Last week’s Rays Confidence Graph results.

Below you will see two polls that ask about your confidence in the Tampa Bay Rays. Please take a moment to answer each question. We will present these same polls every Monday. The results will be presented in graphical form on Wednesday, and will be displayed permanently in the sidebar. The goal of the Confidence Graph is to get a feeling of how Rays fans feel about the team and the franchise and track how that level of confidence changes through time. Thanks!

Raysiverse events of the past week that could impact confidence levels…

• The Tampa Bay Rays are 21-16, 1.5 games behind the Red Sox in 2nd place in the AL East. The Rays are also percentage points ahead of the Angels in the Wild Card standings. During the week, the Rays took 2 of 3 from the Jays and swept the Angels and have now won 9 games in a row at home. If winning series is the criteria, the Rays have won 5 of their last 6 series.
  
• Andy Sonnanstine’s recent success is not a fluke. He has changed his mechanics and no longer changes arm angles on his pitches.
• Jeff Niemann finally returns to the diamond for the first time since being demoted and Juan Salas also returns.
• Joe Maddon admits that his tactics as a manager have changed this season.
• David Price makes his first start of 2008 in extended spring training.
• Friday night may have been the best game in the history of the franchise. A 1-hit shutout from James Shields and a 2-run walk-off home run from Evan Longoria.
• Scott Kazmir seemed to rediscover his confidence in the 2nd inning on Saturday, en route to becoming the Rays all-time winningest pitcher.