MLB

3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for 9/6/19

Christian Walker has legit power versus righty pitchers and has a great park factor going for him tonight. Is he a player who will be lower owned tonight?

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 is the name of the game if you plan on taking down one of those highly lucrative DFS tournaments. Whether it's because of Vegas totals, other options at a given position, or some gem you've found that everyone is overlooking, we can always find potential under-owned plays if we look hard enough.

Here are three such players to consider branching out for on FanDuel's main slate.

Joe Musgrove, P, Pittsburgh Pirates

FanDuel Price: $7,100

On a loaded 15-game slate, there are plenty of pitchers who won't see high ownership and Joe Musgrove should be one of them.

Of all the pitchers on tonight's slate, Musgrove finds himself outside of the top-15 when it comes to strikeout rate. That generally pushes DFS players away from pitchers since they lack a bit of fantasy point upside in most matchups. Even with that said, Musgrove has a fantastic matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals, who are simply not a good offensive team. St. Louis comes in with a 92 wRC+ versus righty pitchers (17th in the league), a .161 ISO (26th), and a 36.6% fly-ball rate.

The Cardinals are in first place in the NL Central, but they aren't really that threatening of an offense. Musgrove is holding a 44.3% medium-contact rate and a 43.3% ground-ball rate, which is how he is able to limit the damage. He comes in with three or fewer earned runs allowed in five of his last seven starts.

Christian Walker, 1B, Arizona Diamondbacks

FanDuel Price: $3,300

The Arizona Diamondbacks come in with a 4.98 implied run total tonight, but will their players be passed on tonight?

The Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Minnesota Twins, and Oakland Athletics all have higher implied total compared to Arizona and are simply better offenses overall. This could leave some of the Diamondbacks' players to be lower owned, but they should be strongly considered tonight.

Christian Walker comes in with some reverse splits this season, posting a .227 ISO, 50.0% hard-hit rate, and a 40.9% fly-ball rate. Those are some massive power numbers and now with a positive park factor like Great American Ball Park, a home run is fully on the table tonight.

He is up against Tyler Mahle, who is somewhat decent against righty hitters -- holding a 3.21 xFIP against them while at home -- but he is allowing a 52.0% hard-contact rate as well. That is very dangerous knowing the power Walker has this season in this split.

Renato Nunez, 3B, Baltimore Orioles

FanDuel Price: $2,900

The Baltimore Orioles are nowhere near the best MLB team, but they have some fantasy value to look at tonight.

Renato Nunez comes in just under $3K and is boasting a .244 ISO, 40.4% hard-hit rate, and a surprising 46.1% fly-ball rate versus lefty pitchers this season. To be honest, I'm surprised those numbers are so strong for Nunez, and we want to roll with them at his lower price in a solid matchup. A 4.77 implied run total is where we see the Orioles come in tonight, and we could see them hit the over on that given their matchup.

They are up against Brock Burke, who is a very young, very inexperienced pitcher who is holding a 4.50 xFIP versus righty hitters this season. Burke has only 18 innings pitched in his entire Major League career, so it's not truly worth noting too many of his numbers. Nunez is a good hitter who should be able to jump on this matchup.