Unhappy campers: Two-thirds of D-backs fans are not confident

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Diamondbacks fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

That’s a sharp drop from 50/50 split which we saw before the season had begun. Setting several unwanted records with regard to allowing home-runs, runs in general, and pitching appearances by a position player will tend to do that to you: even if followed up by the first series win of the season against the Padres. It was the kind of series which you’d probably laugh about if it took place in last August. But to have the fleeting hopes for the season chewed up and spat out in the cauldron of Dodger Stadium? That’ll leave a mark, and it was clearly one which even a 13-inning victory on Friday night was unable to erase. And yet, the other part of this week’s survey paints a rather different picture...

Do D-backs fans approve of the job Torey Lovullo is doing? 96% Yes

Despite the results, manager approval went UP - going from 82% to 96% between week 1 and week 2. I imagine this is because it’s hard to blame Lovullo for what happened in Los Angeles. This one was largely on the pitching staff, in particular the rotation, and there’s not much control the manager has over that in the first week of the season. You are given five guys, and have to roll them out in rotation. Sure, you can yank them from a game, but as we saw, the quicker you do that, the more you stress the bullpen. And that’s why we got John Ryan Murphy closing out the third game of the year. That’s much more on the players’ (lack of) performance than anything Lovullo could have done.

Now, about the continued presence of three catchers on the roster...

Anyway, this reminds me the confidence poll for April needs to go up. With tomorrow being an off-day, seems like an ideal opportunity for that!