Below you will find our annual SportFacts Optimism Score for the 2018 MLB season. Each year, we give teams a preseason optimism score based on how excited people are about their team’s prospects. You can review the 2017 MLB preseason scores here for a fun look back at last year.

Methodology:

We polled baseball fans, asking them for their favorite team, and how optimistic they are about their team’s chances in the 2018 season to make the playoffs.

We compared the past several seasons’ records to see what team are trending positively or negatively.

We added in Vegas predictions for each team’s record to get a rough estimate of perceived 2018 success.

We weighted the number of responses from each fan against their favorite team’s record to determine sentiment.

Setting this on a scale of 1-50, we created an Optimism Score for each team’s fanbase.

Team Optimism Score Houston Astros 49 Los Angeles Dodgers 46.5 Washington Nationals 44 Cleveland Indians 44 New York Yankees 42 Chicago Cubs 40 Arizona Diamondbacks 39 Boston Red Sox 38.25 Los Angeles Angels 36 St. Louis Cardinals 35.5 Milwaukee Brewers 32 Colorado Rockies 30 Minnesota Twins 27.25 New York Mets 26 Tampa Bay Rays 24.75 Toronto Blue Jays 24.25 Texas Rangers 24 Seattle Mariners 22 San Francisco Giants 21.5 Pittsburgh Pirates 20.5 Oakland Athletics 18 Atlanta Braves 15.75 Philadelphia Phillies 14 Baltimore Orioles 13 Chicago White Sox 12.5 Cincinnati Reds 12 Miami Marlins 9 San Diego Padres 7.75 Kansas City Royals 6.5 Detroit Tigers 4.5