win (Matt Cain),

our big bat (Pablo Sandoval) got the only triple with bases loaded ever scored in the history of the All Star Game, scoring three,

the first of whom was our best hitter for average (Melky Cabrera) who won the MVP going 2 for 3, with 2 runs and 2 RBI, had the game’s only HR, and was the first and last man across home plate.

Together We’re Giant

M.T. Karthik

This blog archives early work of M.T. Karthik, who took every photograph and shot all the video here unless otherwise credited.

Performances and installations are posted by date of execution.

Writing appears in whatever form it was originally or, as in the case of poems or journal entries, retyped faithfully from print.

all of it is © M.T. Karthik

a minute of rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYLHNRS8ik4

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