MLB

3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for Friday 8/27/21

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.

Joe Musgrove, P, San Diego Padres ($9,200)

With a loaded 15-game slate, the pitching options are all over the place tonight.

There are four pitchers over $10,000 tonight and with no Coors Field on the slate, paying up for one of the top-tier pitchers is going to be a popular choice. Joe Musgrove is right below that top-tier of options and has the chance to go overlooked because it's easy to find an extra $800 of salary to pay up for Aaron Nola ($10,000). We're dealing with a large slate, so there's plenty of value out there if you are trying to pay up for pitching. This should help keep Musgrove a bit under the radar tonight, and he's great for tournaments.

He comes in with a 28.1% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate, 3.48 SIERA, 45.2% ground-ball rate, and 52.8% medium-contact rate. Musgrove can rack up the strikeouts and limit the damage, which is what we've seen him do recently. In his seven starts since the All-Star break, Musgrove has allowed two earned runs or fewer five times while racking up eight strikeouts or more three times.

That level of production is firmly on the table tonight against the Los Angeles Angels, who comes in with a 23.6% strikeout rate (14th in the league), .167 ISO (13th), 35.1% fly-ball rate (20th), and 30.4% hard-contact rate (28th) versus right-handed pitchers. The Angels are an average to below-average offense, and Musgrove shouldn't have an issue with them.

Javier Baez, SS/2B, New York Mets ($3,200)

Yes, Javier Baez strikes out a lot.

We all know this about Baez, and his 36.4% strikeout rate versus right-handed pitchers is proof of that. But, Baez is also carrying a .208 ISO, 36.5% fly-ball rate, and 24.2% HR/FB rate versus righties. The power has always been there, which is what makes him a great tournament option.

He also shouldn't be too chalky tonight because the New York Mets have a 4.91 implied run total, which is just the 10th-highest on the slate.

Baez will be up against Paolo Espino, who has a 5.40 xFIP and is allowing 2.57 HR/9 and a 54.7% fly-ball rate to right-handed hitters this season. Espino clearly struggles against righty power hitters, and that should have Baez at the top of your tournament one-offs tonight.

Nathaniel Lowe, 1B, Texas Rangers ($3,000)

Jake Odorizzi is a very mediocre pitcher.

That's a fact -- there's no way around it. Odorizzi comes in with a 12.6% walk rate and 5.22 xFIP while allowing 1.25 HR/9, a 43.3% fly-ball rate, and a 35.8% hard-contact rate versus left-handed hitters this season. None of that -- I repeat none of that -- is close to being elite. He's a very mediocre pitcher.

With that said, I'll look to attack Odorizzi via Nathaniel Lowe, who has a 116 wRC+, 13.4% walk rate, .157 ISO, and 38.6% hard-contact rate versus right-handed pitchers this season. We'd like to see a bit more power from him overall, but the matchup versus Odorizzi is solid, and Lowe shouldn't be popular tonight.