MLB

3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for 5/29/19

Thomas Vecchio  —  @Tom_Vecchio1 May 29th, 2019
Kevin Gausman has a great price tag tonight and a strong matchup versus a weak Nationals team, is he a pitcher to go overlooked tonight?

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

Kevin Gausman, P, Atlanta Braves

FanDuel Price: $7,300

A nine-game slate tonight features some truly elite pitchers, which should mean most of the mid- to lower-tier options go vastly overlooked in tournaments.

Kevin Gausman is a pitcher to strongly consider tonight given his recent stretch of consistency along with his favorable matchup, on top of a great price tag. Let's start with his consistency of four straight starts with three or fewer earned runs allowed, six or more strikeouts in three of those four starts, and three quality starts in three straight. We can't put Gausman up with Blake Snell, Noah Syndergaard, Walker Buehler, or Aaron Nola on this slate, but those are some solid numbers given he is just above $7K.

On to the matchup, he is facing off against the Washington Nationals who are quietly one of the worst teams in the league and you should be looking to attack them when you can. The Nationals currently have an 81 wRC+ (25th in the league), a .153 ISO (26th in the league), and a 24.5% strikeout rate (8th in the league) versus right-handed pitchers.

Miguel Cabrera, 1B, Detroit Tigers

FanDuel Price: $2,800

Miguel Cabrera has certainly lost a step over the past few years but his power is still there and that is what you should be targeting tonight.

He comes in with a very solid .466 wOBA and a .192 ISO versus lefty pitchers, which should put him in a spot for some power tonight in a strong hitter's park. The Detroit Tigers are facing off against John Means, who doesn't have the biggest sample size to look at but is carrying a 42.1% fly-ball rate and allowing 1.46 homers per nine innings to right-handed hitters this season.

A 4.48 implied run total for the Tigers is strong tonight and with Cabrera under $3K, the bit of savings are there to help you fit in players from Coors Field if that's something that interests you.

Yolmer Sanchez, 2B, Chicago White Sox

FanDuel Price: $2,300

The Chicago White Sox as a whole are very cheap tonight and have plenty of players who could go overlooked in some tournaments.

Yolmer Sanchez hasn't been off to the best start this season, with only one home run and a .277 wOBA, but if we look back to last season, we can see he was better against right-handed pitchers. In 2018, he owned a .314 wOBA and a .152 ISO versus righty pitchers, which is essentially average. You might not want to go all-in on a player like this, but the matchup tonight should allow him to be on the plus side of things against Glenn Sparkman, who allowed a .330 wOBA, 35.0% fly-ball rate, and 36.7% hard-contact rate to left-handed hitters last season.

Sanchez doesn't bring a whole lot of consistency, but the savings are there and a 4.64 implied run total for the White Sox is nothing to shy away from.