3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for 4/30/19
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 is the name of the game if you plan on taking down one of those highly lucrative DFS tournaments. Whether it's because of Vegas totals, other options at a given position, or some gem you've found that everyone is overlooking, we can always find potential under-owned plays if we look hard enough.
Here are three such players to consider branching out for on FanDuel's main slate.
Vince Velasquez, P, Philadelphia Phillies
FanDuel Price: $8,200
There are seven pitchers on this slate who are priced at $9,000 or above, but the mid-tier offers plenty of options to consider for tournaments.
One pitcher to keep an eye on is Vincent Velasquez, who is up against the Detroit Tigers, one of the weaker teams in the league. The current Tigers' roster posted an 84 wRC+ last season versus right-handed pitchers, which was dead last in the league, along with a .155 ISO in the split (25th).
The Tigers are a weak offensive team, there is really no other way to put it, and that should allow Velasquez to extend his strong start to the season. He has allowed two earned runs or fewer in each of his five games.
Velasquez owns a 24.4% strikeout rate this year, which is 10th-highest among pitchers tonight, clearly putting him a step behind some of the other options. But he offers salary relief, a strong shot at the quality start/win, and hopefully, will come in at lower ownership.
Carlos Gonzalez, OF, Cleveland Indians
FanDuel Price: $2,400
The Cleveland Indians have a negative park shift against them tonight, and with 14 other games on the slate, they may go largely overlooked.
Cleveland comes into this game with an implied team total set at only 4.01, which isn't super high. Combined with the park factor being on the pitcher's side, the potential for low ownership is strong here. The Miami Marlins will have Sandy Alcantara on the mound tonight. He doesn't have the largest sample size from this season or last, but in 2018, he had a 17.7% walk rate and 12.7% strikeout rate versus left-handed hitters. Alcantara simply cannot get lefties out, and he lets them on base for free far too often.
This puts Carlos Gonzalez in a great spot to pay off his rather cheap salary, opening up flexibility for the rest of your lineup. Last season, Gonzalez had a 104 wRC+ and a strong .201 ISO versus right-handed pitchers, giving him plenty of power against an inexperienced pitcher.
Chris Davis, 1B, Baltimore Orioles
FanDuel Price: $2,500
The Baltimore Orioles torched Ivan Nova last week for nine earned runs. Can they do it again tonight?
Nova comes into this game having allowed six or more earned runs in three of his last four starts, making him one of the pitchers we absolutely want to stack against. Last season, he allowed a .353 wOBA, 1.66 homers per nine innings, and a 39% fly ball rate to left-handed hitters. That is exactly the type of guy we want to stack against in DFS as the potential for upside is massive almost every night.
Chris Davis was able to go deep on Nova last week, which gives him two home runs in his last four games. It's great to see from the veteran who got off to a very, very slow start this season, but if we look back to last year, his 36.1% hard-contact rate versus right-handed pitchers is a good indication he can post strong fantasy numbers in this matchup.
Thomas Vecchio is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Thomas Vecchio also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username TomVec629. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
