FanPulse: 75% voted they are confident in the direction of the team

If you haven’t taken a moment to join SB Nation FanPulse, now is the time to do it. They survey of fans across MLB. Each week, they send polls to fans from each team MLB team. Blue Jays fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

This week’s FanPulse national question was about the playoffs, asking ‘which team will be the biggest letdown in the playoffs?’

I voted Yankees but maybe that was more a wish.

Mostly I picked the Yankees because of the injuries and the starting rotation, but really who knows, they seem to have done very well even with roughly 1500 injuries. I’ve decided that they have found a new drug.

I was sent World Series odd from www.BetOnline.ag yesterday:

I don’t even know who I’m cheering for, never mind who I’d bet on. I guess I’ll cheer for Oakland. I’d cheer for the Braves if it wasn’t for the chop. I would like the best for Alex but that chop is revolting. I’d cheer for the Twins but I think I wouldn’t get to cheer for long.

Who is your team for the playoffs?

The Blue Jays questions:

Manager approval: 80%. Last week it was 78%.

I approve of him but he continues to do things that drive me crazy. Not playing Alford tops the list at the moment.

Confidence in the direction of the team: 75%. The season low was 58% back in week 19, right around the trade deadline. The high point was 95% back in week 5.

I’d have more confidence if I really believed in the rebuild thing. I know it worked for the Astros (but then they lost 111, 107 and 106 games from 2011 to 2013, if we go through three years like that I’ll be incredibly depressed). Does it mean it will work for everyone.

I get that rebuilds are the new thing, and that baseball always copies the latest thing that worked, but man I hate that teams spend years not trying. It just seems wrong to not try. I think baseball is going to have to find some way to punish teams for not trying. Or have some sort of incentive for trying. Maybe the league needs a payroll floor as well as ceiling.

I don’t think it is a good business plan for the league to have a third of the teams just not try, to not give their fans any hope.

The huge rebuild thing didn’t seem to happen when I was kid. I mean, some teams were bad, but it wasn’t because they weren’t trying, it was because they were poorly run.

I understand the idea of the rebuild, and I hope it works out as well for the Jays as it did for the Astros, and I like seeing the prospects come up. But I think it wouldn’t hurt if prospects came up to a team that was competitive.

It does seem that when one team is successful doing something different, if is like a cold, all teams catch it soon, and that’s the way to goes until the next team wins doing something different. I’m hoping that new ‘something different’ comes along soon.

I know the future looks bright, I just wish there was a better way to get there.