When being contrarian in daily fantasy sports, there's a fine line between taking a calculated risk and being reckless. But differentiating your lineups from everyone else is the name of the game if you plan on taking down one of those highly lucrative DFS tournaments. Whether it's because of Vegas totals, other options at a given position, or some gem you've found that everyone is overlooking, we can always find potential under-owned plays if we look hard enough.
Here are three such players to consider branching out for on FanDuel's main slate.
Jhoulys Chacin, P, Milwaukee Brewers
FanDuel Price: $8,600
Jhoulys Chacin and the Milwaukee Brewers will be on the road to face the Los Angeles Angels, and this a spot to attack in GPPs.
In his first two starts of the year, Chacin has racked up 13 strikeouts in 10.2 innings pitched while allowing five earned runs. It might all be an outlier to some, but he allowed a low .234 wOBA and had a 23.9% strikeout rate to right-handed hitters last season, showing that there is some meat on the bone here. A positive park shift in his favor tonight could be the extra boost he needs to post another strong start to help reach salary-based value, and if he does that, he'll do it at what should be low ownership.
A slate which features Justin Verlander, Masahiro Tanaka, and a resurgent Madison Bumgarner will likely make Chacin one of the lower-owned pitching options tonight.
Dylan Moore, 2B, Seattle Mariners
FanDuel Price: $2,000
You might be asking, who is Dylan Moore? Well, he is a utility player for the Seattle Mariners who could be getting the start tonight due to an injured Tim Beckham.
Beckham was pulled from yesterday's game and replaced by Moore, which should be a solid indication we are in for the same tonight should Beckham miss this game. Moore comes in at the absolute minimum salary and eases roster construction on a slate where we want to pay up for hitting. He will be facing off against Homer Bailey, who allowed a .362 wOBA, 1.63 homers per nine innings, and a whopping 45.8% hard contact rate to right-handed hitters last season.
The Mariners and their 4.9-run implied total on the road should tell you enough about how bad Bailey is and why you should be stacking against him tonight.
Josh Phegley, C, Oakland Athletics
FanDuel Price: $2,000
There is no doubt that the Oakland Athletics will be a popular option today, but it's a matter of how you stack their lineup that can make the difference.
The reason why the Athletics will be so popular tonight is due to the fact they are up against Andrew Cashner, who is known for allowing way too many home runs. This is shown by the fact he allowed 1.20 homers per nine to right-handed hitters and 1.73 homers per nine to left-handed hitters last season. Those are simply horrible numbers for a pitcher -- no two ways about it.
As long as he's in the lineup, Josh Phegley offers plenty of salary relief, and if you are a believer in hot streaks, he is coming off of two multi-hit games in a row. The Athletics have an implied team total sitting at 5.04, which is the highest on the slate outside of Coors Field, setting them up for plenty of runs against a homer-prone pitcher.
Thomas Vecchio is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Thomas Vecchio also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username TomVec629. 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 his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.