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's is the name of the game if you plan on taking down one of those highly lucrative DFS tournaments. Whether it's because of bookmaker totals, other options at a given position, or some gem you've found that everyone is overlooking, we can always find potential under-rostered plays if we look hard enough.
Here are three such players to consider branching out for on FanDuel's main slate.
Martin Perez, P, Boston Red Sox ($8,400)
We had a small six-game slate, which was turned into a five-game slate when the Colorado Rockies' game was postponed tonight.
The limited options we had on this slate have been reduced even further, presenting a number of questions on tonight's slate. It's clear that both Kyle Gibson and Alex Wood are the two best pitchers on the slate and are now that much easier to afford since you don't have to pay up for the hitters at Coors Field. If those pitchers are that much easier to afford, we should see them even more popular than they would've been before.
This is where Martin Perez comes into play since he shouldn't be too popular given the overall context of the slate. He's up against the Baltimore Orioles, who come in with a 23.5% strikeout rate (18th in the league), a .152 ISO, a 32.6% fly-ball rate (22nd), and a 29.1% hard-contact rate (18th). This truly isn't a tough matchup for Perez, who has a super-low 25.3% hard-contact rate this season, along with a 39.5% ground-ball rate. He should be able to limit the damage and won't be as popular as the top pitchers tonight.
Corey Dickerson, OF, Miami Marlins ($2,900)
If the Miami Marlins aren't going to be popular tonight, they have some tournament upside.
Luke Weaver is on the mound for the Arizona Diamondbacks and he is a pitcher you can certainly target for some home run upside. Over the course of his career, Weaver has allowed 1.39 HR/9 to lefty hitters, along with a 4.35 xFIP, a 34.2 hard-contact rate, and a 34.5% fly-ball rate. All of those numbers, except xFIP, are worse so far this season, albeit a small sample size.
We turn to Corey Dickerson in this situation, since he has massive righty-lefty splits. Against right-handed pitchers in his career, he has a very strong .231 ISO, 124 wRC+, 39.2% fly-ball rate, and a 36.0% hard-contact rate. You might not look to the Marlins for a full stack, but Dickerson could be a very solid one-off for tournaments.