MLB

3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for Tuesday 8/24/21

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.

Tyler Mahle, P, Cincinnati Reds ($9,200)

Tyler Mahle is a great pitcher, and if he goes overlooked tonight, that would be a mistake.

Mahle comes in with a very strong 28.0% strikeout rate, 41.7% ground-ball rate, 51.1% medium-contact rate, and 3.73 SIERA. Those are all good numbers from the Reds' pitcher, who is likely going to fly under the radar due to the options around him. This is not a knock against Mahle -- it's simply recognizing that there are other pitchers who are slightly better plays based on matchups or salary.

But considering Mahle has shown 50-to-60-point potential, he makes a great tournament option.

He will be up against the Milwaukee Brewers, a team that comes in with a 24.1% strikeout rate (12th-highest in the league) and 95 wRC+ (16th) versus right-handed pitchers this season. They are a middle-of-the-road offense, and given Mahle's strikeout potential, he is in a strong spot.

Lars Nootbaar, OF, St. Louis Cardinals ($2,100)

The St. Louis Cardinals aren't known for their offense, but they have a great matchup tonight.

Yes, the Cardinals aren't an offensive powerhouse by any means this season, but a matchup against Casey Mize could have them reaching the higher end of scoring. Mize comes in allowing 2.63 homers per nine to left-handed hitters this year -- along with a 4.59 xFIP, 9.0% walk rate, 47.2% hard-contact rate, and 27.6% homer-to-fly-ball ratio. To say he struggles with lefties would be an understatement.

So we can turn to Lars Nootbaar, who -- besides having a great name -- comes in with a 141 wRC+, .244 ISO and 10.0% walk rate against right-handed pitchers. Nootbaar is also nearly the minimum salary, which is always helpful when there are high-salary pitchers to go after.

Josh Bell, 1B, Washington Nationals ($3,600)

How popular are the Washington Nationals going to be tonight?

That's an interesting question since they have a juicy matchup against Jesus Luzardo, who is simply terrible versus right-handed hitters -- there's no other way to put it. Luzardo is allowing 2.55 dingers per nine to righty bats this season, and before you say that's from a small sample, we can look at his career numbers. Since 2019, he has allowed 1.98 homers per nine to righties. He's still bad. Too many fly balls this year -- 47.3% fly-ball rate -- will always bring potential upside to opposing hitters.

Josh Bell has serious power with his .265 ISO, 115 wRC+, 39.0% hard-contact rate, and 30.8% homer-to-fly-ball ratio versus left-handed pitchers. When Bell gets the ball in the air against southpaws, it's going for a home run a high percentage of the time, which we absolutely love to see.