MLB

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

Thomas Vecchio  —  @DFS_Tom Mar 29th, 2019
An eight-game slate tonight brings a plethora of options at each position, but where can we look to separate ourselves in tournaments?

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.

Derek Holland, P, San Francisco Giants

FanDuel Price: $7,300

By no means is Derek Holland a great pitcher, but the matchup he has in front of him presents a bit of upside, and with only eight games on the slate he brings a ton of savings.

Tonight, he is facing off against the San Diego Padres, who had a 24% strikeout rate last season versus left-handed pitchers, which was third-worst in the league. Holland himself isn't a big strikeout pitcher, but in 25 innings against the Padres last year, he was able to rack up 21 strikeouts, while allowing 15 earned runs. A bit of good and a bit of bad, but at his price tonight, Holland reaching 30+ FanDuel points isn't out of the question considering he has one of the better pitcher's parks behind him. The savings he brings is super helpful on a smaller slate, which can allow you to load up on two expensive stacks, something that can bring massive upside for your lineup.

The Padres aren't a team we should be afraid of, and attacking them is the correct course of action, even with a pitcher who isn't a star.

Albert Pujols, 1B, Los Angeles Angels

FanDuel Price: $2,700

Albert Pujols is very cheap tonight and has a soft matchup in front of him. So we want to be going at him considering the Angels come in with an implied run total sitting at 4.28, the second-highest on the slate.

The Angels are facing off against Marco Estrada of the Athletics, who finished last season allowing a .389 wOBA to right-handed hitters, along with a 56% fly ball rate, which led to 2.04 home runs per 9 (HR/9). Yikes -- those are some truly bad numbers for a pitcher. And that means we want to load up on Angels hitters since they have plenty of home run upside.

This game is in Oakland, which isn't the best hitter's park, but the game has an over-under sitting at 8.5, which is tied for highest on the slate. With Pujols' cheaper price tag, it will allow you to either spend up on a pitcher or go for an Angels stack including Mike Trout, who is, as always, super expensive.

Christin Stewart, OF, Detroit Tigers

FanDuel Price: $2,900

The Detroit Tigers come in with an implied run total set at 4.08, which isn't the highest on the slate, but it is in a game where the over-under is set at 8.5. As such, we are in for some scoring and fantasy points tonight, so let's take a look.

Christin Stewart doesn't have the biggest sample size from last season but was able to finish with a .354 wOBA and a .180 ISO versus right-handed pitchers in 50 at bats, according to FanGraphs. A decent sample size, but even with that bit of uncertainty we want to be looking to roster him tonight since he is facing off against the Toronto Blue Jays' Matt Shoemaker, who also had a small sample size last year but allowed a 50% hard contact rate, the worst of any pitcher on the bump tonight. Shoemaker also allowed 0.61 HR/9 to lefties in 2018 -- again a small sample -- but 1.54 HR/9 to left-handed hitters in 2017 in a larger sample size.

A cheaper price tag, the platoon advantage, and a matchup with a pitcher who has struggled with keeping the ball in the park is a perfect mixture for a high-upside play.


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.