Arizona Diamondbacks November confidence poll

October results

This is my unsurprised face. The meltdown in September, which saw the team basically go from leading the division, to missing entirely on the playoffs, had a significantly negative impact on fan confidence. Especially given the looming departure of our best pitcher in Patrick Corbin, and All-Star outfielder A.J. Pollock, both of whom have no apparently obvious replacements for next year. “1” votes still seem like a bit of an over-reaction to me, but I’m letting them stand this time, as they might be legit.

• 14% - 1 (not confident in the slightest)
• 10% - 2
• 22% - 3
• 14% - 4
• 21% - 5
• 11% - 6
• 1% - 7
• 1% - 8
• 5% - 9 (very, very, VERY confident)

Once again, there was no consensus here at all, with for the second consecutive month no single category reached even a quarter of the votes [the last to do so was the August poll, which saw both “6” and “7” poll 25% and 37% respectively] But the trend was definitely down, with almost half (46%) of the votes being at “3” or lower. That’s more than double the amont for those categories at the beginning of September and the highest proportion in exactly two years, since October 2016]

Below, you can see the breakdown of voting for the past year. Time progresses from the top down, beginning with the October 2017 poll.

The overall result was, you will not be shocked to hear, a sharp drop in fan confidence, losing almost one and a half points over the course of September, to go into the post-season sitting at 3.91. Again, that’s the lowest since we finished the 2016 season, when fan confidence sat at 3.11, although by that point, with Dave Stewart having already been terminated. it was beginning to head up [the all-time low was less than half that, the 1.47 figure posted in August 2016]. Here’s the chart with all the poll averages.

With a future best described as murky, confidence sits much closer to that 2016 level than it was at this point last season. There’s no surprise, considering at the beginning of October 2017, we were looking forward to post-season baseball, as opposed to this year, where #Choketober for the Dodgers was all we had to anticipate.

November poll

With that duly accomplished, it’s the future which will perhaps determine confidence for the next few months. We’ve already seen Mike Hazen pull off one surprising move, re-signing infielder Eduardo Escobar to a three-year deal, which suggests this might not be the total rebuild expected by a number of fans. But does that indicate money is available for other moves as well? How are you feeling about the team’s prospects this winter, and into next year? Please explain yourself in the comments, as ever.