MLB

3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for Friday 4/30/21

You can turn to Andrew Heaney in tournaments tonight. Who else could go overlooked on tonight's 14-game slate?

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 that 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.

Andrew Heaney, P, Los Angeles Angels ($8,700)

On a slate dominated by three aces at the top, many of the other pitchers could go completely overlooked.

There's no denying that Gerrit Cole, Shane Bieber and Yu Darvish the three best pitchers on the slate, and we should see them be very popular in tournaments. But there are opportunities to look elsewhere.

One spot could be with Andrew Heaney, who is on the road to take on the Seattle Mariners. It shouldn't come as a surprise, but the Mariners aren't the best team this season. Versus lefties, they're really having a hard time, struggling to a 28.9% strikeout rate (fifth-highest) and .285 wOBA (fifth-worst).

This lines up nicely for Heaney, who has a 36.7% strikeout rate to start the season while allowing a 28.6% fly-ball rate and 31.0% hard-contact rate. Heaney won't maintain that kind of strikeout rate for the entire season, but in this matchup, he can keep it going a little longer.

David Bote, 2B/3B, Chicago Cubs ($2,300)

The Chicago Cubs have the seventh-highest (4.35) implied run total and some of their hitters could go overlooked.

I think their implied total should be higher due to the fact they are on the road in Cincinnati, which is one of the most hitter- and home run-friendly parks in the league. They will be taking on Wade Miley, who is a pitcher you should be interested in attacking with right-handed hitters. Since 2019, Miley is allowing 1.1 homers per nine, a 4.57 xFIP, and 33.9% hard-contact rate in the split.

While we may see righties Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, and Willson Contreras be somewhat popular, David Bote will likely fly under the radar. With the platoon advantage over the course of his four-year career, he has a .180 ISO, 42.2% hard-contact rate, and 23.3% homer-to-fly-ball ratio. There is some sneaky power upside for Bote, who is at an easy-to-like salary.

Matt Chapman, 3B, Oakland Athletics ($2,800)

Here's my hot take for tonight -- the Oakland Athletics more than double their 3.96 implied total.

That run total is just 13th on the slate, so the A's are not going to be popular. This is exactly what you want in tournaments since their matchup against John Means is a pretty good one. While Means has been stout so far in 2021, he has 222.0 innings pitched over his four years in the MLB, and he struggles against righty hitters in a big way. He has a 5.36 xFIP, 1.72 dingers per nine, 48.6% fly-ball rate, and 19.1% strikeout rate in the split.

This is where Matt Chapman and his career .225 ISO, 124 wRC+, 44.8% fly-ball rate, and 42.3% hard-contact rate against southpaws comes into play. With those types of power numbers, Chapman is a steal at this salary, and he probably won't be as popular as he should be given Oakland's lowly implied total.