Arizona Diamondbacks: December confidence poll

Well, all streaks must come to an end – even Cal Ripken’s iron man run of consecutive appearances. And the same goes for me remembering to post the confidence poll. I forgot to do so at the start of November, probably being disenchanted with baseball due to the whole “Dodgers winning the World Series” thing. The last time I skipped a month was back in December 2021, so it was a good spell. So: let’s crank up the Wayback Machine, and see what we were thinking at the end of the regular season – which, of course, was also the end of the D-backs’ year.

• 9% – 1 (not confident in the slightest)

• 2% – 2

• 15% – 3

• 11% – 4

• 19% – 5

• 26% – 6

• 11% – 7

• 0% – 8

• 8% – 9 (very, very, VERY confident)

The team wasn’t quite able to build on a season’s best August, but did still remain in the playoff hunt until almost the very end. Blowing a 4-1 eighth inning lead in Los Angeles on the final Wednesday probably marked the death knell. But considering the team had been in full sell-off mode at the deadline, going 12-12 over the final month was a credible achievement, and that was reflected in a slight uptick of confidence. The average score notched up by a quarter of a point, increasing from 4.75 to 5.00 at the start of October. However, that is still the lowest figure at that stage of the year since 2021. It’s actually below the 2022 figure of 5.64, despite that team being six games worse.

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.

There are two whole months of moves to consider for this poll. However, these have mostly been of the subtractive kind, players having formally left the organization into free agency. Outside of adding prospects to the 40-man roster for Rule 5 protection, the only change there has been the re-signing of James McCann. While this was generally welcomed, it’s probably safe to say that backup catcher was not a position at the forefront of most people’s minds. There are still two and a half months until players start to report, and another one and a half until Opening Day. But I’m sure we’d all like to see moves being made. Does the lack of action concern you?

That’s what the poll below would be for. You can explain your decision in the comments, especially if your vote has changed from last time.