FanPulse: Marlins fanbase unusually confident despite status as “sellers”

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

The most confident MLB fanbases should be easy for you to guess. The Atlanta Braves (96% confidence) and Houston Astros (95%) came into 2019 with playoffs-or-bust aspirations. Days away from the July 31 trade deadline, both have significant leads in their respective divisions and key, controllable players performing as well as advertised. Their ultimate goals are still within reach.

Likewise, the least confident are fairly obvious. The Mets (5%), Rockies (20%) and Pirates (22%) find themselves in limbo, lacking the talent to contend now and the impact prospects and/or financial flexibility to remedy their situations in the near future.

But would you be surprised to learn that the “lowly” Marlins (83%) engender the same good vibes among their fans as the juggernaut Dodgers (83%) and Yankees (84%)? That is indeed where we stand heading into this critical stretch.

Baseball America did some of the heavy lifting. The esteemed talent evaluation outlet admitted five Marlins prospects into their newly updated MLB Top 100 list. BA’s midseason farm system rankings bumped Miami up to No. 10, their highest spot in more than six years. These distinctions validate new management’s plan to flip their most productive players to bolster organizational depth (especially on the pitching side) while ridding themselves of bloated contracts.

Critics in the media and rival fanbases have been largely ineffective in influencing Fish fans to buy into false narratives.

But before you take a victory lap, let’s observe how late-season call-ups acclimate themselves to the majors and if the highly touted 2019 draft class can justify the hype.

More polling and illustrations next week! Sign up here to give us a balanced representation of the Marlins fanbase.