San Francisco Giants: Mourning the Loss of the 2011 Season

When Giants fans embraced the torture of the 2010 season, it was only because they were winning.

The torture of 2011 was much more masochistic, and for everything that went right in last year's championship run, it went equally wrong this year.

Here are a couple things to grieve over from this last season before turning out attention to next year, and please add your own in the comments section below.

Buster Posey out for the Season

It's amazing the Giants played as well as they did without the best pure ball player they have in their lineup. 

While backup catcher Chris Stewart more than made up for the defensive responsiblities of the catcher position, general manager Brian Sabean was unable to even come close to filling the offensive production despite his best efforts.

God willing, we'll see the brilliance of Posey unaffected by this major injury next year.  For now, though, the loss of the season started right here and eventually was a major part of doing us in.

Ryan Vogelsong's Stellar Season

This article hereby nominates Ryan Vogelsong for comeback player of the year.  While the nomination process is surely different than a mention in a sporting article, he is nonetheless deserving of such a nomination.

While many articles and even shows have documented Ryan's comeback, his Cy Young-worthy performance in the first half of the year was the main factor in keeping the Giants in first place at the All-Star break.

His performance, however, in the end wasn't enough to keep the Giants on top all season, and it's sad to miss him getting to show his stuff in the playoffs.

The Trade Deadline

While Brian Sabean's moves at the trade deadline this year made headlines and were not in and of themselves bad, the resulting change in chemistry caused the Giants to slump at the worst possible time, and they played themselves out of contention in a matter of weeks.

Compare this to last year's moves, where Sabean was able to add just the right mix of players in the bullpen and the outfield with small trades and waiver wire pickups.

Sabean's headline-grabbing moves this year backfired.

Again, getting Keppinger and Beltran aren't bad moves in themselves; the huge overhaul in a matter of a couple of weeks was a major nail in the coffin at this funeral.

Where Did All the Passion Go?

Last year, it had a mystique about it, and it started with Aubrey Huff, escalated with Pat Burrell and culminated in a playoff MVP-worthy performance from Cody Ross.

This year, the fire from all three of those guys was gone, and it was hard to watch as they all underperformed.

Any Last Words?

As we lay the final flowers on the casket that carries the defending Champion's season to an end, this is the time to get out any last frustrations with this season in the comments section below.

It's hard to repeat as champs when every team is gunning for you over 162 games.

With everything that went wrong this year, however, it only evens out how everything went right for the Giants in 2010.

Now that the world is back in balance, we can lay this truly torturous season behind us and look forward to 2012.