4 Under-the-Radar Daily Fantasy Baseball Plays for 8/9/16

Jose Altuve, 2B, Houston Astros

FanDuel Price: $4,200

Why He Will Go Overlooked:

Devon Travis is once again way too cheap, so if hitting near the top of the order, he'll likely be one of the most popular plays on the slate again tonight. Behind him, both Dustin Pedroia and Ben Zobrist find themselves in good spots and should get some attention. As a result, Jose Altuve will likely end up having much lower ownership than he should.

Why You Should Use Him:

Aside from the fact that you can get the best second baseman and one of the best hitters in the game at low ownership, you should use Altuve due to his matchup. The right-hander will square off against lefty Hector Santiago, the owner of a 4.37 ERA this season. Santiago's 5.13 xFIP and 4.78 SIERA suggest that he is even worse than he has pitched this season.

Santiago has also been much worse against righties in his career, posting a 4.89 xFIP against them, up from his career 4.53 mark against lefties. His xFIP against righties has ballooned to an unsightly 5.12 this season, thanks largely to a 36.1% hard-hit rate maintained against him by righties.

Altuve has posted much-improved career numbers across the board against lefties, highlighted by a career .513 slugging percentage and .396 wOBA. Oh, and for those of you who prefer more traditional stats, he also has a career .354 batting average against lefties. Not bad.

It's hard to advise passing on Travis at that price with the way he has been playing, but rostering Altuve at low ownership makes a lot of sense in tournaments from a game theory perspective.