3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for Tuesday 9/14/21

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 who 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.

Touki Toussaint, P, Atlanta Braves ($8,000)

With plenty of pitching options on tonight's slate, there will be several that go overlooked.

One of those options going overlooked could be Touki Toussaint, who has a soft matchup at home versus the Colorado Rockies. It's no secret the Rockies are a weak team. We've attacked them all season and there's no reason to stop now. The Rockies come in with a 77 wRC+ (30th in the league), a .164 ISO (17th), a 23.0% strikeout rate (19th), and a 34.7% fly-ball rate (24th) versus right-handed pitchers this season. The Rockies aren't a good team versus righties, and you should be excited to attack them tonight.

Toussaint comes in with a 21.9% strikeout rate, a 4.53 SIERA, a 48.4% ground-ball rate, and a 48.4% medium-contact rate. Yes, he isn't a big strikeout pitcher by any means, but if he can keep the ball down -- which is likely against a team that doesn't generate a lot of fly balls -- he can get deeper into the game and rack up solid fantasy points.

Hunter Renfroe, OF, Boston Red Sox ($3,900)

The Boston Red Sox shouldn't be popular tonight and could make a great tournament stack.

With a 3.99 implied run total that is just the 14th-highest on the slate, the Red Sox are not moving the needle for hardly anyone. That's totally fine so that they go overlooked, and we can grab some of their players for tournaments. I'm looking at Hunter Renfroe as an option for that. Renfroe has plenty of power, with a 142 wRC+, a .245 ISO, a 41.6% fly-ball rate, a 36.8% hard-contact rate, and an 18.4% HR/FB ratio versus lefties this season. Those are solid numbers across the board and gives him some home run upside if the matchup is good.

Speaking of his matchup, Renfroe will be taking on Tyler Anderson, a pitcher we can look to attack. Anderson comes allowing a .212 ISO, a 4.55 xFIP, 1.70 HR/9, and a 45.1% fly-ball rate versus right-handed hitters this season. That high fly ball rate is very dangerous versus a hitter such as Renfroe -- a player you should have some interest in tonight.

Matt Olson, 1B, Oakland Athletics ($4,000)

How popular are the Oakland Athletics going to be tonight?

That's the question I'm wondering today since they are in a great spot against Jackson Kowar from the Kansas City Royals. This is Kowar's first year in the MLB, and he only has 17.0 innings pitched, so take his body of work with a grain of salt. Kowar is allowing 1.35 HR/9 to lefties, along with a 21.2% walk rate, a 7.48 xFIP, a 47.6% fly-ball rate, and a 33.3% hard-contact rate. Yikes. Those numbers are going to stabilize over time, but they are truly a terrible way to start your time in MLB.

When we have this type of matchup, I generally always side with the experienced hitter over the young pitcher. This is why I'll look to Matt Olson. Olson is crushing righties this season to a tune of a 141 wRC+, a .227 ISO, a 41.5% fly-ball rate, and a 38.2% hard-contact rate. Those are legitimately amazing numbers from Olson, who is one of my favorite options on the slate.