SB Nation Reacts: Looking forward to the draft

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.

We are back for another edition of SB Nation Reacts fan polls as we enter the halfway point in the season. For this week, we are looking at fan confidence as we do every week, checking in with how Red Sox fans feel about the direction of the team. In addition to that, we take a look at fans’ philosophies regarding the draft, which is coming in just a few weeks. Let’s get into it.

Confidence Poll

Coming on the heels of yet another sweep of the Yankees over the weekend, it was my expectation that we’d see a big spike in Red Sox fans’ confidence in this next round of voting. There was an increase, but it wasn’t quite as large as I thought, jumping from 74 percent to 77 percent. It is still the highest this has reached in over a month when it was at 82 percent on May 24. Relative to the rest of the league, Red Sox fans are only 11th in baseball and they are fourth in the division. For what it’s worth, for Yankees fans the confidence is at a clean 0 percent.

Draft preferences

I certainly agree with this in a vacuum, though it should be acknowledged that there are different situations. If you’re a contending team picking late in the first round and the upside isn’t that far off, it certainly makes sense to put a little more value in safety and/or how quickly they can get to the majors, just like the inverse with rebuilding teams looking long-term. But sure, if all else is equal and these are my only three considerations, I’m taking highest upside by a landslide as well.

I’ll be honest, this one is wild to me. Just like in the first question, there are nuances here that change the answer. The talent level for a pitcher versus a hitter is still the most important thing, and there is at least some consideration for team needs in terms of farm system depth. But that said, there’s just always a bigger chance the pitcher busts, whether due to injury or something else, than the hitter if all else is equal. Maybe I’m biased because of Boston’s recent history, but I got to go hitter here.

I mean, obviously I do because it’s my job, but I understand why people don’t. There are just things that baseball will never have to get the same attention as, say, the NBA and NFL drafts.