Welp.
July results
And it was all going so well, too… At the end of June, the D-backs had returned to the top of the NL West, and were firing on all cylinders. While unexpected, it was still a very pleasant spot to be in, and unsurprisingly, this was reflected in a surge of fan optimism. How long that all seems now… But we’ll get to that later. For now, here are the results from the start of July:
- 0% – 1 (not confident in the slightest)
- 0% – 2
- 0% – 3
- 1% – 4
- 4% – 5
- 20% – 6
- 36% – 7
- 27% – 8
- 13% – 9 (very, very, VERY confident)
Nobody at all below a four. You have to go back a very long way to find the last time that happened. In fact, the last time there was simply nobody voting “1” was November in 2019. The last time we say no-one in the bottom third was even further: that would be more than five years, in May 2018, when we saw the all-time high confidence score of 7.82, That month, nobody was less than a “6”. We didn’t quite reach that this time, but the average was still sustained, coming in at 7.23, which is exactly the same as it was at the start of June. Well, almost exactly: if you go to the third decimal, July was slightly better, at 7.234 compared to 7.231. It’s the best score ever at this point in the season.
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
An ugly month for the D-backs, as both the offense and the pitching – especially out of the bullpen – sputtered badly. The team sputtered to an 8-16 record, and fell from first place in the NL West, to clinging on to a tie for the final wild-card spot. It seems as if the team simply couldn’t get out of their own way at times, and after the All-Star break they won only one series in five attempts. But the team did become buyers at the trade deadline, adding closer Paul Seward in a deal with the Mariners. Do you feel this augurs well for the remaining two months of the season? Or does the failure to add starting pitching mean that July’s free-fall is something which cannot be stopped?
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.