3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for Friday 5/21/21

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 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.

Marcus Stroman, P, New York Mets ($8,400)

With a loaded 15-game slate tonight, there are plenty of pitching options to choose from, but where can you look in tournaments?

The number of different options we have at pitching tonight is awesome, and they are all great options in their own right. However, we also have a Coors Field game on this slate, and that can make those hitters a priority for some people. If that is the route you are choosing to go, you'll need to find some savings at pitcher. That means it's time for Marcus Stroman aka The Sto Show. He clocks in under $9,000 and has a soft matchup against the Miami Marlins you want to be attacking tonight.

This season, the Marlins are holding an 85 wRC+ (26th in the league), .128 ISO (28th), 26.7% strikeout rate (4th), 31.1% hard-contact rate (18th), and 33.6% fly-ball rate (22nd). They don't have power, they don't create fly balls, and they strike out too much. They simply aren't a good offense and are one you should be excited to attack.

Strom is having another strong season with a 3.63 xFIP, a super-strong 5.3% walk rate, a 54.0% ground-ball rate, and a 59.2% medium-contact rate. This should be a matchup where we see Strom cruise through several innings en route to a strong point-per-dollar performance.

Max Kepler, OF, Minnesota Twins ($3,600)

The Minnesota Twins have a 4.33 implied run total tonight, and that isn't high enough.

There are 14 teams with higher implied run totals than the Twins, which should cause them to go overlooked tonight. That's fantastic. This should make the Twins an ideal tournament stack because they won't be popular, and we can capitalize on their potential upside.

They will be facing off against Triston McKenzie, who is an interesting pitcher, to say the least. He made his MLB debut last season, and in that time, he has a 32.3% strikeout rate, 13.4% walk rate, 1.91 HR/9, and 52.9% fly-ball rate. Holy cow. He can clearly strike plenty of hitters out but jeez, the amount of fly balls and home runs he is allowing is crazy.

This is where we should turn to Max Kepler, who has plenty of power versus right-handed pitchers. In his career, Kepler has a 112 wRC+, .227 ISO, 10.9% walk rate, 44.5% fly-ball rate, and 37.4% hard-contact rate. Kepler brings some serious power and home run potential to the table tonight, and if the Twins aren't going to be popular, you should look to stack them.

Daniel Vogelbach, 1B, Milwaukee Brewers ($2,700)

With a 4.54 implied run total, the Milwaukee Brewers aren't moving the needle tonight.

There are a number of teams ahead of the Brewers tonight in terms of priority, and it shouldn't come as a surprise if they aren't rostered that heavily tonight. They are on the road in Cincinnati, which is a great hitter's park, specifically for home runs.

They will be up against Jeff Hoffman, who comes in with a 5.19 xFIP, 1.24 HR/9, and 10.3% walk rate against lefty hitters in his six-year MLB career. He did pitch his first five years for the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, so take those numbers with a grain of salt. As for this season, he hasn't given up as many home runs, while his other numbers are still bad.

Regardless of all of that, I'm interested in getting some power hitters from the Brewers against him, and that means Dan Vogelbach. During his time in the MLB, Vogelbach hasn't always been an everyday player, so we'll look at his career numbers where he carries a .220 ISO, 115 wRC+, and 23.0% HR/FB% versus right-handed pitchers.