SB Nation Reacts: The start of the season edition

In which we look at confidence, views on rivals, and MLB predictions.

By Matt_Collins@MattRyCollins Apr 3, 2021, 9:00am EDT

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Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, 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 Reacts.

With the new season upon us, and one game in the books, we are up and running for another new season of the SBN Reacts fan polls, which you can sign up for at the link above. For this edition, we have a bit of a crowded field. We have a fan confident poll to start the season. We have a look at the two Red Sox rivals: The Yankees and Rays. And we have some league-wide predictions. Let’s get it.

Red Sox fan confidence

Somewhat to my surprise, Red Sox fans are confident in the organization starting the year, with a confidence rating of 74 percent. I don’t think it’s unreasonable — the organization is certainly heading in the right direction — but after last year I suspected things would be much lower. That said, everyone is happy and confident this time of year. Red Sox fans rank 22nd in terms of confidence.

How we feel about the rivals

Let’s start with the Yankees, who, well, everyone thinks is going to be good.

This is not surprising. The Yankees are the odds-on favorites in the American League this year and one of the three or so favorites to win the World Series. Of course they’re going to be good. Red Sox fans still don’t like them though.

I actually couldn’t disagree more with the sentiment — owners spending rather than hoarding cash is good, actually — but I appreciate the intensity.

As for the Rays, well, people do still think they’re going to be good, but it’s not unanimous as it was with the Rays.

I’ve gone back and forth on the Rays all winter. Their roster really doesn’t blow me away, especially after losing Blake Snell and Charlie Morton. That said, they have about 5,000 pitching prospects to call on, and I think pitching depth will rule this season. So they’ll probably be good.

As for the specific thoughts on them, they were more kind than I would have hoped for. The Joe Maddon-era Rays are my least favorite team of all time, and I will always have a special, not very kind, place in my heart for the franchise. But most of the comments Red Sox fans had about them were along the lines of:

“good team and organization”

“Good rivals.”

“Low budget team that has success. Used to hate them but now I don’t mind them. Overall they are a boring team.”

Get outta here. The Rays stink and I hope they lost 150 games.