DFS KBO: Saturday Cheat Sheet

We've still seen just one full KBO slate this week, but we did finally get close to one Friday, as just one game (Lions at Tigers) wound up getting rained out. The Twins rode a 5.2-inning relief effort from Chan Gyu Lim to an 8-1 victory over the Bears after Woo Chan Cha left with a shoulder injury after just one batter, with Hyun Soo Kim going 4-for-5 with a homer to lead the way at the plate. Elsewhere, seven strikeouts in 5.1 innings from Se Woong Park helped the Giants to a 4-2 win upset against the Heroes, while Drew Rucinski allowed just one earned run on five hits in seven innings while striking out eight to help the Dinos past the Wiz by a 3-2 score. Finally, Jeong Choi was the star of the battle of the basement-dwellers, going 3-for-3 with two homers and five RBI as the Wyverns defeated the Eagles 7-4. There's a decent chance we see yet another reduced slate Saturday, as both the Wyverns-Eagles and Lions-Tigers games appear threatened by rain as of writing.

Note: FanDuel has elected to drop its KBO contests now that MLB has returned, but DraftKings appears set to continue holding KBO contests for the rest of the year. Prices in this column from here on out will be for DraftKings only.

Pitchers

Dan Straily ($9,600) nearly always justifies his high price, and that should be the case again Saturday even against a decent Heroes offense which ranks fifth in scoring this season. He's allowed two or fewer earned runs in 12 of his 14 starts this year and has allowed just a single run in his last three outings, a stretch in which he's allowed just 10 hits and three walks in 21 innings. The veteran righty remains among the league leaders in nearly every relevant pitching stat, sitting second among qualified starters in ERA (2.03), second in strikeout rate (25.8 percent) and third in WHIP (0.96).

Seung Won Moon ($8,100) has been a rare bright spot for the Wyverns this season, cruising to a 3.30 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP through 13 starts. He struggled early, but he's been particularly good over his last nine outings, posting a 2.31 ERA and a 0.96 ERA. On the season as a whole, his underlying numbers have been quite strong, as his 21.1 percent strikeout rate is easily his career best, while his 6.2 percent walk rate is only slightly inflated from his 5.6 percent mark from the two previous seasons. He could be a far lesser arm and would still be worth a look Saturday, as he'll take on the Eagles and their league-worst lineup.

Ben Lively ($7,200) threw 77 pitches against the Giants his last time out, his first start since returning from a nearly two-month absence due to a side injury. That means he should be able to come quite close to a starter's workload against the Tigers and their seventh-ranked lineup Saturday. Lively's 4.91 ERA through five starts this season is unimpressive, as is his 12:7 K:BB, but that sample is quite small. In his 12-start KBO debut for the Lions last season, Lively produced a 3.95 ERA and perhaps deserved a considerably better number given his strong combination of a 24.6 percent strikeout rate and 5.5 percent walk rate.

Top Targets

If you've paid any attention to the KBO this season, you don't need to be told how good Mel Rojas Jr. ($6,300) is. With a .392 batting average, 24 homers and 63 RBI, he leads the league in all three triple crown categories, as well as the majority of other relevant statistics. While he's usable nearly every night for those who have the budget space, he earns a spot in this one as an excuse to mention that Mike Wright shouldn't be considered nearly intimidating enough to scare you away. Wright's 3.84 ERA is a perfectly solid mark, but his 18.1 percent strikeout rate is barely above average while his 10.6 percent walk rate is poor.

Hyun Soo Kim ($4,800) has been on a tear even as many of his teammates have struggled. After going 4-for-5 with a homer Friday he's now riding a seven-game hitting streak in which he's gone .519/.594/.926 with three homers. Zoom a bit further out and he's hitting .406/.479/.859 with eight homers in his last 16 games. Homering every other game is certainly a surprise for the veteran, who's been primarily a contact hitter throughout his KBO career, hitting over .300 in nine of his last 10 seasons but averaging a modest 16.8 homers. His price strangely hasn't risen much given his recent streak, making him an excellent play against Bears righty Won Joon Choi, who's been a reliever for all but two of his 25 appearances this season.

Bargain Bats

Joon Woo Choi ($2,700) didn't crack the Wyverns stack listed below, as the team has a trio of more proven options, but he's an interesting cheap option with the platoon advantage against the struggling Warwick Saupold (discussed below). The 21-year-old did very little in his 15-game debut last year, but he's been locked into the second spot in the order for the Wyverns' last eight games. The role seems well-deserved, as the young second baseman has hit a solid .289/.364/.388 while walking (16) more than he's struck out (15). His respectable line comes with a .311 BABIP, so there's little reason to believe it's a fluke.

Jae Il Oh ($4,000) may seem a tad expensive for this section, but given how expensive many of the alternatives are at first base (he's cheaper than 11 other players at the position), his inclusion seems justified. Whether you call him a true bargain or not, Oh is very much worth a look given his performances of late. He's hit .387 with a .973 OPS over his last eight games, though that's not a whole lot better than his overall .347 batting average and .954 OPS in 52 games overall. He'll get the platoon advantage against Twins righty Casey Kelly, who's coming off a game in which he struck out 11, but that came against the lowly Eagles. His overall 4.36 ERA in 13 starts this season is far from intimidating.

Stacks To Consider

Wyverns vs. Warwick Saupold: Jeong Choi ($5,800), Jamie Romak ($4,600), Dong Min Han ($3,900)

Saupold started the year with a complete-game shutout of these very same Wyverns, but he hasn't been that same pitcher lately. Over his last four starts, he owns a 7.77 ERA, striking out just 11 batters in 24.1 innings. Even when he's pitching well, he struggles to miss bats, striking out just 13.4 percent opposing batters over the course of the season. Even his excellent 3.6 percent walk rate hasn't been enough to offset that mark, as he owns an unimpressive 4.67 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP. The Wyverns may not have a ton of depth, but their top hitters should have no problem with Saupold in this one.

Choi's excellent .295/.423/.576 season slash line actually underrates how well he's played for much of the season, as he struggled significantly in the first three weeks of the season but owns a .357/.471/.708 slash line over his last 46 games. 14 of his 15 homers on the season have come during that stretch, including two in Friday's win. He now has 350 homers over the course of his KBO career, just one shy of Joon Hyuk Yang for second place all time.

Romak went an awful 0-for-5 with four strikeouts Friday, but that followed a three-game stretch in which he went 5-for-12 with a pair of homers. The Canadian slugger hasn't been at his best this season, as his .853 OPS would be the lowest mark of his four-year KBO career, but it's still a perfectly adequate number. He's on pace for 28 homers, just shy of the 29 he managed last season. His performance has been a step below that of the league's best bats, but his price is a step down from that tier as well, making him a good option against the struggling Saupold.

Unlike Choi and Romak, Han will get the platoon advantage with a righty on the mound. He's gone just 5-for-25 in nine games since returning from a lengthy absence due to a shin bruise, but he's homered in back-to-back games and in three of his last five appearances. Combined with his numbers from before the injury, he's hitting a strong .282/.364/.635 with nine homers in just 26 games. That kind of pop isn't surprising for the 30-year-old, as he hit 41 homers back in 2018.

Dinos vs. Odrisamer Despaigne: Sung Bum Na ($5,000), Aaron Altherr ($5,700), Jin Sung Kang ($4,000)

This stack may appear to be an odd one at first glance, as Despaigne was supposed to be the Wiz's ace this season, but he hasn't pitched like one for much of the year. He produced an excellent 1.80 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP through his first four starts, but his 6.22 ERA and 1.60 WHIP over his last 10 outings are both quite poor. Those numbers are inflated by his awful outing his last time out, which came against the same Dinos, as he allowed eight runs on 11 hits in just 4.2 innings. He's been poor in all three of his outings against the league's best offense this season, struggling to an 8.62 ERA.

Na has had his ups and downs this season, but the ups have certainly been far more significant overall, as he's hitting .313/.385/.606 with 17 homers through 60 games, good for a tie for third in the home run race. He's been seeing the ball quite well lately, hitting .360 with four homers over his last 14 games, including a homer in each of his last two contests. He'll have a shot to make that three homers in three games against Despaigne, who's allowed a homer in seven of his last eight starts.

Any doubts Altherr's ability to dominate the KBO after his slow start (which seems to have been linked to a nagging hand injury) should have long since dissipated by now. After hitting just .172/.273/.276 through his first 10 games overseas, he's hit an excellent .309/.368/.647 over his last 55 contests. His 18 homers on the season lead the Dinos and place him second in the league overall, while he also ranks second with 60 RBIs, quite an accomplishment given that his poor early form led to him spending much of the campaign batting in the final third of the order. He returned to the cleanup spot Friday and will make for an excellent pairing with number three hitter Na should he remain there Saturday.

Kang is another player who's been on a journey up and down the Dinos' order this season but climbed up to the fifth spot Friday, making him an excellent third member of this stack if he sticks there in this one. He tore out of the gates this season after beginning the campaign as a backup, hitting a remarkable .432/.484/.784 through his first 35 games. He crashed hard after that, hitting a miserable .182/.188/.227 in his next 18 contests, causing both his price and lineup position to fall. His price remains modest despite the fact that he's hit .481 over his last seven games, making him a great value here.