Oh, ye of little faith. 🙂
August results
After entering the All-Star break in a tie for first, it all fell apart for the Diamondbacks when they returned to action. They won only five of the sixteen games the rest of the way in July, dropping to third, out of a playoff spot. There’s no way this was not going to be ugly for Arizona, so let’s rip the Band-Aid off the confidence results from the start of August.
- 20% – 1 (not confident in the slightest)
- 10% – 2
- 18% – 3
- 10% – 4
- 10% – 5
- 18% – 6
- 12% – 7
- 1% – 8
- 1% – 9 (very, very, VERY confident)
Remember the dim and distant past at the start of July? You know, when less than one percent of respondents came in at lower than a five? Try 58% in that category, just a few weeks later. A month ago, 40% were in the “8” or “9” categories. Now? 2%. I don’t recall the wheels coming off confidence in quite such a spectacular way for a very long while, if ever. The average confidence plummeted more than three full points, dropping from 7.23 to 3.94. On checking, it is not quite the biggest. June 2021 saw a drop from 5.43 to 1.76. That was a 3.67 point decrease, compared to 3.29 here. Still, not much fun.
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.
September poll
Well, that was quite a roller-coaster of a month, wasn’t it? Things may have been bad in July, but they started off getting worst still, as the D-backs lost nine straight games to open the month. Never mind the post-season, the team sunk below .500 and at one point were on pace for 79.6 wins, barely improved on last year. But, wait! For it was as if a switch had been suddenly flicked, and Arizona suddenly went on a run where they won eleven of thirteen. Back above .500! Back into a wild-card spot! The team will be playing meaningful games in September for the first time since before the pandemic. So, how do you feel now?
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.