Two series wins last week boosted FanPulse voters’ overall confidence in the Giants

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The only thing I know for sure about FanPulse voters is that I don’t understand the FanPulse voters. In no way does that mean I don’t like FanPulse voters — the opposite! People willing to respond to these fun surveys every week are doing it because of their interest in the Giants, and to a far lesser extent, this website.

You all might be better fans than me.

FanPulse voters continued their positive upswing in confidence about the direction of the Giants — up from 38% two weeks ago to 50% this week.

Last week, the Giants swept the Padres in a 2-game series and took two out of three against the Brewers. We also had a whole other week to absorb the Giants’ draft, which overall seemed to have gone pretty well (more on that in a podcast next week), and maybe the Warriors situation was too sad to carry over to the Giants — I don’t know!

No matter the reason, Giants fans are more confident in the direction of their rebuilding franchise than the Tigers’ base, the Mets’, the Cardinals, Pirates, and Phillies.

Bruce Bochy’s approval rating soared seven points to 90%, his highest approval rating since 95% in Week 1. That’s impressive, and all he had to do, it seems, was preside over competent starting pitching and a lock down closer he pitched three days in a row.

A 90% approval doesn’t make him baseball’s highest-rated manager, but he’s ahead of Dave Roberts (88%), Bob Melvin (87%), Alex Cora (77%), and Gabe Kapler (55%).

Kapler had a 100% approval rating last week, so when you look at the numbers, maybe the thinking behind these yes or no confidence votes starts to come into focus: team does well, confidence up. Team has a bad week, confidence goes down. Philadelphia went 4-2 two weeks ago, approval was at 100%. Giants go 4-1 last week, Bochy’s approval rating jumps to 90%. Phillies went 2-4 last week, Kapler’s approval drops to 55%.

That 2-4 Week 13 also cratered Phillies FanPulse voters’ confidence in the team direction. 92% confidence in week 12, 18% confidence after week 13.

It will be interesting to see how much this 4-game Dodgers series skews the polls. A split or series win could raise the numbers, but what if the Giants win just one out of four? Would it really be a surprise and would that non-surprise really affect voters’ approval rating and team confidence?

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