It's hilarious to come over here and see it flooded with Cal trolls so quickly. I know there's like 400,000 people attending Berkeley at any given moment, but GEEEEEEEZ can't you just COOL OUT? Let us Stanford fans get comfy in our new digs before you start WAC'ing things around like we're in Reno or something. Oops. Too soon? Too soon. It's okay, boys and girls. The Tedford death spiral started a few months early. You have a terrible quarterback and no defense. Is it really surprising to you? I could have bought you the bootleg CD on Telegraph for the past decade. The same old song and dance.

You guys SUCK! Enjoy 6th place. Go back to your caves. 

Sincerely,

Karl the Stanford Fan

I've heard a lot from fans about how it's hard to hate the Padres. Their players are boring, their fans are boring, hell, even the jerseys are boring. It would seem hard to hate something so boring. F that S. The Padres deserve our hatred, as does the city of San Diego. 

Remember '93? They traded Fred McGriff to Braves for unforgettable names like Vince Moore, Donnie Elliott, and Melvin Nieves. Thanks, jackasses.

The city of San Diego is named after Saint Didacus. From Wikipedia: 

In 1449 he was recalled to Spain, whence he went to Rome to be present at the canonization of Bernardino of Siena in 1450. At Alatraz he fulfilled the humble office of infirmarian in the convent of Ara Coeli; and his biographers record the miraculous cure of many whom he attended, through his pious intercession. He was finally recalled to Spain and was sent by his superiors to the Convento de Santa María de Jesús in Alcalá, where he spent the remaining years of his life in penance, solitude, and the delights of contemplation.

FUCKING. BORING. Didacus? Did a Kiss? That sounds like a tawdry Gene Simmons groupie. Try Saint Francis of Assisi, losers. Again, Wikipedia:

On May 8, 1213 he was given the use of the mountain of La Verna (Alverna) as a gift from the count Orlando di Chiusi who described it as “eminently suitable for whoever wishes to do penance in a place remote from mankind.”[12][13]

Dude owned his own mountain. Where your mountains at, Didacus? Ohhh, that's right! You ain't got no mountains, bitch!

-Also, a gallup poll in 2009 confirmed that San Diego lead the country in Ed Hardy shirts per capita, narrowly edging out Tempe, Arizona.

-San Diego is also home to Qualcomm. The founder of Qualcomm is named Irwin Jacobs. He has a son named Adam Jacobs. He plays catcher for the Cornell baseball team. This makes him a douche. If your little sister told you she was dating the catcher for the Cornell baseball team, would you be happy? No! You'd take her directly to Planned Parenthood to get her caught up on her immunizations!

-"Padres" is Spanish for "fathers". I had a terrible relationship with my father. Enough said.

-The Padres all-time home run leader? Nate Colbert. Ugh. His claim to fame: He finished 8th in the MVP voting in 1972. You know what else happened in 1972? Harry S. Truman died. Think about it.

-You know who owned the Padres for a while? Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's. Have you had a Quarter Pounder with cheese lately? They're disgusting, just like the Padres.

-They gave us Bochy.

-More Wikipedia:

One of the bricks at the center plaza of Petco Park was secretly purchased by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal rights organization that has protested the breeding and purchasing of the animals sold at Petco stores. The brick reads, "Break out your cold ones. Toast the Padres. Enjoy this champion organization." The first letter of each word is really an acrostic urging people to boycott the stores.

hahahahahaahahahaahaha! Suck it, Padres!

-They won the division in 2005 with a record of 82-80. One of my family traditions was to always watch the NLDS games with my grandfather. After seeing the Padres-Cardinals series that season, he said "Fuck this shit." and left the house. He divorced my grandmother,  moved to Nepal, and hasn't been heard from ever since.

So, there you have it. Feel free to add. Let's hate!

Listen, we have a lot to be happy about as Giants fans. The team is in the thick of a playoff race, which no sane person would have imagined before the season started. Tim Lincecum has maintained his amazing performance level, Matt Cain has finally learned how to win gotten some semblance of run support and cut down on his wildness, the bullpen actually has three stoppers (Romo, Affeldt, Wilson), Pablo Sandoval has developed beyond any reasonable expectation, Juan Uribe is better than bad, Eugenio Velez has been one of the better players on the team for the past two months (I know he hasn't been all that great if you look at the numbers, but in comparison to pretty much any other Giants player, he's been above average), and the team is in better shape than the Mets by leaps and bounds. If the Giants could somehow make the playoffs, nobody would be eager to play them, looking at the number of close games they find themselves in.

So, all that said, we here at McCovey Chronicles tend to take a pragmatic, nay, pessimistic view on things in regards to our beloved Gigantes. Bruce Bochy has mismanaged the lineup, Brian Sabean has mismanaged the roster, and the players have misplayed many plays.

My question to all of you is: What bothers you the most about the Giants at this very moment:

What does it take to become a hated by opposing fans? Well, I'd say combination of at least two of the following

a)good performance

b)criminal history

c)signed huge contract

d)perceived as a showboater

e)suspected to be a PED user

f)history of being rude to fans

g)history of being hated by teammates

If I left any out, please pick up my slack.

Last season, we didn't have Bonds, who had more than filled our "hated player quota" for over a decade. The team was also generally lousy, and our only really stellar players were impossible to hate (Lincecum and Winn). 

This year, though, the team seems like it could actually be competitive, at least within the confines of the NL West. Competition can lead to...chafing. 

Will the Giants have a player that starts to annoy opposing fans this year? If so, who will it be, and why?

I need to open up this fanpost addressing a certain something that drives me so insane that I can't write about anything else.

JOSE CASTILLO IS THIRD ON THE TEAM IN WALKS. Anyone who says "He can't take a walk" is just living off whatever the scouting report said. He has learned to take walks. He doesn't get into 0-2 counts more than any other player. He just doesn't. I don't see where people are getting this information based on his time with the Giants. It doesn't add up.

He has 6 errors this season. Brian Bocock, who is supposedly Vizquel reincarnated, has 4.

He's hitting .259, Pedro Feliz did that how many times as a Giant? ONCE. In 2004, he hit .276.

I also take issue with the people who took issue with Feliz as a Giant. Yeah, he hit for a low average and struck out a lot. But he was a legitimate 20 homer guy with an excellent glove. I'll take that any day.

I think the lack of impact hitters in this lineup makes everyone worse, as a jose castillo is looked upon to BE an impact hitter. On any other team, Castillo is a pretty  darn good 8th hitter. On the Giants, he hits 6th, 2nd, or some other place that makes him look sub-par, when he is actually an average player.

Thoughts? I'd like to hear from FairweatherFan about Castillo, and I'd love to hear from Grant about Feliz.