Who would've thought heading into this season that the Giants list of heroes would look like this.

     Justin Maxwell almost single handedly kept a Pence-less team at .500 through April. His dominance against dodger pitching proved to decide an entire sweep of the smurfs at home to bring the team out of an early slump.

     Matt Duffy turned from defensive liability at shortstop into one of the best fielding third basemen in the game and a serious rookie of the year candidate, not to mention massively outperforming his two predecessors.

     Chris Heston who had already been outrighed to the minors the previous season came back to torture hitters through the first half, for awhile keeping himself a serious RoY candidate at 27.

     Kelby Tomlinson was a light hitting farmhand for years before suddenly thrusting himself into the everyday role at second base in the absence of Joe Pánik and providing a spark the front office was trying to get out of *cough-laughing* Chase Utley who has done diddly squat since becoming a smurf.

     George Kontos is the most under appreciated giant be an amazingly long way. How the Giants pryed him from the yankees for...nothing...still baffles me. But the meddling starter turned lights-out setup man has put up an even better year this year than last. Not to mention a streak of 26 inherited runners stranded.

     Tim Hudson is a hero this year not for what he has done, but for what he hasn't. He's sacrificed his last year in the bigs for the good of the team and done it with a smile. For a man who will certainly get a hall of fame nomination to simply step aside is an ultimate act of sportsmanship.

     No matter what ends up happening, this has been another freakin' fantastic (and characteristically torturous) year of Giants baseball. Obviously there has been so much written about the big guys (MadBum, Posey, Pence, etc) but the Giants don't just roll like that. Duffy and Tomlinson have spoken at length about how the clubhouse treats fringe players and younger players like parts of the team puzzle, lowering the pressure and allowing them to succeed. That's just what the Giants do and that is why we are where we are now. Heading into the final stretch with a lot of confidence.