3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for Monday 7/19/21

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.

Cole Irvin, P, Oakland Athletics ($8,200)

The Los Angeles Angels' offense can be dangerous and that should cause Cole Irvin to go overlooked tonight.

Despite the power the Angels' offense can show at times, they come in with a very modest 3.98 implied run total tonight which makes me interested in Irvin. We have also seen the game total drop from 8.5 to 8.0, according to oddsFire, giving us a sign of a lower-scoring game. This would be typical for Irvin, as he has allowed three earned runs or fewer in six of his seven starts since the beginning of June. He has also racked up five strikeouts or more in four of those seven starts, giving fantasy players a consistent floor of points.

While he may not have double-digit strikeout potential like other pitchers on this slate, Irvin is only $8,200 and shouldn't be popular tonight. The savings and consistent floor of points he offers are tough to match on tonight's slate.

Patrick Wisdom, 3B, Chicago Cubs ($2,900)

Patrick Wisdom has shown plenty of power this season and is always a threat for a home run.

Wisdom has played in only 46 games this season but has shown a big .410 ISO, 161 wRC+, a 53.2% fly-ball rate, and 55.3% hard-contact rate versus right-handed pitchers. Those are elite numbers and while they may regress to the mean at some point, we want to jump on board while he is still showing them off.

They could certainly be on display tonight against Jake Woodford, who is a young and inexperienced pitcher. Woodford made his MLB debut last season and only has 46.1 innings pitched at the MLB level, giving us a smaller sample size. Since last season, he has allowed 2.55 HR/9 to right-handed hitters, along with a 5.66 xFIP, an 11.1% strikeout rate, a 38.0% fly-ball rate, and a 25.9% HR/FB ratio. Those are some bad numbers even for a small sample size and makes me all the more interested in Wisdom tonight.

Eduardo Escobar, 3B/2B, Arizona Diamondbacks ($3,000)

While the Arizona Diamondbacks aren't a great team, they are in a good spot tonight.

The Diamondbacks are carrying a 4.82 implied run total tonight, which is the seventh-highest on the slate. They are in the 'upper-tier' of options tonight but don't jump off the page in any capacity. This is good if you want to target them in tournaments since they shouldn't be popular. They will be going up against Chase De Jong, who has been up and down from the MLB since 2017 and has struggled every time. Over the course of his career, De Jong allows 1.54 HR/9, a 6.30 xFIP, a 12.9% walk rate, a 45.5% fly-ball rate, and a 37.1% hard-contact rate versus left-handed hitters. Those could be some of the worst pitching numbers on tonight's slate, so yeah, you should look to attack him.

This leads us to Eduardo Escobar, who comes in with a .218 ISO, a 100 wRC+, a 47.4% fly-ball rate, and a 36.1% hard-contact rate this season versus right-handed pitchers. Escobar shouldn't be too popular tonight and has proven to be a consistent fantasy option for many years.