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Fans are confident in ability for Red Sox to find value in draft

And the overall confidence in the major-league squad has just about evened out.

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MLB: Spring Training-Boston Red Sox at Baltimore Orioles Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Red Sox fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

Red Sox fans are confident in drafting ability

This past week, we asked fans of every fan base how confident they were in their team’s front office in finding value in the upcoming draft. I was curious how Red Sox fans would respond to this one, because I could see both sides. Or, at least, I am aware of the narrative around Dave Dombrowski and his ability to build a farm system. As it turns out, Red Sox fans are very confident.

I think it’s right to be confident in the Red Sox’ ability to draft, but this is certainly a higher margin than I expected. The biggest thing to remember here is that, even if you don’t have a ton of confidence in Dombrowski he doesn’t have a huge impact on drafts. That stuff is handled almost entirely by the amateur scouting department, with someone in Dombrowski’s position maybe being involved at the top of the draft but that’s about it. I wonder how much last year’s draft influenced this as the early returns on that 2018 class look good. With the Red Sox not picking until 43 in this year’s draft, their ability to find diamonds in the rough will be tested this year.

As for the normal questions about the confidence in the direction of the club and confidence in the manager, those are mostly steady. The former stayed steady at 89 percent while confidence in Cora fell slightly to 84 percent after the team lost their series against the Astros.

College or High School?

On the surface, this is sort of a basic question of philosophy. However, it’s really something that most teams don’t have a major preference on. If you ask any draft director the majority will tell you they want the best player available regardless of age. There is certainly some preference for everyone — that’s just human nature — but drafts are’t usually built around this strategy. That said, as a fan I certainly like college players better for no other reason than the fact that those players are more likely to make an impact more quickly. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a better pick, though.

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