Definitely Interesting, Possibly Helpful Team Preview: Washington Nationals
Baseball is almost here! With an eventful offseason in the books and spring training underway, it’s time to preview all 30 teams in Major League Baseball. With the help of RotoGrinders PlateIQ Premium, DFS ownership trends from Chris Gimino, and our resident Premium MLB guru Dave Potts (aka CheeseIsGood), we take a look at some information that is definitely interesting and possibly helpful for the upcoming 2019 MLB season.
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Washington Nationals Preseason Overview
— Vegas Win Total O/U: 89.5
— World Series Odds: 12/1
— Key Additions: Brian Dozier, Patrick Corbin, Kurt Suzuki
Other Noteworthy Players for DFS: Matt Adams, Howie Kendrick, Kurt Suzuki, Michael Taylor, Wilmer Difo
— Outlook: The Nationals won’t experience addition by subtraction with Bryce Harper, but they will experience a lot more money in their team bank account without giving up the chance at a successful season. This lineup is still loaded with above average bats like Juan Soto, Ryan Zimmerman, Brian Dozier, Trea Turner, and Anthony Rendon. Dozier struggled last season and earned just a 90 wRC+, but the balance of the aforementioned sluggers were all over 105. Rendon and Soto had particularly strong showings, with Isolated power over .225 and 46 combined HR. The Nationals look primed for a very good season with the bats.
On the mound, they have three pitchers that PlateIQ score loved for DFS purposes in 2018. Newly acquired SP Patrick Corbin, Stephen Strasburg, and the incredible Max Scherzer each carried an average strikeout rating over 66 in 2018. Only Chris Sale carried a higher strikeout rating on the season than Scherzer overall.
— DFS Ownership Trends: They were one of the most owned teams on DraftKings in 2018 (5.71% avg., Rank 7th), and we expect them to remain pretty popular in 2019. I wouldn’t be expecting the Nationals opponents to be very popular though. None of their five starters ranked in the top 100 most popular pitchers to target in 2018, and in fact had three of the very lowest ownership percentage against in baseball with Strasburg (Rank 300/353), Corbin (Rank 320/353 ), and Scherzer (Rank 349/353).
Definitely Interesting, Possibly Helpful Notes
— Max Scherzer has recorded double digits in strikeouts 46 times over the last three years; that’s 13 more times than second-place Chris Sale. Entering his age-34 season, Scherzer is showing no signs of slowing: he punched out a career-high 300 hitters last season, making him one of only four players aged 33 or older to notch 300 strikeouts in a season (Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Nolan Ryan).
— There was no better hitter of fastballs last season than Juan Soto, whose .489 wOBA ranked first among all hitters with at least 100 results. Against non-fastballs? Soto’s .259 wOBA ranked 203rd. Soto is 20 years old, meaning he’ll make adjustments and learn to hit breaking and offspeed pitches. But until we see those adjustments, assume this is a hitter best deployed against pitchers who lean heavily on the heater.