MLB

3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for 9/6/18

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Eric Hosmer, 1B, San Diego Padres

FanDuel Price: $3,000

At least on the hitting side, we have a pretty ugly four-game slate on Thursday, and it will hard to pivot off the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds as the only two truly good offensive spots tonight.

But this is baseball we're talking about, so we know things don't always go the way we expect. Although Luis Castillo should be one of the night's most popular pitchers against the lowly San Diego Padres, he's been incredibly inconsistent this season, as shown by his disappointing 4.83 ERA. He's also had a tough time getting out left-handed hitters, allowing a 43.6% hard-hit rate and .373 expected weighted on-base average (xwOBA) in the split.

While a full-on stack is still a tough sell -- this is the Padres after all -- rostering a lefty bat like Eric Hosmer isn't out of the question. Admittedly, Hosmer is hitting more ground balls than ever (61.2% rate), which isn't the greatest selling point. But the price is right, and this is still a guy with a career 121 wRC+ versus righties. Plus, the Padres get a nice park factor boost in Great American Ball Park. As a hedge against Castillo, it can't hurt to throw Hosmer in a lineup in case the poor version of Castillo comes out tonight.