Your Week 3 Fan Confidence Booms And Busts

And we’ve returned for our weekly check-in on fan confidence around the league, where we attempt to measure whose confidence has soared the most, and whose confidence has sank to the greatest degree over the last week of play. If you find yourself infuriated by the fact that this is all being measured subjectively by one guy in a bathrobe, perhaps it’s your own fault for clicking on a headline reading “Fan Confidence Booms And Busts”. What were you expecting?

Fan Confidence Booms

After beginning the season a woeful 1-8, the Rays are all the way back up to 9-9, winners of eight of nine and three in a row. They’re only two games behind the Yankees for the division lead - it’s funny how quickly that all sorted out - and they’re getting good work from almost everybody on the pitching staff, including the members of a bullpen that was completely rebuilt over the winter. It’s only a matter of time now before Evan Longoria returns, and Rays fans can look forward to another long summer of underdog contention.

Last Monday, the Angels were four back in the division. Now they’re one up, and just went into Texas and took two games out of three. Sure, there are questions about 60% of the rotation, the entire bullpen, and most of the lineup. But they’ve given nine starts to Jered Weaver and Dan Haren and won all nine of those games by a combined score of 32-15. A pair of aces beats an awful lot of hands. /poker joke

The Indians are tied for the best record in baseball at 13-5, they’ve won five out of six, and they’ve so far been able to widen the gap between themselves and the second-place Royals through the first three games of a four-game series. Oh, and Grady Sizemore is back and hitting for power. It would be one thing if the Indians were 13-5 in the AL East. They’re 13-5 in the AL Central. 13 wins might be enough to take the division.

The confidence of Red Sox fans is soaring because Red Sox fans only know one direction for their confidence to go. But for the record, the team has been playing better baseball, as the Sox have won four of five and only allowed 11 runs over that span. The pitching staff that was such a nightmare early on looks to be working out the kinks, and oh great, another summer of this, then.

The Rockies may be getting all big-headed, but that’s only because they’re at elevation and there’s less air pressure to keep their heads at normal dimensions. The Giants just went into Colorado and took two of three, with Tim Lincecum nearly no-hitting the boys in purple before settling for a simple show of ordinary dominance. What Giants fans have to worry about right now is Madison Bumgarner. Literally that is all Giants fans have to worry about right now.

Fan Confidence Busts

Since we last checked in, the White Sox have gotten swept by the Angels, they’ve gotten swept by the Rays, and they’ve seen Jake Peavy experience a bit of a setback in his rehab from an injury. The White Sox are already six games out of the division lead, and this team is not so good that six games is a piece of cake. This team is actually just not so good.

White Sox fans and Twins fans may be bottoming out these days. The Twins haven’t fared much better over the last week of play, and on top of the 2-5 record they’ve seen Joe Mauer disappear with bilateral weakness in his legs. Mysterious nerve problems are always a good sign for young catchers under 90-year contracts. The Twins are seven games out of the division. The Twins have hit six home runs.

The Mets are 1-8 at home, and have lost seven consecutive games at Citi Field, with the latest two coming at the hands of the Astros. Some teams like to do their losing on the road, where they can kind of keep it secret. The Mets, on the other hand, have basically been bragging about how terrible they are to their family and friends.

The Reds have lost six of seven and had one of their starting pitchers arrested for shoplifting tee shirts. It seriously would’ve been better if Mike Leake were caught shoplifting sex toys, because at least then, okay, sure. Nope. Tee shirts.

Being controlled by Major League Baseball is basically like being the son of the substitute teacher, only without all the preferential treatment.