Ned Yost’s approval rating drops among Royals fans

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Royals fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

The Royals were hoping to capitalize off a strong finish to last season, but so far in 2019, the team has stumbled out of the gate. A 3-7 road-trip has left the team with the second-worst record in all of baseball.

That disappointing start has led Ned Yost’s approval rating to drop significantly among our Fanpulse respondents. Those fans gave Ned Yost a 93 percent approval rating before the season began, and that support has fallen to an approval rating of just 53 percent this week.

Despite the loss of confidence in Yost, the Fanpulse respondents have held steady on their confidence in the overall future of this franchise. Hot starts by Brad Keller, Hunter Dozier and Adalberto Mondesi - who figure to be part of the future - have probably maintained that optimism.

This week’s national question relates to the Royals, who had a dust-up with the Chicago White Sox last week after Brad Keller intentionally plunked shorstop Tim Anderson. FanPulse asked fans of all teams whether it is ever okay to intentionallly hit a batter (“bean” technically means to hit in the head, but in this case and in many uses, it is meant to mean any intentional hitting of a batter). Sixty percent of Fanpulse respondents said it is never okay to hit a batter, with 40 percent saying it was fine.

Remember, you can sign up to participate in the FanPulse surveys at this link! Surveys will go out each week and only take a few minutes to complete. Check back next week for more FanPulse results!