Why It’s Time To Purchase Cardinals Stock In MLB Futures Market
The Redbirds are 20-1 to win the pennant
The St. Louis Cardinals are finally trending in the right direction.
After dropping 19 of their first 29 games through April and losing their first five in May, the Cardinals were 10-24 and fading fast. They sat in dead last in the National League Central and trailed the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates by 10 games. However, the Redbirds are 11-4 since May 6 and rocketing up the standings.
NL Central standings:
Milwaukee 25-22
Pittsburgh 25-22
Chicago 20-26 (4.5 GB)
St. Louis 21-28 (5 GB)
Cincinnati 20-27 (5 GB)
As you can imagine, the betting market has reacted accordingly.
"We bet some Cardinals +400 to win the division last week," one professional bettor told NESN. "It was right after they took two out of three from Milwaukee. I didn't expect them to take three out of four against Los Angeles, too, but that's baseball for you. Remember, the Cardinals were favored to win the Central (-115) with a win total around 90. Sure, they got off to an awful start, but they've already slashed their deficit in half.
"They have way too much talent to stay down for long in an atrocious division."
St. Louis is now anywhere from +180 to +230 to win the NL Central.
STL odds to win division:
+230 Circa ($100 wins $230)
+220 DraftKings
+210 FanDuel
+200 BetRivers
+190 BetMGM
+190 PointsBet
+190 SuperBook
+180 Caesars
Even though the 4-1 divisional prices are gone, there's still relative betting value at those two-dollar prices -- especially considering the Opening Day odds.
Other markets to consider are the Cardinals to make the playoffs (as high as +130) and win the pennant. The South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was dealing 25-1 on the Redbirds to reach the World Series late Sunday afternoon. Beating up on the National League favorites clearly opened the eyes of bettors and bookmakers.
There's only one shop across America hanging a 20-1.
STL odds to win NL pennant:
SuperBook +2000 ($100 wins $2,000)
Caesars +1800
South Point +1800
BetRivers +1700
FanDuel +1600
Circa +1550
BetMGM +1500
DraftKings +1500
PointsBet +1500
WynnBET +1500
"You won't see another 25-1 on them the rest of the regular season," the bettor continued. "With guys like (Paul) Goldschmidt, (Nolan) Arenado, Nolan Gorman and Willson Contreras, there's too much to like about that lineup when it's clicking. It's only a matter of time before they start leap frogging teams in the standings."
St. Louis also has a Top-10 bullpen, a Top-7 defense and if the Birds get aggressive and swing a deadline trade for a top-end starting pitcher like Dylan Cease from the Chicago White Sox, their odds to make postseason noise will run even more. Even with a 21-28 record, Baseball Reference still gives them a 37% chance to win the NL Central, just three percentage points behind Milwaukee.
And as the '19 Washington Nationals and '21 Atlanta Braves taught us in recent years, you certainly don't have to dominate wire-to-wire to win a World Series.
I don't hate a pennant pop on the Cardinals at 20-1.
