Braves Still Have Long Road Ahead in ESPN's MLB Power Rankings

The World Series hangover was real for the Atlanta Braves to start the 2022 MLB season. They were a below-.500 club for a large portion of time to start the campaign, but have since clawed their way back to a 30-27 record — good for second in the NL East, trailing the New York Mets by 7.0 games.

Even though the Braves' current seven-game winning streak makes them one of the hotter teams in baseball, ESPN's Week 9 power rankings show that they still have a lot of work to do. The sports website has Atlanta at the No. 13 ranking, only two spots up from last week's No. 15.

Braves Power Ranking

It's clear that the Braves have a long way to go before teams believe that they're a legitimate threat. It doesn't help that their current win streak is made up of wins over the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies and Oakland Athletics; hardly the definition of contenders.

Even then, it's hard to not like what Atlanta has been doing over its recent stretch of success. They've dominated their opponents, outscoring them 52-20 over that stretch. Six Braves players are batting .300 or better during that span as well, which is a trend that the team hopes to see continued.

One of the main factors behind the Braves' turnaround has been Ronald Acuna Jr.'s play. He missed most of April due to a leg injury but is batting .318 with five home runs and 15 RBIs in 28 games since then. Considering how Atlanta is 17-11 with Acuna versus a 13-16 record without him, it's easy to see just how important he is to the club's success.

It'll be interesting to see where the Braves rank next week. They have winnable series against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals coming up, giving them a juicy opportunity to improve their power ranking.

Braves World Series Odds

Even though ESPN isn't the biggest fan of the Braves, the same cannot be said for FanDuel Sportsbook. The oddsmaker is giving Atlanta +1700 odds to win the 2022 World Series, which ranks eighth-best across the Majors.

Devon Platana is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Devon Platana also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username PepeSilvia0. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.