Oakland A’s fan confidence remains high as trade deadline approaches

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. A’s fans, click HERE to learn more and join FanPulse.

A’s fans were asked last week if they have confidence in the direction of the team, and the result was a resounding “Yes!” The final tally was 88% approval, which is right in line with the previous few weeks.

Note: This post is about the survey from Monday, July 22. We’ve already taken the next survey since then, but I was at the Coliseum most of last weekend and have also been distracted by trade rumors so I never got around to posting this one. Let’s just do a quick look here before moving on to the July 29 poll results in the next post.

At the time of this survey, the A’s had just completed a hard-fought split on the road in Minnesota. Winning the series would have been even cooler, and probably would have helped yield a higher approval rating, but the split was still impressive against one of the best teams in the league and that was enough to appease the fans. The two wins were also enough to maintain Oakland’s position as the second Wild Card, which they still hold entering today.

At this point the A’s have established themselves as true contenders, and over the last month the fan confidence has reflected that fact. After sitting at 67% for two straight weeks in mid/late June, they’ve now scored 87%, 88%, 93% and 88% the last four weeks, covering all of July so far.

In the other weekly question, manager Bob Melvin continued his unwavering fan support. He notched a 95% approval rating, his fifth straight week above 90.

As for the national question, it’s a bit out of date now. It was asking about the best player available at the deadline, and the winner (Marcus Stroman) has now already been traded and is no longer available. Also, the question was written before Noah Syndergaard fully entered the market, or else he presumably would have been included.