3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for Monday 6/14/21
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.
Brad Keller, P, Kansas City Royals ($7,500)
With a clear top-tier of pitching options tonight, the rest of the field could go overlooked.
There are three pitchers -- Lance Lynn, Tyler Glasnow, Sean Manaea -- over $9,900 tonight and it wouldn't be surprising if those were the popular options tonight. However, we also have a game at Coors Field on this slate and if you are looking to load up on some hitters from that game, you'll need to find some savings at pitcher. This is where Brad Keller could come into play since he is very affordable and has an extremely favorable matchup against the Detroit Tigers.
The Tigers come in with an 87 wRC+ (23rd in the league), .156 ISO (15th), 27.3% strikeout rate (worst), a 29.8% hard-contact rate (28th), and a 35.7% fly-ball rate versus right-handed pitchers this season. They are truly a terrible offense in this split and you can look to Keller to differentiate your lineups a bit while grabbing plenty of salary relief.
Eugenio Suarez, 3B, Cincinnati Reds ($2,700)
The Cincinnati Reds have a 4.21 implied run total tonight and that is far too low.
There are 13 games on tonight's slate, one of which is at Coors Field. This is the kind of slate where we could see the rostership percentages for players/teams be very diverse, outside of the game at Coors Field. These are the type of slates that I personally like since there are going to be multiple teams that fly under the radar. One such team should be the Reds, and if you are looking for some tournament upside, look towards Eugenio Suarez. He comes in with a lower .130 ISO versus left-handed pitchers this season, but is still carrying a 40.0% fly-ball rate and a 40.0% hard-contact rate.
He will be up against Eric Lauer, who is allowing 3.20 HR/9 to right-handed hitters this season, as well as a 48.2% hard-contact rate and 38.9% HR/FB ratio. Those are some rough numbers for Lauer, and given all of the power-hitting righties on the Reds, I'm very interested in stacking them tonight.
Jed Lowrie, 2B/3B, Oakland Athletics ($2,900)
I'm voluntarily writing about Jed Lowrie in the year 2021.
I don't know what to say other than Jed Lowrie has some home run upside tonight. It's crazy to think that Lowrie is a viable fantasy option after off of these years but here we are. He comes in with a .159 ISO, a 40.2% hard-contact rate, and a 39.2% fly-ball rate versus right-handed pitchers this season, putting him right at the 40-40 line I look for. This means he has enough power and is generating enough fly balls to make him a home run threat if the matchup is right.
Speak of the matchup, Lowrie will be up against Dylan Bundy, who is having plenty of issues this year with allowing too many home runs. Bundy comes in allowing 2.10 HR/9 to lefties, along with a 4.42 xFIP, a low 20.5% strikeout rate, a 39.2% fly-ball rate, and a 32.1% hard-contact rate. I guess Bundy didn't get the memo about MLB changing the balls to help pitchers this season since he continues to have so many issues on the mound. I'm targeting him tonight via the Oakland Athletics and Lowrie.
