MLB

3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for Tuesday 6/1/21

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.

Alex Wood, P, San Francisco Giants ($9,900)

Considering the entire context of the slate, Alex Wood shouldn't be too popular tonight.

We have a game at Coors Field tonight, and there's only one player in that game who is over $4,000. This means stacking the game is actually very easy and, thus, paying up for Tyler Glasnow ($10,700) or Aaron Nola ($10,100) is doable. We also see both of those pitchers coming in with higher strikeout rates -- 36.2% for Glasnow and 28.1% for Nola -- compared to Wood, who is at 26.3%. This should set the stage pretty clearly tonight. Paying up for the elite pitchers is not an issue even with Coors Field on the slate, and both of those options are factually better than Wood.

Due to all of this, Wood should be vastly less rostered tonight, and he is the ideal option for tournaments to get away from the chalk. And frankly, Wood is having an awesome season and deserves plenty of consideration tonight. He comes in with a 2.92 xFIP, 26.3% strikeout rate, 5.8% walk rate, 56.8% ground-ball rate, and 57.5% medium-contact rate. Wood is getting it done in all aspects this season, and yet, he won't be as popular as the two other top options on the slate.

Jesus Aguilar, 1B, Miami Marlins ($2,600)

If you are looking for a one-off in tournaments tonight, Jesus Aguilar of the Miami Marlins could be the answer.

It's no secret that the Marlins aren't a great team, and stacking them isn't ideal on most nights. However, that doesn't mean you should be avoiding all of their players, and in fact, you should be looking to Aguilar for his power upside in this matchup.

He will be going up against Robbie Ray, who is no doubt a solid pitcher but also one with plenty of faults. This season, Ray has a solid 27.1% strikeout rate versus right-handed hitters, along with a 6.6% walk rate and 3.87 xFIP. All solid numbers for Ray -- but wait, there's more. Ray is also allowing 2.70 HR/9, a massive 45.0% fly-ball rate, and a 24.5% HR/FB rate. We know Ray can pile up the strikeouts, but the issues he's had with home run throughout his career are still true today.

If we look to Aguilar, he comes in with a massive .244 ISO, 13.7% walk rate, 51.5% fly-ball rate, and 39.4% hard-contact rate versus left-handed pitchers. The power potential from Aguilar is crystal clear and getting him into your lineups versus Ray is looking like a top option tonight.

Willson Contreras, C, Chicago Cubs ($2,900)

The Chicago Cubs have a 4.00 implied run total tonight, and that seems a bit too low.

That run total has the Cubs as the 17th-highest team on a 14-game slate -- aka in the bottom half of teams. This should make the Cubs a less-rostered team in tournaments tonight, and that is very interesting.

This is due to the fact they are up against Ryan Weathers, who has some questionable numbers against right-handed hitters this season. This is Weathers' first year in MLB, and he only has 34.1 innings pitched so far. In that time, he has allowed 1.25 HR/9, a 10.3% walk rate, a 4.78 xFIP, a 41.0% fly-ball rate, and a 47.5% hard-contact rate versus right-handed hitters. Those are some seriously rough numbers, and he's a pitcher you should be willing to attack tonight.

That means we want to find a righty hitter from the Cubs with some power, and that means Willson Contreras is in play tonight. He comes in with a HUGE .327 ISO, 182 wRC+, .441 wOBA, 50.0% fly-ball rate, and 36.8% hard-contact rate versus left-handed pitchers this season. Contreras is a home run waiting to happen tonight so jump onboard.