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What do AZ fans think of other teams? The results are in...

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A few weeks back, we put up a poll to see what AZ fans think of other teams. Sorry about the delay in posting the results, but the Dan Haren trade and Mark Week combined to pre-empt these numbers - let's face it, there wasn't much actual hurry for them. But after the jump, you'll find the results, with all 30 major-league teams graded on a scale from one [unconditional love] to nine [undying hate]. Who's our second-favorite franchise? And who would we rather gouge our own eyes out than see in the World Series?

[Before we get started, a quick aside to the fans of other teams - particularly, it appears, Giants ones - who attempted to stuff the ballot-box. I'm not sure whether you're illiterate or just really, really dumb, but if you're going to vote in a poll for D-backs fans, then make it slightly hard to spot you, by not voting "9" for Arizona. Still, it took you twenty times as long to fill out the form as it took me to delete your response. Thanks for making it easy]

           Masters of their domain
  1. D-backs 1.21
  2. Rays 4.15
  3. Twins 4.25
  4. Mariners 4.37
    Probably no real surprises in this list. Obviously, Arizona tops the list - there were a couple of "legitimaite" non-one votes for Arizona, e.g. jinnah and David B, which is why they weren't an impeccable 1.00. Our expansion siblings in Florida were also very well-liked with 45% scoring them at three or less. The Twins probably succeed on the basis of a good reputation as a small-market team who has succeeded - if I could be said to have followed baseball at all (and the answer there is "not very"!), they were my team before the Diamondbacks popped into existence.

    Friends of the snakes

  5. Reds 4.59
  6. Angels 4.63
  7. Royals 4.67
  8. Rangers 4.77
  9. Marlins 4.85
  10. Athletics 4.87
    The Royals are interesting - they weren't necessarily well-liked, but were the least-hated of any other team, with only 9% of respondents giving them below-average love. However, they had the most "neutral" votes, with 61% of people not bothering to shift the stick from the middle setting of five on the scale used. We've always had a good relationship with the Angels - I remember the trading of ballots for the ASG Last Man vote when Reynolds was up for it, and the Dan Haren trade has likely enhanced things since the vote. That owner Arte Moreno tried to buy the D-backs before getting the Angels may also help. Quite surprised to see the Reds so high.

    Meh...
  11. Nationals 4.95
  12. Tigers 4.97
  13. Orioles 4.99
  14. Indians 4.99
  15. Blue Jays 5.01
  16. Brewers 5.03
  17. Pirates 5.03
  18. Braves 5.05
    Mediocrity beckons for these teams, who were all extremely close - .05 or less away from - overall neutrality. This doesn't mean people didn't have opinions: for Atlanta, only one-third gave them a 5. But there were equal numbers of 4's and 6's for the Braves, and pro votes almost exactly balanced out the cons. The rest of the teams got between 40% (Brewers) and 56% (Orioles) of neutral votes, and similarly to the Braves, the remainder of options failed to push the final number too much in either direction.

    Not fan favorites
  19. Cardinals 5.11
  20. Astros 5.35
  21. White Sox 5.55
  22. Red Sox 5.59
  23. Phillies 5.69
  24. Rockies 5.77
    The Red Sox were the most divisive of teams, and had the biggest standard deviation. 8% of people gave them a one, which was more than any other team outside Arizona. But 19% put them right at the other end of the spectrum, and that was sufficient to put them in the bottom-third. The Rockies were the highest-ranked of our NL West rivals, though "not hated quite as much" is probably closer to the truth. The general opinion seems to be that it's a bit like picking your favorite venereal disease - you'd just rather not.

    God-emperors of suck
  25. Mets 6.01
  26. Padres 6.12
  27. Cubs 6.55
  28. Giants 6.91
  29. Yankees 8.05
  30. Dodgers 8.15
    And finally, the various evil empires, including three-quarters of our divisional rivals, as well as both New York teams and the Cubs. I was quite surprised the Yankees actually were more liked less loathed than the Dodgers, but the Dodgers had only two people put them anywhere above neutral, compared to the Yankees five. [The names of the offenders will be made public unless payment is made in the appropriate manner...] However, NYY did get the most nines, from 73% of voters, compared to 63% for the Dodgers, with the Cubs (36%) being third. The Giants were disliked more than hated: only 25% gave them a nine, but they had the most 7's and 8's of any team.

So it looks like a Yankees-Dodgers World Series would be the end of the world as far as we're concerned, with a Yankees-Giants one not much better. At least the former seems unlikely to happen this year, LA sitting six games back of the wild-card and in fifth place there. For amusement, here is the complete breakdown for all five times in the NL West, plotting ratings against number of votes.

Vote ARI COL LAD SDG SFG
1 66 2 0
0 1
2 2 2 0 2 2
3 7 7 1 5 1
4 0 14 1 10 3
5 0 10 6 12 9
6 0 11 1 14 12
7 0 10 7 9 14
8 0 7 12 14 14
9 0 12 47 9 19

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