Cardinals Fans Will Love Latest ESPN MLB Power Rankings (April 21)

The St. Louis Cardinals are one of the teams off to a hot start in the 2022 MLB season. They're currently the NL Central Division leaders with a 7-3 record and are showing no signs of slowing down.

Cardinals fans will be thrilled to know that baseball experts are taking note of their club's impressive start to the campaign. That's proven by the latest ESPN MLB power rankings, where St. Louis is coming in at No. 11 — up three spots from last week.

MLB Power Rankings: Which NL team has earned our No. 1 spot this week? https://t.co/jZajHkWaij
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) April 21, 2022

St. Louis Cardinals Power Rankings

Cardinals fans will also be thrilled to know that their team ranks highest among the other NL Central clubs, with the second-place Milwaukee Brewers being their closest threat at No. 13.

Pitching has been key to St. Louis' early success, with its team ERA of 2.97 ranking seventh-best in the Majors. It's actually been the relievers that have been doing the most damage. The Cardinals' bullpen has surrendered only eight runs so far, which is an MLB-best mark.

The Cardinals' batters have also been showing up when needed, led by Nolan Arenado leading the way with an early NL MVP-like performance. He's up to 14 hits, five home runs and 14 RBIs in 38 at-bats so far, which puts him on pace for a career year if he doesn't let up.

Despite the Cardinals' strong start to the 2022 MLB season, oddsmakers aren't convinced that they're legitimate contenders. FanDuel Sportsbook is currently giving them +3500 odds (No. 15) to win the World Series, which is slightly worse than when the new campaign began.

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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.