3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for Thursday 9/30/21
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.
Joe Ryan, P, Minnesota Twins ($8,800)
With three elite pitchers on the slate and no game at Coors Field, some of the mid-tier pitchers could go overlooked.
It's tough to pass up the floor and ceiling combo some of the top pitchers bring, but if you want to get away from the chalk, look to Joe Ryan tonight. Ryan is a young pitcher for the Minnesota Twins, who only has 22.0 innings pitched this season, so take it with a grain of salt. But he comes in with a 32.1% strikeout rate, 3.8% walk rate, 3.16 SIERA, and 56.0% medium-contact rate. He flashed that strikeout upside in his most recent start, posting 11 punchouts versus the Chicago Cubs.
That is the potential we could see from him tonight versus the Detroit Tigers, who come in with a 25.6% strikeout rate, which is the second-worst in the league. The Cubs are the worst team in the league with a 26.6% strikeout rate, so it's a near-identical matchup for strikeout upside. The Tigers also come in with a 91 wRC+ (22nd in the league), .157 ISO (23rd), and 31.8% hard-contact rate (21st) versus right-handed pitchers.
Ketel Marte, 2B/OF, Arizona Diamdonbacks ($3,600)
The Arizona Diamondbacks won't be a popular stack tonight.
It's no surprise that they won't be popular because they aren't a good team, but we can still look to Ketel Marte as a one-off for your lineups. Marte has a very solid 206 wRC+, .352 ISO, 12.3% strikeout rate, 44.0% hard-contact rate, 38.5% fly-ball rate, and 22.0% HR/FB rate versus lefties this season. Those are awesome numbers from Marte, who is always a threat for a multi-hit game.
What year is it? The San Francisco Giants will have Scott Kazmir on the mound. Kazmir has only pitched 11.0 innings this season, which is his first innings in the Majors since 2016. Of course, it's a small sample size, but there's nothing to suggest he is a pitcher you need to be worried about. The 40.9% hard-contact rate and 1.13 HR/9 he is allowing to right-handed hitters are encouraging in a matchup for a hitter like Marte.
Cedric Mullins, OF, Baltimore Orioles ($3,500)
As much as I like Nick Pivetta tonight, he is also worth attacking.
Pivetta is primed to be a chalky pitching option tonight, and I'm totally on board with that because the Baltimore Orioles aren't a good team. I wrote about Pivetta's strikeout prop because it's a great matchup for him. However, Pivetta is also allowing 1.40 HR/9, a 4.60 xFIP, and a 41.1% fly-ball rate versus left-handed hitters this season. The matchup is no doubt a good one, but there is also some home run upside for the Orioles tonight.
Cedric Mullins is having an awesome season and comes in with a 155 wRC+, .266 ISO, 44.6% fly-ball rate, and 36.3% hard-contact rate versus right-handed pitchers. In a great hitter's park such as Baltimore, Mullins could easily knock one out versus Pivetta tonight.
