Stephen Drew Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

The two offensive stars to actually grace the Washington lineup in the rescheduled affair against the Orioles (Bryce Harper and Trea Turner) are the RotoGrinders Player Projections' top overall bats along with George Springer and Jose Altuve against Jason Hammel. While all four cost at least $5.4K on DraftKings, it may be more feasible to accumulate a few of those bats in a FanDuel lineup with each projected for at least 3.0 Pt/$/K. Several low cost Washington bats (Adam Lind, Wilmer Difo, and Stephen Drew) aid the cause with FD projections above 3.7 Pt/$/K, while a $2.1K Adam Engel projects for 2.77 Pt/$/K on DraftKings against Jake Odorizzi. Brian McCann, Evan Longoria and Aaron Altherr are all $3.6K or less on DraftKings as well with a projection above 2.3 Pt/$/K.

Alec Asher has allowed six runs in 18.2 innings with 14 strikeouts, two walks and three HRs in starts not against the Houston Astros, but has had just a 7.4 SwStr% in each of his last two starts. A tough start in Washington (122 wRC+ at home, 112 wRC+ vs RHP) becomes a bit more interesting with Werth, Murphy, Zimmerman and Rendon out of the lineup as Asher costs just $4.7K on DraftKings. Using the new PlateIQ tool, we can see that this particular Washington lineup has just a 19.6 K% vs RHP this year with a .297 wOBA and .177 ISO. This is opposed to a 19.2 K%, .345 wOBA and 198 ISO vs RHP as an entire team this year. The real gain here is in wOBA with the small sample sizes of Wilmer Difo (.229), Drew (.148) and Goodwin (.264) bringing the current lineup's total to below .300 against RHP. Asher doesn't have to do much for less than $5K, but now this matchup offers some low cost solutions to higher priced pitchers on either side with either Asher or someone like Adam Lind (107 wRC+, .215 ISO vs RHP since 2016) as well as Drew (116 wRC+, .250 ISO vs RHP since 2016).

Tom Koehler has a meager 16% k-rate over the last two weeks, coupled with a massive 48% hard contact rate. Koehler has surrendered xFIPs of 4.70 and 4.60 to LHBs and RHBs, respectively, meaning that all of the Nationals hitters in the lineup today are in play. Stephen Drew is an incredible option at the shortstop position today, seeing that Drew has hit the ball hard in 69% of at-bats that have ended in contact while only striking out 5% of the time. That is an elite combination that should lead to a productive Sunday for Stephen Drew.

Andrew Cashner has had terrible peripherals since the trade with a 12.7 BB% and 38.7 Hard%. LHBs have absolutely destroyed him since last season (.380 wOBA, 37.5 Hard%), which makes this a great spot for the return of Bryce Harper (118 wRC+, .192 ISO vs RHP this year). He's had a down season with many suspecting he's been injured for most of it, but is certainly worth a flyer here at a reasonable price based on matchup alone. Stephen Drew (132 wRC+, .270 ISO vs RHP this season) is putting up Bryce Harper's numbers in limited opportunities vs RHP this year and is the bargain SS on FanDuel for $2.5K. Other LHBs Lobaton, Robinson and Espinosa are also priced near minimally on FD and lowly on DK, but are all below average hitters with below average power against RHP.

Matt Koch will be making his first career major league start after a small handful of innings out of the bullpen. In the minors, Koch was a low strikeout, low walk pitcher with a low home run rate. We shouldn’t expect much out of him being limited to just 75 pitches tonight, and even if he were to pitch 4-5 decent innings with his strong control, we would still want Nationals bats against this Diamonbacks bullpen. With Daniel Muphy, Bryce Harper and Wilson Ramos all out the Nationals lineup tonight, our options in the Washington lineup are suddenly extremely limited. Anthony Rendon (.180 ISO), Stephen Drew (141 wRC+, .386 wOBA, .280 ISO vs RHP), and Brian Goodwin are all cash game viable given their price points and lineup position, with the rest of the lineup left as a tournament stack. Trea Turner (156 wRC+, .409 wOBA, .264 ISO vs RHP) would be the top option to round out tournament stacks with the aforementioned value plays.

Despite an insubstantial shift in results, Archie Bradley's 14.9 K-BB% is up over four points from his season rate, while his hard hit rate is down to a league average 30.8% (36.4% on the season) over the last month. He has the worst defense on the board tonight behind him leading to a .368 BABIP over the discussed span. A full strength Washington lineup is probably near average vs RHP (95 wRC+), but take out Harper and Murphy and Archie Bradley almost becomes interesting for around $6.5K on either site. Batters from either side have hit the ball hard over 35% of the time against him though, while LHBs have a .365 wOBA, Part of that can probably be attributed to a difficult home park, but probably not all of it. Trea Turner (141 wRC+, .248 ISO vs RHP career) is the top bat here, but costs an aggressive $5.6K on DraftKings without the normal fire power behind him. Stephen Drew (138 wRC+, .276 ISO vs RHP this season) has had a nice bounce back season off the bench for this club and costs less than $3K in the fifth spot today.

With Bryce Harper (116 wRC+, .188 ISO vs RHP this season) continuing to struggle (-18 wRC+ last seven days) and Daniel Murphy remaining out of the lineup, this appears to be a nice spot for Jameson Taillon at home, in a park that greatly suppresses RH power against a slightly below average offense vs RHP even when they have all of their key bats healthy. While Taillon's strikeout rate has tailed off over the last month (16.9%), it's a good sign that his SwStr rate has increased (9.1%). Taillon has a 16.0 K-BB% with a 53.1 GB% in his rookie season in a park that helps limit some of his issues with hard contact (33.6%). The Nationals have an 18.1 K-BB% over the last week. While Taillon has been held under 80 pitches in three of his last four starts, he did throw 95 two starts back the Pirates are not entirely out of the WC race yet. If we think he's got 90 pitches in him tonight, $7K is a very reasonable price in this spot. For the Nationals, Trea Turner (159 wRC+, .276 ISO vs RHP this season) seems a bit pricey in this spot, but Stephen Drew (128 wRC+, .277 ISO vs RHP this season) is a viable middle IF punt option, especially for just $2.2K on FanDuel

Straily (4.80 SIERA) is coming off a rough outing against the Cubs where he allowed 7 ER in 3.2 IP. Straily has struggled mightily versus LHBs this season (5.92 xFIP, 1.5% K-BB%). Straily is also allowing an above average fly ball rate (41.4% FB%). We can really target any of these Nationals left handed bats in cash games and tournaments. Daniel Murphy (177 wRC+, .438 wOBA, .271 ISO vs RHP) and Bryce Harper (138 wRC+, .380 wOBA, .228 ISO vs RHP) are going to the popular plays in this matchup and deservedly so. Wilson Ramos (169 wRC+, .426 wOBA, .214 ISO vs RHP) is one of the top catcher plays on the entire slate if looking to pay up at the position. We can even look to Stephen Drew (117 wRC+, .349 wOBA, .297 ISO vs RHP) as a decent punt in tournaments.

Erik Johnson is not a good pitcher who has allowed seven HRs to just 77 batters this season with a 7.8 K-BB%. Both lefties and righties have a wOBA above .380 with a hard hit rate above 39% against him since last season. Stacking in Petco is not normally recommended, but might be worth it tonight. Bryce Harper (188 wRC+, .322 ISO vs RHP since 2015) is one of tonight's top bats. Jayson Werth has a 173 wRC+ and 53.3 Hard% over the last week. Clint Robinson (101 wRC+ vs RHP since 2015) and even Stephen Drew (127 wRC+, .328 ISO vs RHP this season) can serve as salary savers with Murphy and Zimmerman out after an extra inning game yesterday before flying across country. Wilson Ramos (153 wRC+, .196 ISO vs RHP this season) bats cleanup at a weak position tonight.

James Shields will be making his first start with the White Sox since being acquired from the Padres. U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago has been a more pitcher-friendly environment than Petco Park in San Diego so far this season. Still, Vegas has the Nationals with a 4.51 run projection (8th highest). Shields has allowed a .348 wOBA against LHBs this season, which puts Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy as the top options. Harper (.393 wOBA, 148 wRC+ vs. RHP in 2016) still sits below $5K, while Daniel Murphy (.419 wOBA, 165 wRC+ L14) has been hot over the last couple weeks. Making him the most expensive bat in the lineup at $5.1K but he is slightly discounted from the games earlier this week. Stephen Drew ($2.6K on DK) is also a viable cheap bat on a slate with so many high-priced pitching options available. Drew (.488 wOBA, 212 wRC+ L14) has played well over the last couple weeks and does deserve tournament consideration, even though he is at the bottom of the order.