Confidence level rising...

Watching the confidence poll (at the left) from week to week this spring has been interesting...there isn't a great deal of variation, but fluctuations have occurred when the team has struggled or someone (like Tommy Hunter) has gone down to injury.

Going 6-0 to start the season, though, clearly has had a huge impact...the confidence rating for the Rangers is sitting at 93 this week, the highest that I can remember since these polls started going up.*

* You can see the current confidence ratings for all the D/FW teams, along with UT, at SBN Dallas.

The biggest changes in team confidence that I can recall since these polls started both involve a certain magical lefthanded pitcher.  There was a big jump in the confidence poll after the Rangers traded for Cliff Lee last summer, and a big drop in the confidence poll after Lee signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Over the coming weeks, we'll be doing one post per week that will talk about the confidence poll, and how Rangers fans (or at least, the LSB segment of the Rangers fans -- and really, does anyone else matter) feel about the team going forward.

Upbeat?  Optimistic?  Pessimistic?  Gloomy?  Hopefully more of the former than the latter, and hopefully the Rangers will give us good reasons to be confident in the team going forward.

With a three game set in Baltimore this weekend, hopefully we'll have the positive vibes continue through to Monday.  Taking two of three would mean one of the best starts in team history...whereas a sweep at the hands of the Orioles would be a big buzzkil after the undefeated homestand to kick things off.