Just a little short…
September results
July was one of the best months in franchise history and, this time around, was followed up by August that was almost as good, the team going 18-9 to power their way back into a wild-card spot. This was purely an offense based surge, with the team scoring a remarkable 171 runs in the month, the highest total by a D-backs outfit for a single month in franchise history (the previous record, reached twice was 167, most recently in June 2001). They still conceded quite a few, but outscoring your opponents by 41 runs is still pretty impressive too. The surge of confidence we saw at the start of August was sustained through the month and into the start of September, where the results were:
- 0% – 1 (not confident in the slightest)
- 0% – 2
- 0% – 3
- 2% – 4
- 4% – 5
- 12% – 6
- 37% – 7
- 25% – 8
- 20% – 9 (very, very, VERY confident)
For the second month in a row, there was nobody at all less than a “4”, and only a couple of people there. The biggest increase came at the top end, where “9” votes doubled, going from ten percent to twenty. Oddly, “6” saw the next-highest increase, with a five percent uptick from the previous month. With the average already close to a record high, the upside was obviously going to be limited. But the average still managed to increase further, climbing from 7.28 to 7.37. Interestingly, that’s marginally higher than the figure after we reached the World Series, at the beginning on November (7.36).
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.
October poll
I deliberately didn’t post this on the 1st, because the team’s elimination would still have been a raw scab. Now, we’re forty-eight hours in, and I’m curious to see what September does to the results. It wasn’t a BAD month – the team went 13-13 – but it just wasn’t quite good enough, when the Mets were going 17-9. As a result, there will be no consecutive post-season appearances for Arizona in the first time in twenty years. Instead, we are left to wonder what might have been, and look into an off-season where there are some obvious questions to be asked. Are you still confident? Or has that gone like our playoff hopes?
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.