DFS KBO: Tuesday Cheat Sheet

We're heading into an exciting time in the KBO schedule, with teams set to play three two-game series per week for the next several weeks. It's a rather exciting time in the standings as well, as the surging Heroes sit just half a game back of the struggling Dinos. The pair will play a two-game set to kick off the week, meaning the Heroes could be anywhere from 1.5 games up to 2.5 games back come the end of Wednesday's slate. 

We've had quite a run of good luck regarding rain over the last several days, and that should be the case again Tuesday, as all five games look set to go forward. We should be set for five quality games--or at least four good ones and one between the Eagles and Wyverns. The slate is led by quite an impressive top end in the pitching department, while good stacks could be hard to find.

Pitchers

There may be no better pitcher in the league right now than Dan Straily ($10,200), at least as long as Chang Mo Koo remains sidelined with a forearm injury. Straily sits second to Koo in ERA (2.04), strikeout rate (25.6 percent) and WHIP (1.00). He's been remarkably consistent, allowing more than two earned runs in a start just twice in 18 trips to the mound this season. He's coming off a streak of seven straight quality starts, in which he owns a 1.34 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP, so even the second-ranked Bears lineup shouldn't give him too much trouble.

Nearly every pitcher on this slate has a solid argument for selection, so I'll skip past a few of the league's best arms who face difficult matchups and jump down to Chan Gyu Lim ($8,000). He'll face the Tigers and their seventh-ranked lineup, oddly being paired against them for the third straight start. He struggled against them in the first start of that run, allowing five runs in 4.1 innings, but bounced back in a big way his last time out, striking out nine over five scoreless, hitless innings. That five-run blowup was his only bad start in his last five, a stretch in which he owns a 2.02 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. On the season as a whole, his 3.71 ERA and 1.28 WHIP are backed by a strong 22.7 percent strikeout rate.

Jong Hoon Park ($7,400) is far from the best pitcher on the slate, but he's the only one who gets to face the Eagles' last-ranked lineup. His 4.78 ERA and 1.40 WHIP on the season are both rather unremarkable, but there's enough here to be interested in him even if he weren't facing the worst offense in the league. His overall 22.3 percent strikeout rate ranks fifth among qualified starters and gives him plenty of upside. He's also been pitching considerably better lately, not allowing more than three runs in any of his last seven starts, a stretch in which he owns a 3.49 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP.

Top Targets

Jeong Choi's ($5,200) struggles in early August paralleled his team's, but both he and the Wyverns have begun to right the ship. Choi grabbed at least one hit in all six games last week, posting a .988 OPS and driving in seven runs. His .965 OPS on the season is still held back by a .494 OPS over his first 17 games, as he's hit .324/.441/.648 since that point, posting a 1.088 OPS which would rank second behind only Mel Rojas Jr. had he been able to keep it up since the start of the year. Choi's Wyverns will face Eagles righty Min Woo Kim, whose 4.17 ERA is by no means terrible but still ranks as one of the worst marks on the slate.

While the Dinos have been slumping overall of late, Sung Bum Na ($5,600) look as good as ever. He has five multi-hit games in his last eight contests, hitting .382/.462/.706 with a pair of homers over that stretch. On the season as a whole, his .309/.390/.593 slash line is exactly the type of campaign he needed to have if he's to make his intended jump to MLB this offseason, proving that he's healthy and effective after a knee injury wiped out most of his 2019 season. He'll get the platoon advantage against Heroes righty Hyun Hee Han in this one, whose ERA still stands at a poor 5.63 even after a trio of strong starts.

Bargain Bats

The pitcher pool is so deep Tuesday that I'm about to recommend a hitter who will face Drew Rucinski, who owns a 2.88 ERA. If there's ever a time to bet against him, it's now, as he's given up 14 runs in 16 innings over his last three starts. He's still good enough that I'd likely avoid the Heroes' most expensive stars, but Hye Sung Kim ($3,700) offers an affordable way to get a piece of the visitor's lineup. His .281/.351/.418 season slash line is a solid enough mark, especially when combined with his 13 steals, though he's been even better than that over his last 12 games, hitting an impressive .378/.428/.444 while stealing a pair of bases.

Dong Yeop Kim ($2,800) has been demoted twice this season for poor performance, but he's been quite good since his latest return to the KBO level. In eight games, he's hitting .444/.483/1.000 with four homers, including homers in three straight starts. On the season as a whole, he owns a lopsided but productive .282/.318/.483 slash line, homering 10 times in 223 plate appearances. He'll face William Cuevas on Tuesday, who's been quite good for most of the year but who owns a 6.35 ERA and a 5:9 K:BB over his last three starts.

Stacks To Consider

Wiz vs. Chae Heung Choi: Mel Rojas Jr. ($6,700), Jae Gyun Hwang ($5,300), Han Joon Yoo ($3,500)

Choi had a 3.42 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP heading into his previous start against the Bears. One start, 11 runs and 17 hits later, he owns a 4.54 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP. It's unwise to penalize him too much for just one bad outing, but it's hard to say there's a better time for the Wiz to be facing him. Choi has been overall a decent pitcher, though that still makes him one of the worst hurlers among a very strong group, and he's facing one of the league's better offenses. Choi's 16.8 percent strikeout rate and 8.8 percent walk rate are a perfectly acceptable combination, but it would hardly be a surprise if his struggles continued against the Wiz.

Rojas is finally in a bit of a slump, grabbing just two hits in his last five games, but that very brief cold stretch doesn't come close to outweighing what he did in his first 76 contests, hitting .393/.454/.777. He already could be coming out of his slump, as he hit a two-RBI double Sunday. On the season as a whole, he leads the league in most relevant categories, including homers (29), RBI (76) and batting average (.369).

With a lefty on the mound for the Lions, we'll go with Hwang rather than Baek Ho Kang as Rojas' second-in-command here. The third baseman began the year quite slowly, hitting .256/.

287/.372 over his first 32 games, but he's been an entirely different player over his last 39 contests, posting a .340/.403/.593 slash line. While he's yet to homer in August, he's riding a four-game doubles streak and has doubled seven times in his last seven games. Those doubles could certainly turn to homers at the league's most hitter-friendly park Tuesday.

Number five hitter Yoo keeps this stack somewhat affordable, though no stack that includes Rojas will be anything close to a budget one. The 39-year-old's .790 OPS this season is his lowest mark since 2013, though it's still a perfectly acceptable figure for his price. The veteran was struggling throughout much of late July, but he's turned things around over his last 12 games, hitting .364/.391/.523.

Giants vs. Won Joon Choi: Ah Seop Son ($3,800), Dong Hee Han ($3,700), Dixon Machado ($4,100)

As with Chae Heung Choi above, Won Joon Choi is far from a terrible arm, but he's still one of the weakest options among a rather strong group. He'd been almost exclusively a reliever for most of the year but entered the Bears rotation in mid-July following Chris Flexen's foot fracture. He allowed just one run over his first two starts in the role, but his last three outings have been quite poor. He owns a 6.14 ERA over that stretch, paired with a rather worrying 1.98 WHIP. That's enough to make him one of the day's most exploitable pitchers and enough to make even the Giants' sixth-ranked offense look quite interesting against him.

As the only lefty who regularly bats in the top half of the Giants' lineup, Son is the obvious place to start any Giants stack against a right-hander. He doesn't have much power, hitting just four homers this season after managing a modest 10 last year, but he's a strong on-base threat near the top of the Giants' lineup. On the season as a whole, he's hitting .341/.413/.461 with more walks (40) than strikeouts (37). He has at least one hit in 15 of his last 16 games.

The Giants' lineup contains a number of similarly good but not elite right-handers. Number five hitter Han is one of the cheaper ones and has been one of the more effective hitters on the team lately. He had a brief absence due to a shoulder injury in late July but has been on first since his return, hitting .404/.481/.511. On the season as a whole, his .278/.346/.449 slash line is a huge step forward from his poor .203/.271/.283 line in 59 games last season.

Machado is still stuck hitting sixth, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see him move up in the order soon if his recent performance continues. After struggling for much of the season, he suddenly figured things out in mid-July and is now hitting .420/.478/.654 over his last 23 games. While he's still primarily a contact hitter, he's hit 10 doubles over that stretch and has also homered three times, an encouraging sign after he went over two months between his fourth and fifth homers of the year, hitting those on May 17 and July 21, respectively.