The downward spiral
July results
How long ago it seems now. The D-backs went 15-11 in June, their best month of the season so far, though a good part of the success was a considerably easier schedule. June saw series wins over the Braves, Rockies and White Sox, though they did also beat the Padres and swept Seattle. That did get the Diamondbacks up to .500, but didn’t really move the needle much in terms of the team’s position in the standings. They still ended the month four back of the last wild-card spot in the NL, only a couple of games closer than they were at the beginning of June.
So what did this mean to overall confidence? Here are the results from early June:
- 8% – 1 (not confident in the slightest)
- 13% – 2
- 19% – 3
- 27% – 4
- 19% – 5
- 11% – 6
- 0% – 7
- 2% – 8
- 0% – 9 (very, very, VERY confident)
Compared to last month, there was a general solidifying of opinion towards the middle, though not to an enormous degree. At the start of May, almost half of all votes were at “3” or below. A month later, that number has decreased some what to 40%. But the same goes at the top end, where the percentage who were “6” or higher declined from 18% to 13%. No prizes for guessing where they went: to the “4” and “5” categories, with the former more than doubling from 13% at the start of May, to 27%. However, the overall impact basically canceled each other out, with the average showing the smallest change possible, declining from 3.82 to 3.81, as fans were clearly unconvinced, the team hovering around .500.
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.
August poll
Ok, I guess it’s technically not August yet, but the trade deadline officially passed this afternoon, and the team are off today, so there’s no game to make a difference there. On the heels of a brutal July (9-16), the team were sellers for the first time since the 2022 campaign. In terms of volume, it certainly ranks in the biggest sell-offs in franchise history, though perhaps more due to expiring contracts rather than the team’s record. Of the 28 full seasons played by Arizona, there have been nine where the D=backs have had fewer wins through 109 games than they do this year. But this might be an interesting test of short- vs. long-term confidence. Did the team get worse in 2025, for a better 2026?
That would be what the poll is for. As ever, feel free to explain your choice in the comments, especially if it has changed from the previous one.