Fan confidence in Royals’ direction remains steady despite losses

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 are hurtling towards their second consecutive 100-loss season, but fan confidence in the direction of the team continues to hold steady, according to our latest results surveying FanPulse respondents. Fan confidence in the direction of the franchise has held steady much of the year, with confidence hovering between 50 and 60 percent, despite the accumulation of losses.

A lot of that is due to the play of some of the young players like Adalberto Mondesi and Hunter Dozier, as well as solid play from Whit Merrifield. The impressive performance of minor league pitchers Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch, and Kris Bubic should also give fans some confidence that help is on the way, even as the Royals post one of the worst team ERAs in baseball.

Those feelings have translated into stable approval ratings for manager Ned Yost, which come in at 54 percent this week according to Fanpulse respondents. His approval rating plummeted from 93 percent to start the year, down to 53 percent after the first month in which the Royals stumbled out of the gate, but it has held steady there in the month of May, despite the record not improving much.

With the draft coming up, the FanPulse survey also asked all fans if international players should be subject to the draft. Some have argued that subjecting international player to the draft and capping their bonuses could lead to less interest in the game, pointing to the inclusion of Puerto Rican players in the draft as evidence. But others have argued that the international signing system is corrupt and exploits many international prospects, and that international players have an unfair advantage over drafted players in earning potential.

By and large, fans feel baseball should reform the draft to make it worldwide.

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!