There are bad seasons, and then there are seasons that prompt articles from national writers. You can tiptoe through the bad seasons and hope that nobody else notices, but when the rest of the country starts to care, it’s a sign that an organization has screwed up majorly.On that note, our own Brittany Ghiroli had an excellent look at the brutal start to the Buster Posey era, using the unflattering technique of “describing what’s happened so far.” All of the losses, and all of the surrounding nonsense, have conspired to produce the perfect description in the headline: “Buster Posey’s Giants legacy is on the line as adulation is shifting to anger”.The Giants' Buster Posey put his legacy on the line. Will it work?Brittany Ghiroli and moreFor my money, the legacy question isn’t important. Jeff Kent spent four years wearing Dodger blue and sneering at the Giants. If you would like more information on this dastardly turn of events and how it affected his legacy, you can learn about it at Jeff Kent Day at Oracle Park on Aug. 29. Eventually the Giants might have to plow this whole front office under and hope it’s good for the soil, but there will still be standing ovations and pre-game ceremonies. For what it’s worth, I still think of Tom Haller as one of the most underrated Giants in franchise history, even though he also built the only 100-loss team in franchise history.You shouldn’t be worried about how Posey will be perceived in 2036. You should, however, be very concerned with how the baseball got so bad in 2026. Now that you’ve read Ghiroli’s article through (required reading, test on Monday), let’s focus just on this season for now. Most of the team’s struggles, flaws, needs, wants and failures in the 2026 season are included in the article. Let’s rank the problems of 2026 and only 2026, as they appear.Again, this is only looking at how the Giants got here this season. If you’re worried about next season, I can’t help you in this article. If you comment about how the Giants have already messed up next season, your penance is to watch this video explaining how you’ve made me feel.Here we go: the best reasons to Monday-morning quarterback the Giants, even though it’s still early Sunday evening in this analogy, starting with a couple that you really shouldn’t care about at all.5. Not signing a closerPosey took significant heat on local radio earlier this season for saying he “didn’t regret” not signing a closer in the offseason.The silliest of complaints, made only by casuals who parachute into the baseball offseason after the Super Bowl ends. Edwin Díaz was, by leaps and bounds, the best closer available this offseason. The Giants could have built their entire offseason around him and felt like they came out on top. Díaz has an 11.57 ERA and just blew a two-run lead for the Dodgers on Thursday night.The Giants could have signed Robert Suarez for something like three years, $50 million, but let’s check on his status over the next two seasons, when the Giants might actually need a closer. It wouldn’t have helped them to have a great closer this year. It simply would have added a year to your lifespan.Signing a big-money closer like Robert Suarez alone wouldn’t have fixed what has ailed the GIants’ bullpen (and pitching staff as a whole) this season. (Edward M. Pio Roda / Getty Images)Note that this is distinct from “addressing the bullpen” or “screwing up the entire pitching staff.” We’re just talking about throwing money at the problem. It almost never works, and it wasn’t going to work this time.4. The biggest contractsThis is the easiest problem on the surface to clock: The Giants will owe Rafael Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman a combined $480 million-plus after this season, yet this season has been a complete disaster.The Devers trade made sense at the time, giving the Giants the big-name slugger they kept missing in free agency. But in retrospect, the timing looks off.There is no easy way out for Posey, who told local media after the Aug. 3 trade deadline — when he drew largely favorable reviews — he “was glad” to have Devers, Adames and Chapman still on the team.So far this season, the three players are worth 6.2 WAR according to Baseball-Reference and 3.1 WAR according to FanGraphs, which is a substantial difference. But it’s also safe to assume the Giants have gotten at least some value out of their highest-paid players.Compare that to the Brewers, who had a preseason payroll estimate of approximately $105.4 million and spent $44 million of it on Brandon Woodruff and Christian Yelich, both of whom aren’t helping them at all right now (Woodruff had season-ending shoulder surgery in July and Yelich is a below-replacement level DH). They would love to have their highest-paid players contributing a couple wins here and there.