Arizona Diamondbacks: March Confidence poll

February results

Having spaced on the whole January thing, this was the opening poll of 2018, and so represented the first chance to gauge fan opinion since before the winter meetings. Not that there had exactly been a great deal of movement over those two months. But the team had addressed the catching situation, going out to sign Alex Avila, who’ll be paired with Jeff Mathis behind the plate. Did that lead to an improvement in fan confidence, which had been slowly ebbing away since the end of last season? Here are the returns from the start of February.

• 1% - 1 (not confident in the slightest)
• 1% - 2
• 2% - 3
• 4% - 4
• 9% - 5
• 25% - 6
• 38% - 7
• 11% - 8
• 8% - 9 (very, very, VERY confident)

While most numbers remain near to their previous percentages, this does show a bit of consolidation around the middle. The six and seven categories increased in total from 57% in December to 63% last month, pulling votes from both ends: those previously above dropped from 21% to 19%, while those below decreased from 22% to 17%.

Below, you can see the breakdown of voting for the past year. Time progresses from the top down, beginning with the February 2016 poll.

With the decrease at the bottom slightly outweighing the drop-off from the top, the overall figure came in at 6.50. This is slightly up on the 6.37 figure reported in December, and represents the first positive move in quite some time, since last September. Here’s the chart showing all the average scores, as we enter the third year of these surveys (just a dot for this year, since we only have the one data point). I note that confidence is a little below what it was at the same point in 2016, despite us currently being the reigning NL wild-card team. But it’s certainly a lot better than it was when we entered spring training last season!

March poll

Spring training is under way, and since last time we checked in with you, the team also took care of its outfield needs, first with the signing of Jarrod Dyson, and then the three-team trade for Steven Souza. Will the needle of confidence continue to move in the right direction? That’s what this month’s poll will decide. As usual, please feel free to explain yourself in the comments...