Arizona Diamondbacks May confidence poll

April results

March brought a couple of unexpected developments in the team’s long-term plans, with extensions being signed by both Ketel Marte and Merrill Kelly. That commitment towards the future seems to have sparked a bit of an uptick in fan optimism. This was probably also helped by the fact that there’s going to be a full 162-game season, something which seemed very unlikely just a few weeks earlier. So, below are the number from our poll as we approached Opening Day 2022.

• 23% - 1 (not confident in the slightest)
• 8% - 2
• 15% - 3
• 21% - 4
• 16% - 5
• 11% - 6
• 2% - 7
• 2% - 8
• 3% - 9 (very, very, VERY confident)

While “1” remains the most popular score, its margin of victory was far smaller than it has been, only just edging out “4” by a single vote. The 23% is the lowest for the category in almost a year, after the team started off the 2022 season with a winning month of April, causing 1’s to all but evaporate (3%) in May. Though it’s “5” which was the biggest winner, after being virtually ignore (1%) at the start of March, they got 16% of the votes last month. The overall result was an increase of exactly one and a quarter points, from 2.43 to 3.68 - again the highest figure since May 2021. It’s also the first time since September that the poll has not set a record low for the month, beating the 2.67 posted for April 2021.

Below, you can see the breakdown for the past 12 polls’ results, followed by the line graph showing the trends over this and previous seasons.

May poll

Disclaimer. I’m writing this with a week left to go in the month, so things could well change between now and when this goes live on the 1st. But right now, I’d say the team’s .400 W% is about in line with what I expected. The way they’ve got there though is considerably more of a surprise. Who had “good starting pitching” as the leading factor in the team’s victories? The offense, meanwhile, has sputtered out of the gates, especially veterans like Carson Kelly and Ketel Marte, It wouldn’t shock me if both of those regress: to what extent may well determine how things proceed going forward.

But what do you reckon? As ever, feel free to explain your choice in the comments, especially if it has changed from the April one.