Arizona Diamondbacks: February Confidence Poll

The first month of the year is in the books, so let’s see how the overall perception of the team sat at the beginning of the year.

• 7% - 1 (not confident in the slightest)
• 11% - 2
• 19% - 3
• 16% - 4
• 19% - 5
• 19% - 6
• 7% - 7
• 1% - 8
• 0% - 9 (very, very, VERY confident)

Very much a broad range of opinions here, with no choice reaching even 20% of the votes. The situation is very similar there, to what it was at the start of May 2016, when no category had more than 21%. The overall number then (4.05) was also quite similar to this month’s figure of 4.21. That represents a drop from December’ value of 5.10, and is the first time the average had gone down since August. when it bottomed out at 1.47. Also, it’s the very first time not one (of the 161 respondents) voted a nine. Even in the pit of despair (a.k.a. June through August), there was always at least one brave/foolish soul who looked on the bright side of life. January? Nobody.

I think perhaps the downtick is a response to the realization that this is more or less going to be it, in terms of the roster. At the turn of the year, it seemed that new GM Mike Hazen was going to go into the upcoming season with a very similar squad, plus or minus a handful of players. There will be no splashy free-agent signing, and no blockbuster trade - not that these are necessarily good things, as we have seen in the past! But here’s a summary of how our fan confidence has waxed and waned over the last 12 months.

However, since the last poll, we have added Chris Iannetta to the mix, and it appears Hazen is still looking to pick up another bullpen piece. There are still some relatively big names available there, so we’ll see what happens there. We’ll also have actual spring training news to report this month, though I wouldn’t go out on a limb and claim that’s going to shatter any worlds.