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M.T. Karthik

~ works, thoughts, events of 1977 – 2017

M.T. Karthik

Tag Archives: mark

GBC Reader Vol. 2, Issue 3: Thankful to Turn the Calendar Page

01 Monday May 2017

Posted by mtk in GBC Readers

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Tags

arroyo, baseball, Blach, Bochy, Bruce, Christian, compendium, corner, gbc, giants, Karthik, League, m.t., major, mark, Melancon, mlb, mtk, National, reader, sf, sfgiants, sports, Ty

The first month of the season was turbulent, chaotic and unpredictable.

MadBum ripped two home runs on Opening Day, the only pitcher in history to achieve such a feat, and we lost. We scored a bunch of runs in the next several games and lost, then we lost Skip for a coupla games and a buncha guys for more and we lost, and then we didn’t score many runs and lost.

That adds up to 17 losses and a 9-17 month of April good for dead last in the National League West. There was always some weird issue in addition to the ones we were expecting – namely LF and the bullpen – and it’s apparent nobody’s comfortable except Johnny Cueto.

BASG sighting! SB’s take on the off-field difficulties stacking up for the G-men is a good read and very relevant.

Here’s AlPav’s Slideshow of Takeaways from the Giants opening month.

Daniel Sperry at Around the Foghorn calls the Giants’ April “Bad, Really Bad” but he includes some positives.

While his colleague Justin Rodgers asks and tries to answer what it will take to turn the season around.

Christian Arroyo is the star of the week: here’s Kaila Cruz at AtF on the kid. Everybody’s looking for a nickname and I am cool with #BossBaby.

BASG also chimed in loudly in favor of the Arroyo call up and brought up how the Boss Baby and Michael Morse have brought back the fun, reminding us of some of our fun times in the recent past.

On cue, here’s Michael Morse talking to Giants baseball bats to get hits out of ’em.

Ty Blach had another great start, pointed out by Michael Wagaman.

This is a team in transition from the World Series Championship Era (2010-2014), an era that’s deceptively long because Madison Bumgarner was almost single-handedly responsible for the last Championship, winning the WC play-in game and game seven at Kaufmann Stadium for us. The Nemesis has won the division four straight years while the Giants have just managed to stay in the playoffs twice via wildcard and #MadBum.

Our attempts to stay in it while re-organizing have been a war of attrition. Since the last Championship team, we’ve lost: Pablo Sandoval and Matt Duffy at 3B; Affeldt, Casilla, Lopez, Romo and Petit from the ‘pen; Vogelsong, Zito, Lincecum, Hudson, Peavy from the starters (and Cain has been absent).

ESPN Sr. Writer David Schoenfeld expands on this thought very effectively in his piece from a couple of days ago, Spring Setbacks Thwart NL Contenders and thankfully he includes the woes of the nemesis for some pain relief.

The nemesis and the Rockies and D-Backs have been tooling to win and it’s unrealistic in the modern game to expect to just fall back into the lead. It’s almost impossible to repeat as a champion these days. (There hasn’t yet been a back-to-back WS Champ in the 21st Century).

That said, when they’re rolling we have a pretty great starting rotation. Matt Cain has looked considerably better lately and though Samardzija is struggling now, I feel it is sort of his m.o. to pick it up as the season goes on. Bum, Cueto and Moore are legit playoff starters.

Brandon Crawford, Joe Panik, Hunter Pence and Buster Posey are all playing well. Though the bats with RISP are still just so bad.

Eduardo Nuñez and Denard Span have good at-bats and the platoon of LF are trying to find an identity. The addition of Morse is a real shot-in-the-arm.

The bullpen is a hot mess, but Mark Melancon is an elite closer and he has the capacity to anchor this squad and hopefully they can pull it together.

I am just blathering because we just don’t look very good right now … I don’t know what else to say, so I will just say

 

Go Giants!

 

love,

MTK

 

 

Hudson One Pitch from 89-pitch CG, Giants Win 3-2

01 Thursday May 2014

Posted by mtk in Post Game Blasts

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Tags

ace, AT&T, baseball, Brian, busch, championship, diego, fontenot, Francisco, giants, Grandal, hit, Hudson, inning, mark, match, mlb, padres, pagan, pitcher, pitches, ring, Ross, rubber, sabean, San, scutaro, sf, splash, ten, theriot, Tim

Tim Hudson was incredible. He averaged only ten pitches an inning over eight innings during which he allowed one run amongst five hits. It was a stunning display of command over himself and control of an opponent’s  lineup.

Thus, in the top of the 9th, with a 3-1 lead, Hudson faced the possibility of averaging ten pitches or less in a complete game. With the pitch count so low, Bruce Bochy left him in.

As Dave Flemming put it, on the radio, live: “Why not? He’s only thrown 80 pitches.”

Hudson quickly sat down the first two batters of the 9th on six pitches. Then he had a two strike count on the Padres Yasmani Grandal when he sent an 87mph cutter down the gut that Grandal timed perfectly, connected on wholly and sent into McCovey Cove – a solo shot. Hudson’s 89th pitch ended his night, one out shy of a CG.

That condemnable 30th Splash Hit by an Opponent was retrieved by kayaker Mark Busch:

MarkBuschOpponentsHR

I hope Mark’s dog rips that thing to shreds.

Because, as Alex Pavlovic of the Mercury News tweeted it best:

“If Grandal swings through that last one, Hudson has himself an 89-pitch complete game.”

Sergio Romo came in to get the one-out save, his seventh, and this one was in the books as another outstanding performance by the SP who must be considered the Giants’ ace of 2014 thus far, Tim Hudson.

The Giants’ offense did score twice early. A Michael Morse double was plated by a Posey RBI in the first. Then in the second, The Giants made it 2-0 on a solo shot by the increasingly impressive Brandon Hicks.

Hicks’ homer was hit right handed, inside-out to deep RF – only Bonds ever did that kind of stuff at AT&T. It blew minds. But afterward, the Giants struggled to support Hudson at the plate.

Padres lefty Robbie Erlin settled down and he found a groove. Pitchers love our park and often play to our level of pitching competition. It’s an issue. It means we have to fight, scrap and hustle – with knowledge of our park they don’t have – to produce runs.

The Giants had RISP on three occasions and blew them all. The worst was a leadoff triple by Brandon Crawford in the 4th, when he was left stranded by a clunky, sputtering Giant offense. But in the previous inning the Giants had Morse and Belt on 2nd and 3rd with two out and could do nothing.

Luckily, Buster Posey singled in Arias (who had doubled in the 7th) to provide an insurance run that would prove to be necessary. Had Buster not hit that RBI late in the game, Grandal’s massive splash hit would’ve tied it up!

The Padres’ bullpen is decent and will fight in extra innings to steal wins. We could have easily been involved in a dog fight again on a night when Tim Hudson was throwing like Greg Maddux.

Point being, the Giants need to be more consistent about situational hitting with runners in scoring position. After Buster’s RBI single, with runners in the corners, Morse struck out, failing to get Pence home from third.

Team RISP: 3-for-11.
Team LOB: 7

ugh. Mark my words: whichever team – Dodgers, Giants or Colorado – plays smart, crisp baseball and hustles most for 50/50 games, will take the NL West. The SF Giants shot at being that team will depend on sacs, bunts, steals and hits with runners in scoring position.

On the bright side, as May begins, the Giants (17-11) lead the division by one and a half games over the Dodgers. On the road for our first two weeks of this month we face the Braves, Pirates and Dodgers next.

It’s time to tighten up the hitting in these batter-friendly parks and to continue hitting well against the nemesis in LA. I’d love to see us take 6 out of 9. Go Giants!

TWEET: #kudos to Brian Sabean, GM of #SFGiants for @Mcode38 and #TimHudson; excellent calculated expenditures in face of $235million #Dodger budget

After Cody Ross and Fontenot in 2010 and Scutaro and Theriot in 2012, this looks like a pattern: Morse and Hudson in 2014. Hmm. “World Series Champions 2014,” has a nice ring to it.

(photo by McCovey Cove Dave @mccoveycovedave – whose sign they use for Opponents Splash Hits)

Mark Zuckerberg’s Belief in Himself

02 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by mtk in social media

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Tags

2012, facebook, fb, february, financial times, ft, ipo, mark, zuckerberg

No one I know who can remember being 27, can conceive of the position you have created for yourself, young man.

I just read your letter to the shareholders published in FT.

You have been laboring a decade on a single project, your first – and you’re not even 30.

The move you are making today, Mr. Zuckerberg, is epic. I am surprised by your sturdiness. The scale of ego projected upon you in context is nothing short of an assault by personalities who have no concept what the thing you are producing even is – yet use it daily. The commitment to effort in the face of such an assault is inspiring. You are being called an idealist solely because of your age – it’s a cheap criticism.

This morning it was by chance my 300th Tweet which read:

“Zuckerberg’s thorough. and, frankly withstands criticism with less public rancor than his predecessors. FB’s unprecedented. Z siezes mantle.”

Because I am impressed. Not awed. But pretty impressed by the commitment and effort. The self-reliance the IPO displays is equally impressive. I would caution it’s possible to hold on too tightly to one concept. It’s early  in your career, no matter how successful.

Best of luck,

mtk

Mark Zuckerberg's Belief in Himself

02 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by mtk in social media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2012, facebook, fb, february, financial times, ft, ipo, mark, zuckerberg

No one I know who can remember being 27, can conceive of the position you have created for yourself, young man.

I just read your letter to the shareholders published in FT.

You have been laboring a decade on a single project, your first – and you’re not even 30.

The move you are making today, Mr. Zuckerberg, is epic. I am surprised by your sturdiness. The scale of ego projected upon you in context is nothing short of an assault by personalities who have no concept what the thing you are producing even is – yet use it daily. The commitment to effort in the face of such an assault is inspiring. You are being called an idealist solely because of your age – it’s a cheap criticism.

This morning it was by chance my 300th Tweet which read:

“Zuckerberg’s thorough. and, frankly withstands criticism with less public rancor than his predecessors. FB’s unprecedented. Z siezes mantle.”

Because I am impressed. Not awed. But pretty impressed by the commitment and effort. The self-reliance the IPO displays is equally impressive. I would caution it’s possible to hold on too tightly to one concept. It’s early  in your career, no matter how successful.

Best of luck,

mtk

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

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