3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for Monday 9/13/21

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.

Paolo Espino, P, Washington Nationals ($7,700)

Stop me if you've heard this before -- the Miami Marlins aren't a good team.

The Marlins have been a team we've targeted all season with pitchers, and it's not going to stop now in the last month of the season. The Marlins come in with an 80 wRC+ (29th in the league), a .128 ISO (30th), a 25.2% strikeout rate (4th), a 33.4% fly-ball rate (29th), and a 28.7% hard-contact (30th) versus right-handed pitchers this season. Without a doubt, the Marlins are horrible against righties, and you should feel confident in attacking them.

We turn to Paolo Espino, who shouldn't be popular tonight despite the super soft matchup. Espino comes in with a modest 20.4% strikeout rate, a 4.8% walk rate, a 4.25 SIERA, a 49.6% medium-contact rate, and a 44.4% fly-ball rate, Let's call it what it is -- Espino is an average pitcher. However, he's still managed to rack up 25 or more FanDuel points in two of his last four starts. That will certainly work at only $7,700 tonight.

Nathaniel Lowe, 1B, Texas Rangers ($3,300)

Call me crazy, but Jake Odorizzi is a really average pitcher.

There's nothing about Odorizzi's number versus left-handed hitters that should have you worried. He's allowing a .202 ISO, a 5.04 xFIP, an 11.3% walk rate, 1.05 HR/9, a 45.9% fly-ball rate, and a 34.7% hard-contact rate versus lefties this season. Those are all average -- if not bad -- numbers. There's really no other way to put it.

Still, the Texas Rangers won't be popular on this slate because they aren't very good either. I get that, I totally do.

For that reason, I wouldn't fully stack them tonight, but looking to Nathaniel Lowe as a one-off is certainly an option. He comes in with a 115 wRC+, a .159 ISO, a 13.1% walk rate, a 38.9% hard-contact rate, and a 14.7% HR/FB ratio versus right-handed pitchers this season, and those numbers will work against an average one.

Kyle Seager, 3B, Seattle Mariners ($3,400)

Kyle Seager has some sneaky home run potential tonight.

Some may think this is a bit of a stretch considering this is a lefty-versus-lefty matchup against Eduardo Rodriguez for the Red Sox, but I like Seager tonight. Rodriguez is allowing .178 HR/9, a 42.6% fly-ball rate, and a 37.7% hard-contact rate versus left-handed hitters this season. Those are some dangerous underlying numbers for Rodriguez against lefties, and Seager can certainly capitalize on them.

Seager comes in with a surprising .231 ISO, 49.2% fly-ball rate, 33.6% hard-contact rate, and an 18.8% HR/FB ratio versus left-handed pitchers this season. He's hit 12 of his 34 home runs off of lefties this season, and he appears to be in a spot to add one more tonight.