Week of April 4 Tigers Confidence Poll

Most fans felt pretty good about the Tigers' playoff chances before the season started. The good news is, most fans still feel that way even though the team lost two games in New York and another in Baltimore before the close of Bless You Boys' second confidence poll of the season.

As you can see on the chart, confidence was down a bit. This might be because 12 people voted either 0 or 10. Why? You'd have to ask them. Either as a joke or as a complete over reaction. (Or a third idea: They weren't even Tigers fans.)

Overall, fans gave the Tigers a 68.5 of 100 score. Seventy percent of the votes were for scores of 70-100, which means 70 percent of fans believe Detroit has a good chance at contending in the Central Division. For contrast, 90% felt that the first week.

But getting back to the question for why people might have voted a bit lower this week, I'll offer up a few ideas:

The record. Sure it's only a couple of games into the season, but winning one of the first four does not make you feel wonderful. Even if it doesn't affect your outlook on the season, it just feels like you should vote a bit lower the next week to make sure the poll reflects the team's play.

General surliness. The weather stunk and we're grumpy.

Brad Penny. His debut in the Tigers uniform on Saturday was not exactly a confidence giver. Sure it was one game in a bandbox stadium against an incredible lineup, but it was also a reminder that Penny is a back-of-the-rotation kind of pitcher.

Phil Coke. He wasn't even in the rotation yet by the time he was debited with his first loss of the year.

The rest of the rotation whose name doesn't rhyme with Mustin Derlander. Neither Max Scherzer nor Rick Porcello had wonderful results in their first starts of the year.

The bullpen. It's not sparkly.

The catchers. Neither of them played well, threw runners out, stopped wild pitchers, hit the ball, whatever. (Remember the poll closed before Alex Avila blew the baseball apart).

Whatever the reason, the poll was down a bit this week. Our next poll will be after the first home series of the year!