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Remember the trade deadline? That moment on the baseball calendar that was almost two weeks ago now? FanPulse voters were polled on all the moves the Giants made — from ditching Mark Melancon’s contract to... ditching Mark Melancon’s contract — and were overwhelmingly positive about the final transactions.
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We can assume that a good number of that 18% who don’t approve of what the Giants did at the trade deadline are people who feel the Giants should’ve traded Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith for anything, even if the Giants weren’t offered any players in return. There might be some others who were so impressed by that 19-6 July that maybe they wanted the team to do more than take a flyer on Scooter Gennett.
In any case, coming into the season, one of the few things that a chunk of Giants fans could be excited by was the prospect of the Giants actually adding prospects at the trade deadline, with no loyalty to their players. Farhan Zaidi didn’t go full Houston with his rebuilding moves, but he did enough to make most people happy.
Overall, FanPulse voters have 77% confidence in the team’s direction. Some of that has to do with the team’s poor start to August. 4-7 overall with a four-game losing streak already thrown in for good measure. It’s down 7% from last week, but that’s to be expected, given the performance to start the month.
Most surprising of all, though, was Bruce Bochy’s 10% drop in approval rating, down to 85% after last week’s season-tying high of 95%.
Bochy’s approval rating puts him 10th place on the MLB list 20 weeks into the FanPulse voting. A.J. Hinch and Bob Melvin are #1 and #2, at 100% and 98%, respectively. The Mets-hot Mets’ Mickey Callaway is 29th at 33%. Headhunting Clint Hurdle is last at 15%.
The Pirates’ fanbase is also the most dejected, voting 0% confidence in the team’s direction for the second week in a row. Maybe it has something to do with the simultaneous qualities of a losing team (9-26 since July 1st) and an organization that might not be on the same page as reality:
"You’ve got that opportunity to sit in the stands, be judgmental and critical of what we do out here. But you don’t know the inside part of the game, the game within the game." ... Ray Searage was "a little spicy" during Pirates pregame on @937theFan: https://t.co/zN7DOwL7mz
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) August 11, 2019
The Pirates are 24th in team pitching fWAR.
But enough about the other teams. As Kevin mentioned right before the trade deadline:
Whatever Farhan Zaidi does today will color opinions about him for the next few seasons. Good luck dude.
— Kevin J. Cunningham - SF Giants Lunatic (@sflunaticfringe) July 31, 2019
In the short-term, it seems that Zaidi and the new front office have threaded a very fine needle. Mauricio Dubon could very well be the Opening Day second baseman. We could see Jaylin Davis this year — read Doug’s interview with Davis that went up this afternoon to get a better sense of the team’s newest outfield prospect.
And maybe voters have been reading or listening up on the Giants’ farm system and the exciting developments down there. Either way, there’s reason for optimism.