4 Under-the-Radar Daily Fantasy Baseball Plays for 4/5/16

If you have played daily fantasy sports for a while, you realize by now the importance of being contrarian, especially in large-field tournaments. Being able to recognize which players are going to be owned by the majority of the field and to find players who you think have a similar point projection but will come at much lower ownership can really separate yourself from your opponents.

The purpose of this article will be to bring you some high-upside players who will likely go overlooked and give you an edge.

Justin Verlander, SP, Detroit Tigers

FanDuel Price: $8,900

Why He Will Go Overlooked:

Justin Verlander has been mostly horrible over the past two seasons and is probably a bit overpriced at nearly $9,000. If paying up at pitcher, people are more likely to go with Jon Lester or Johnny Cueto.

Why You Should Use Him:

Starting pitching is really gross for the main slate. The three best pitching options today are all on the early slate, leaving us to search for a diamond in the rough.

Verlander, while always risky, is one of the few pitchers who offers a good bit of upside today and will likely be under-owned. A lot of people don't realize it, but the former ace really turned it on at the end of last season to the tune of a 2.12 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 24.7 percent strikeout rate, and 6.8 percent walk rate over his last 11 starts.

While those are encouraging numbers, that's not enough to justify paying $8,900 for a guy. So, what really stands out about Verlander today? His opponents, the Miami Marlins.

Miami was the worst team against right-handers last season, posting a putrid .297 wOBA against righties. To be fair, a good bit of that came without some of their best hitters, but at the same time, those hitters also struggle against right-handed pitching.

Specifically, Giancarlo Stanton, posted pretty severe splits against righties last year. He's always the one you need to worry about if targeting the Marlins, so it is very encouraging that Verlander lines up well against him, from a statistical standpoint. Stanton's career ISO against righties is .263, as opposed to a .323 mark against lefties. His wOBA is down from .415 against lefties, to .377 against righties. He strikes out more often, too, as evidenced by his 29.6 percent career strikeout rate against righties and 24.1 percent against lefties.

The Tigers are favored to win this one, too, as their right-handed heavy lineup takes on lefty Wei-Yin Chen, which gives Verlander a decent shot at picking up an additional 12 FanDuel points with a win.

Lester may be the preferable option in cash formats, but Verlander is certainly worth considerations in tournaments.

Josh Donaldson, 3B, Toronto Blue Jays

FanDuel Price: $4,800

Why He Will Go Overlooked:

Josh Donaldson is the most expensive third baseman on the slate, and there are several cheaper options who are viable today. People also generally only target Donaldson against lefties, so don't expect him to be highly owned against Jake Odorizzi.

Why You Should Use Him:

While advanced stats do point towards Donaldson being more effective against lefties, he is deadly against right-handers, too, as evidenced by the 32 dingers he hit against righties last season.

Odorizzi's 3.90 SIERA from last season doesn't stand out as an obvious target, but he is one of the few fly-ball pitchers we can pick on for this slate, and he was very susceptible to the long-ball against right-handers last season. He posted a 44.9 percent fly ball rate against righties, along with a .324 wOBA and .435 slugging percentage, all of which were significantly higher than his splits against lefties.

Donaldson has launched two long balls against Odorizzi in eight career at-bats and hit his first bomb of the season last night. We all know how hot he can get, and he should definitely be on your radar tonight in tournaments, considering he likely won't be a popular pick.

Andrew McCutchen, OF, Pittsburgh Pirates

FanDuel Price: $4,600

Why He Will Go Overlooked:

The thought process with Andrew McCutchen is very similar to Donaldson. He is the third-most expensive outfielder and is not likely to be popular with Jose Bautista, Charlie Blackmon, Nelson Cruz, Carlos Gonzalez, and J.D. Martinez just below him in price. Also, the Giants' outfielders are still significantly underpriced and will likely be a popular stack again today.

Why You Should Use Him:

Also similarly to Donaldson, McCutchen is better against left-handers but still does a lot of damage against righties. He launched 29 homers off of right-handed pitching last season and posted a .200 ISO against righties, which is actually higher than his .180 ISO against lefties.

His wOBA of .376 against right-handers isn't as high as his left-handed mark but is still a quality mark. McCutchen also posted an impressive 39.7 percent hard hit rate against righties, which is higher than his rate against lefties. He had a 39.4 percent fly ball rate against righties, as opposed to a 34 percent mark against lefties.

So, basically, McCutchen is much more of a risk-reward play against righties, which is what we want in tournaments anyways!

McCutchen will square off against Michael Wacha, who posted a 4.02 SIERA last season and experienced some reverse-splits, struggling against right-handed hitters. He gave up a .404 slugging percentage and .313 wOBA against righties, both of which are a fair bit higher than his splits against lefties.

It seems McCutchen would fare well against Wacha, and their past meetings back that theory. McCutchen has reached base in 10 of his 18 career at-bats against Wacha, including a double, triple, and home run.

He makes for an interesting tournament option while everyone else focuses on the more obvious plays mentioned earlier.

Franklin Gutierrez, OF, Seattle Mariners

FanDuel Price: $2,400

Why He Will Go Overlooked:

Franklin Gutierrez has been a part-time player for the past two years and will certainly go overlooked amid a deep outfield player pool that contains several other viable value plays.

Why You Should Use Him:

We're going back to the well with Gutierrez. His splits against lefties are just too good.

The right-hander posted a .298 ISO against lefties, as well as a .411 wOBA, 44.2 percent hard hit rate, and a ridiculous 30.8 percent HR/FB ratio. He draws another lefty today, as he'll square off against Martin Perez, who boasts a career 4.21 SIERA.

Unfortunately, Perez is an extreme ground ball pitcher, but his career splits against right-handers offer some reason for optimism. Perez's slugging percentage against is up from .353 against lefties to .427 against righties. His wOBA against righties was .334 -- up from .301 against lefties. His strikeout rate falls from 21.9 percent against lefties to 13.3 percent against righties, and his fly ball rate elevates from 25.2 percent to 28.1 percent against righties.

This game will be played at Globe Life Park, which had the fifth-highest park factor last season. Gutierrez launched two bombs in four games there last year.

Gutierrez is a very cheap source of power today and one who you can get at much lower ownership than some of the more popular value plays.