3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for Monday 6/28/21
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.
Kyle Hendricks, P, Chicago Cubs ($9,300)
There are three elite options at pitcher tonight and Kyle Hendricks isn't one of them.
Trevor Bauer, Lucas Giolito, and Freddy Peralta are, by far, the best pitchers on this slate, carry the highest strikeout rates, and present the most upside. That really isn't up for debate tonight and we know what we can potentially get from those pitchers, but we are trying to find one that will go overlooked, so let's look at Kyle Hendricks. Considering Hendricks is less than $1,000 cheaper than both Giolito and Peralta, we should see them both at much higher roster percentages.
Hendricks isn't a big strikeout pitcher -- only 19.1% this season -- and is mainly known as a ground-ball pitcher (40.7%) who induces mostly medium contact (52.3%). This generally allows him to limit the damage and get deeper into the game, and, in turn, pick up the quality start (QS) points, which can help boost his ceiling.
He will be up against the Milwaukee Brewers, who don't pose much of a threat on offense, which is why we want to attack them. The Brewers come in with an 83 wRC+ (27th in the league), a .149 ISO (19th), a 25.8% strikeout rate (6th), and a 33.9% fly-ball rate (25th).
Jonathan Schoop, 2B, Detroit Tigers ($3,200)
With a 4.30 implied run total, the Detroit Tigers shouldn't be a popular pick tonight.
We're always aiming to find teams or players that fly under the radar and this is why we should turn to Jonathan Schoop tonight. He has been on fire this season and comes in with five home runs in his last 11 games, so no reason to not ride with the hot bat. Schoop has 9 of his 15 home runs off of right-handed pitchers this season, which is who he faces tonight in Eli Morgan from the Cleveland Indians. Morgan is a young pitcher with only 11.1 innings pitched this year, which is his first year in the majors. A very small sample size but he is allowing 3.24 HR/9, a 45.8% fly-ball rate, and a 48.0% hard-contact rate versus right-handed hitters.
This is good for Schoop, who has a 103 wRC+ and a .168 ISO versus right-handed pitchers this season, which is largely in line with his career numbers -- 100 wRC+ and a .195 ISO -- in the same split. I'm not looking to fully stack the Tigers but I love the potential for Schoop to take this rookie pitcher deep tonight.
Eduardo Escobar, 3B/2B, Arizona Diamondbacks ($3,400)
Eduardo Escobar is going to hit a home run tonight.
That's my hot take of the night and there's plenty of reasoning behind it. Escobar has plenty of power and comes in this season with a .243 ISO, 123 wRC+, a big 49.2% fly-ball rate, and a 40.7% hard-contact rate versus left-handed pitchers. Escobar has always brought plenty of power at the dish and gets to face Wade LeBlanc, who struggles with power hitters.
Since the start of 2019, LeBlanc has allowed a 5.15 xFIP, 2.1 HR/9, a low 15.2% strikeout rate, a 37.0% fly-ball rate, and a 33.7% hard-contact rate. LeBlanc has never been a pitcher you need to be worried about and you should be excited to target him tonight. The Arizona Diamondbacks are only carrying a 3.97 implied run total, which is the 12th-highest on the slate. This means they shouldn't be popular in any capacity and a great option for tournaments.
