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
Joey Lucchesi, P, San Diego Padres
FanDuel Price: $7,900
With ownership set to be centered around three pitchers tonight, the mid-tier offers plenty of options to pick from for tournaments.
Those three pitchers who will see the most ownership tonight are Justin Verlander, Jose Berrios, and Mike Soroka since they are clearly the best pitchers on the slate by a decent margin. This means a pitcher like Joey Lucchesi can go significantly under-owned tonight, despite having one of the best matchups on the slate.
Lucchesi comes in with a solid stretch of games, allowing three or fewer earned runs in five of his last six starts, a level he should almost certainly reach against this lowly San Francisco Giants lineup. The Giants are one of the worst teams in the league by nearly any measure you look at, a 68 wRC+ (30th in the league), a .112 ISO (30th in the league), and a 23.7% strikeout rate (15th in the league) versus left-handed pitchers. This is a borderline minor-league team and Lucchesi should have few issues taking care of this lineup and extending this strong stretch of starts.
Our projections have him allowing only 2.05 earned runs tonight, along with having the best park factor going on the slate.
Jarrod Dyson, OF, Arizona Diamondbacks
FanDuel: $2,800
Jarrod Dyson certainly doesn't bring a ton of power upside but he is cheap tonight and has a sneaky good matchup.
The Arizona Diamondbacks come in with an implied run total set at 4.18 tonight, which isn't super high, but they're in a good spot to go over that total. They are up against Zach Eflin, who comes in with an ERA set at 2.88 this season, which looks good on paper but doesn't tell the whole story. Eflin has a 4.85 xFIP this season overall and a 5.53 xFIP against left-handed hitters specifically. Those underlying numbers are not good at all and with him allowing a 40.2% hard-hit rate and 46.9% fly-ball rate to lefty hitters, this is a spot to attack.
As mentioned, Dyson doesn't have immense power, showing only a .135 ISO versus right-handed pitchers, but his .318 wOBA is passable since he brings stolen base upside. Dyson has 14 stolen bases this season, all of which have come against right-handed pitchers.
Miguel Cabrera, 1B, Detroit Tigers
FanDuel Price: $2,800
We all know that Miguel Cabrera's best day are behind him but he still brings some DFS value for us to go after tonight.
The Detroit Tigers are up against Danny Duffy, who has a 5.24 xFIP this season versus right-handed hitters while allowing 1.06 homers per nine innings from his 40.8% fly-ball rate. A solid park factor for the Tigers tonight should help them hit the over on their 4.14 implied team total, which seems a bit too low considering how bad Duffy has been against righty hitters this season. Duffy has allowed four or more earned runs in each of his last two starts and that trend should continue tonight given how bad his splits are against right-handed hitters.
Cabrera has the historic success against Duffy, with 10 hits, three doubles, six runs, six RBI, and 10 walks in his career, so buy into the batter versus hitter if you'd like.