When you win two consecutive Cy Young Awards, wear your hair like a heavy-metal rocker, act in an ESPN commercial in which you're called "Big Time Timmy Jim," get cited for driving with marijuana in your car, have people question your fitness and scream "juiced balls" while standing on the mound, you tend to get noticed. In the end, though, Lincecum was noticed more for his pitching, just the way he and the team wanted. He re-established himself as one of the dominant starters in the majors with a 5-1 September. The good news for Lincecum: Buster Posey will be the media darling this postseason, allowing Big Time Timmy Jim to work under less of a spotlight.

When 2010 began, Zicasso looked as though he finally might paint a masterpiece. In the end, the canvas looked the same as it did in his first three years with the Giants. Zito has that great roundhouse curveball and toiled tirelessly to remake himself as a pitcher, to adjust for a loss of velocity. On some days, he looked unhittable, but the bottom line is, he just doesn't win - and as this section went to press, his place on the playoff roster was in doubt. Speaking of the bottom line, Zito might as well change his uniform number from 75 to 126,000,000. He is not merely known for his contract, it defines him. But he also sings, plays guitar and drums, and raises big bucks for wounded soldiers who return home.

MATT CAIN (RHP)

If Big Daddy Cain played in a big East Coast media market, man, would he be a star. Nice guy, unassuming, no vainglory here - and he can pitch with the best of them. Now that he is growing his hair into a Tennesseefro, we know he has golden curls befitting a Golden Boy. Cain turned 26 on Friday and has been in the majors since 2005. That he is the longest-tenured Giant speaks volumes about the overhaul this team has undergone since Barry Bonds got his home run record and the organization told him, "Thanks for everything. Good luck in your next life." With all due respect to Lincecum, Cain was The Man in 2010, the most consistent starter, the man the Giants wanted on the mound to break a losing streak or get an important win. To think, many fans wanted the Giants to trade him for a bat.

You have to like Sanchez's sense of humor. In August, he predicted the Giants would sweep the Padres in a series in San Francisco, take first place and not look back. No Kreskin was he. Sanchez lost the opener and San Diego took two of three. Fast-forward three weeks. The Giants took two of three from the Dodgers and were headed to San Diego the following weekend. A reporter said, "Any predictions?" Sanchez soft-pedaled his answer, saying, "We're going to try to go there and beat them." Then he smiled and added, "That's not what you wanted, is it?" The Giants wanted - no, needed - a defining performance from Sanchez in the final game of the regular season Sunday, and he delivered with his arm, bat and glove.

MADISON BUMGARNER (LHP)

It couldn't get better than this. Here comes this 20-year-old kid from North Carolina, drawl and all, and lets everyone in spring training know that as a wedding present, he gave his bride, Ali, a bull calf. Ali's family has a cattle ranch, which is now Chez Bumgarner. Do not err by thinking of the left-hander as a laconic farm boy. He became a star on YouTube when a video quickly surfaced of Bumgarner's snap in a Triple-A game in June after a call at second base went against Fresno. He heaved a ball. He had to be held back by teammates. He was suspended. Though folks in the organization publicly said MadBum was a bad boy, privately they had to be saying, "Yes!" knowing the fire inside this tall, superb pitcher.

B-Weezy must have read about all the goofy, quirky closers in baseball lore and decided to become all of them. After the Giants won in Toronto in June, Wilson was eating an ice-cream bar. He walked up to two reporters and said, "I am working this off even as I eat this. I can do that because I'm a superior mental being." Then he had a second. He grew a long beard that he clearly colors jet black and looks at you as if you're from another planet when you ask if the color is real. He continues to enrich Juan Uribe at the dominoes table (or so says Uribe). When the eighth or ninth inning comes, though, Wilson is insanely good. He earned 48 saves in 53 chances, and if you say, "That's what a closer is supposed to do," here are two words for you: Armando Benitez.

SERGIO ROMO (RH SETUP MAN)

Romo personifies the word "gutsy." He is small. He does not throw hard. Yet he challenges the game's best hitters with a fire in his eye that one can sense from three decks above. After he allowed a couple of costly home runs early in the season, he became unhittable with a fastball that he delivers with dart-like accuracy and a "Frisbee slider" that looks so tantalizing to hitters yet vaporizes when it reaches the plate. Romo grew up in Brawley, two hours east of San Diego and just north of the border. He proudly wears a T-shirt that reads, "Made in the USA with parts from Mexico." He, too, has grown a long beard. Perhaps it makes him look more intimidating, especially when he strikes out the last hitter of an inning, starts screaming and points toward the sky.

JAVIER LOPEZ (LH SETUP MAN) AND RAMON RAMIREZ (RH SETUP MAN)

Lopez and Ramirez arrived just before the trade deadline and stabilized a bullpen that was reeling with injuries to left-handers Jeremy Affeldt and Dan Runzler. Lopez was born in Puerto Rico but raised in Virginia and is summoned to retire left-handed batters with a vexing sidearm delivery. Ramirez might be one of the quietest players in baseball. Many players born in Latin America wrongly are labeled shy by reporters who cannot talk to them in their native language. But even Spanish-speaking Giants say they rarely hear a peep out of a pitcher who struggled in Boston but has dominated right-handed hitters in the National League. The Giants might not be in the playoffs had general manager Brian Sabean not brought these two relievers west in July.