Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for 4/25/19
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.
Marcus Stroman, P, Toronto Blue Jays
FanDuel Price: $8,000
With 15 games on the slate tonight, we should see ownership spread out, which leaves plenty of players to come in at super low ownership.
Marcus Stroman has been off to a super strong start this season and has allowed three or fewer runs in each of his five starts while posting five strikeouts or more. We know that Stroman isn't a big strikeout pitcher with only a 22.8% strikeout rate this season and a 17.2% strikeout rate from last year. But what Stroman does well is inducing ground balls, which helps him limit the potential damage from fly balls and home runs. He comes in with a 56.0% ground ball rate this season, one of the highest on the slate.
This may seem like a minor detail, but Stroman is up against the Oakland Athletics, who rely on the long ball to produce runs and the excessive ground ball rate takes that away from them.
Jose Rondon, 2B, Chicago White Sox
FanDuel Price: $2,200
Jose Rondon is barely above the minimum salary tonight and will allow you to pay up for some of the elite pitchers available.
Rondon and the Chicago White Sox come in with an implied run total set at 4.71 tonight, putting them in a good spot to score some runs. They are facing off against Daniel Norris, who allowed a .332 wOBA, 1.53 homers per 9 innings, and a 42% hard contact rate to right-handed hitters last season. Numbers like that put the White Sox in a great spot tonight, but with Rondon hitting near the bottom of the lineup, he will naturally carry lower ownership compared to Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, and Jose Abreu at the top of the lineup.
It's no secret that Rondon isn't off to an amazing start this season, but if we look back to last year, we see that he carried a very strong .196 ISO versus left-handed pitchers, which gives him some home run upside in what should be a slightly windy game tonight.
Dwight Smith Jr., OF, Baltimore Orioles
FanDuel Price: $3,700
The Baltimore Orioles only come in with an implied team total of 3.86, but in a great matchup to hit the over on that tonight.
They are facing off against Martin Perez, who is allowing a 46.0% hard contact rate this season and while it's a small sample size, it falls in line with his 39.0% hard contact rate from last season. Perez also struggled against left-handed hitters last season, allowing 1.17 homers per 9 innings, making him a pitcher to stack against tonight in tournaments.
Dwight Smith could be a player to go overlooked tonight since at first glance it's a lefty versus lefty matchup. But if we look further, we can see that Smith carries a 134 wRC+, .222 ISO, and 35.0% hard contact rate versus left-handed pitchers this season, albeit in a small sample. He also adds upside with his legs, going a perfect 3-for-3 on stolen base attempts this year.
With every team on the slate tonight, there are plenty of spots to go for lower ownership, but the Orioles versus Perez is one to take note of.
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.
