Arizona Diamondbacks August confidence poll

July results

A little bit of weirdness in the results taken at the beginning of July, with rather more ones than I’d expect - to the point where a minor attempt at ballot-box stuffing seems possible, especially given precisely nobody voted two, and 2-5 all dropped [it feels like those people proclaiming “Worst film ever” on the IMDb, a phrase which immediately causes me to discard everything else they say. Unless they mean The Creeping Terror. Trust me on that]. For there was no real reason for such pessimism, given the team had just completed a very solid June, rebounding from a poor May. We haven’t seen a higher percentage of votes for one since February 2017. But, hey, I just count the numbers. Which would be:

• 8% - 1 (not confident in the slightest)
• 0% - 2
• 7% - 3
• 4% - 4
• 18% - 5
• 26% - 6
• 28% - 7
• 7% - 8
• 3% - 9 (very, very, VERY confident)

Even allowing for those zeroes, the biggest change on the month was the +17% in the “7” slot, more than doubling from 11% at the beginning of June. “8” inched up, while “4” was the biggest loser, with a month-to-month change of -14%.

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

Even if we accept the “1” votes as legit, overall confidence bounced back nicely after the traumas of May, improving by almost half a point, and going back up to 5.66. That’s still 1.16 points below what it was at the same point in 2017, but considering the team has been lagging behind last season’s one, in terms of overall record, that’s probably not too much of a surprise. Needless to say, it’s a great deal better than in 2016... Here’s the chart with all the poll averages.

August poll

As noted, the last month’s worth of results were the first mediocre month of the season - they provided neither the full-on joy we experienced in April and June, nor the undiluted misery which was May. But there was a flurry of activity in the bullpen, with the arrival of two new names and one old friend, while we saw the departure of long-time reliever Randall Delgado and veteran Jorge De La Rosa. Do we feel better now? Or does the loss of first place weigh more heavily on your mind?

That’s what the poll below is for, along with the comments!