After last week, FanPulse voters became slightly more optimistic about the Giants

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Look, a 4-2 week is a 4-2 week. These FanPulse ballots go out before weekend games begin, so the real craziness in Cinncinati hadn’t yet hit. There was still the cool, cool miracle of Stephen Vogt and the Friday night game. Before that, the Giants won two out of three against the Dodgers. That’ll brighten the mood of any Giants fan.

And so, fan confidence in the team’s direction rose from 30% last week to 37% for week 7 of the MLB season. Compared to the rest of baseball, that’s the third-lowest or third-worst confidence polling out of all 30 teams. Only the Mets (25%) and Nationals (7%) were worse.

For a team with the seventh-worst record in baseball, maybe that’s not too much a surprise, and organization-wise, losing the two top prospects for a month has to feel like a demoralizing setback, too. And every team in the organization has a losing record. Okay, yeah, I get it. There’s not a lot to look forward to right now.

Still, they beat the Dodgers and stunned the Reds. That might’ve had some effect on Bruce Bochy’s approval rating, which jumped up from last week’s season-low 65% to a more respectable 76%.

This leads into the Giants-specific questions I asked FanPulse voters last week:

Will the Giants win more than 75 games?

69% of voters said No way. Now, maybe a great many of those nays felt the Giants might win exactly 75 games. Maybe people think this is a 100-loss team. Maybe they’re right.

Who will be the first Giant traded?

This one surprised me the most. 42% voted “Someone else” and when you take a look at the roster, I confess I don’t see many other options beyond Bumgarner (24%) and Smith (34%).

Teams might take Watson, but why not go after Smith instead? Teams would probably rather have Reyes Moronta than Sam Dyson and I don’t see the Giants making that move. Bumgarner has had two stellar starts in a row and looked like a very strong top of the rotation pitcher — in, yes, just two starts, but with no August waivers, teams need to make up their minds sooner rather than later.

So, yes, while it’s true that the majority of votes when for Bumgarner or Smith, I’m definitely surprised by the healthy chunk of people who think it’ll go a different way. At least, at first. That might be a worthwhile speculative post at some point: will the Giants make their big move first to declare they’re open for business, or smaller moves to setup the big one?