Boy, things sure have been depressing here lately.  The Giants suck, plain and simple.  They aren't fun to watch four out of five days (as good as Cain is, it's horrific to watch his starts go to waste when they can't give him any run support and/or the 'pen gives up the lead).  The trading deadline went by and the Giants didn't make a peep, despite reported interest in Molina and Aurilia, two guys they could live without.  Then Sabean decides to give us all a heart attack by making us think he almost accidentally lost Romo.  Yes, these are truly the dog days of summer.

However, these feelings of disgust are exactly what I hope to do away with in this post.  Hold the sarcasm, bite your pessimistic tongue and wallow in the good things that have come upon us this year.  I'll kick things off with a few (by the way, I want to explicitly say to the baseball gods that this IS NOT AN OPTIMISM THREAD.  We are just enjoying the few things that we have.  Big difference!)

• The Enchanter deserves the top spot.  We all knew the guy would be in the top tier of pitchers this year, but not the best pitcher in baseball, as he is proving himself to be.  As someone else mentioned, he is responsible for 25% of the team's wins.  That is insane.  He is incredibly fun to watch, and that punchout of Pujols has got to be one of the better highlights of the season
• Ray Durham is gone, and the clusterf*ck at 2B is at least filled with young players.
• Dirty Sanchez has played well above expectations until most recently, which is expected because of his workload comparable to prior seasons.  Most of us had accepted that he'd be a 5th starter at best (to use a term that has been way overused lately), and didn't expect that, as Grant pointed out, has been better than Cain for much of the season.  Suddenly, a rotation of Enchanter, Cain, Dirty, Bumgarner, & Alderson in a few years is looking pretty sweet and actually reasonable.
• Aside from the Castle fetish, the Giants have actually played more of the young players than I personally had thought they would before the season started.  Which also leads me to my next point...
• FREDDY!  Boy, this guy is becoming a favorite of mine, which the recent WWL article certainly helped.  You can't help but pull for the guy, and he's been a pretty solid player all year.  Time will tell if he can keep it up, but it looks as if he can be slotted into LF for years to come.
• Rowand.  Yes, he's being paid a lot of money, but a leage average player at $8 million is actually pretty cheap, IMO.  He plays hard, says the right things, and doesn't blame other people for his screwups.  Plus his batting stance makes me giggle.
• Bumgarner and Alderson, previously mentioned, have dominated lower leagues.  Keep it up, guys, we look forward to seeing you in a few years, striking out Poo Holes yourselves.
• WIILLLLLSOOOOONNNN!  He makes games entertaining, to say the least.  He's an outstanding player, throws some sick heat, and again, doesn't blame others for making mistakes, which is more than can be said for this team's closer in recent years.
• Bocock, thanks for allowing us to make all the penis jokes.  It was a great way to kick off the season.
• Steve Holt!...I mean Holm!  You won us a couple games earlier, and came out of nowhere to make the team.  That always makes for a nice story.
• Last, but not least, Barry may be coming back to the park again.  I won't be able to be there, but I trust that all of you that will be will give him the biggest standing "O" since, well, 365 days ago!

Please, share your happy points of this past year.  The only rule is nothing that resembles optimism is allowed.  For everyone's sake.