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.