DFS KBO: Tuesday Cheat Sheet

Sunday's KBO action saw a pair of offensive explosions, with the Giants and Twins scoring 14 and 13 runs, respectively. Yoon Suk Oh led the way for the Giants as they demolished the Eagles, hitting for the cycle while going 5-for-5 with three runs and seven RBI. Min Sung Kim was the Twins' top hitter in their 13-8 win over the Wiz, going 2-for-3 with two walks, a homer, three runs and three RBI, though Baek Ho Kang's two homers for the losers also represented one of the best performances on the day. The other three games featured quite a few strong pitching performances. Duk Joo Ham struck out six while allowing just one run on three hits over five innings as their Bears completed their sweep of the Tigers with a 7-1 win, while Seung Won Moon outpitched Jake Brigham, throwing seven scoreless innings as his counterpart allowed three runs over 5.1 frames, helping the Wyverns to a 6-0 upset. Elsewhere, Pil Joon Jang (one run on two hits in five innings) was nearly as good as Drew Rucinski (zero runs on six hits in 5.2 innings), but the Dinos would nevertheless increase their lead atop the standings to eight with a 4-1 win. Tuesday's slate, which takes place at 5:30 a.m. ET, has one of the deepest pitching pools in recent memory.

Pitchers

While Eric Jokisch has a strong case as the best pitcher in the KBO this season, I'll be skipping him here as I don't see the need to pay up for him against the league-best Dinos lineup given the number of compelling alternatives. Instead, I'll give top billing to Drew Gagnon ($8,600) against the league-worst Eagles offense. Gagnon's season can be divided into three parts. He started his KBO career quite strong, posting a 3.53 ERA and 1.22 WHIP through his first 13 starts while striking out a batter per inning. He fell hard over his next four outings, posting a 9.00 ERA, a 2.58 WHIP and a 15:14 K:BB. He's righted the ship over his last six trips to the mound, however, cruising to a 2.35 ERA and 1.02 WHIP over that stretch. While is K/9 sits at a merely decent 7.0 in those starts, there's still plenty of reason to be confident in a strong performance against the league's weakest offense here.

In the middle tier, Ben Lively ($6,600) doesn't have the easiest matchup against the Twins' second-ranked lineup, though that unit will likely be without star slugger Roberto Ramos (ankle), which certainly makes it a less intimidating group. After posting a 3.95 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP in his nine-start KBO debut last year, Lively failed to recreate that form for most of this season, struggling to a 5.40 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP through the end of August (12 starts). In four of his five September starts, however, he lasted seven or more innings while allowing one or fewer runs, giving him a 1.91 ERA and a 0.79 WHIP for the month even with one poor outing thrown in. His four good starts came against the four best lineups in the league (the Dinos, Twins, Bears and Wiz), so there's reason to believe he'll stay hot here.

Won Joon Choi ($5,200) is inexplicably cheap, having mysteriously dropped $1,500 since his previous start. Don't be fooled by his low DraftKings points per game, as that's held back by the fact that he spent the early part of the campaign in relief. He entered the rotation in mid-July and has very much looked like he belongs, posting a 3.09 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP over 13 starts. His combination of a roughly average 17.5 percent strikeout rate and a strong 5.6 percent walk rate backs up his numbers. He's not an ace, but he doesn't have to be anything close to one to justify his price here, which shouldn't be hard to do against the lowly Wyverns.

Top Targets

Mel Rojas Jr. ($5,900) doesn't have the easiest matchup against Giants righty Se Woong Park, who owns a decent 4.24 ERA, but it almost doesn't matter who he's facing considering how well he's been hitting lately. Over his last seven games, the likely future MVP is hitting .464 with five homers and 11 RBI. He's now back on top of all three Triple Crown categories. His 42 homers lead the league by four and his 119 RBI lead the league by eight, though he'll have to stay hot to win the batting title, as his .351 mark very narrowly edges out Ah Seop Son's second-place mark of .350.

The Heroes may be struggling, winning just two of their last 10 games, but that's hardly the fault of Ha Seong Kim ($5,500). Over his last 11 contests, he's hitting .400/.426/.667 with three homers. On the season overall, he's been an excellent all-around player, hitting .304 with 27 homers and 21 steals. That places him sixth and fifth, respectively, home runs and stolen bases. He should have a good chance to stay hot Tuesday with the platoon advantage against Dinos lefty Young Gyu Kim, who owns a 5.36 ERA on the year.

Bargain Bats

Dong Yeop Kim ($2,700) remains the most underpriced player on DraftKings and will continue to feature frequently in this section until that's no longer true. He hit .258/.295/.407 in his first 48 games this season and was demoted twice to fix his swing, but the moves clearly worked. In 48 games since returning to the roster in early August, he's hitting .382/.416/.636. In five games so far in October, he's hitting .500 with a pair of homers and eight RBI. With the platoon advantage against rookie lefty Ho Nam, who's making just his fourth career appearance, it's hard to see why he'd slow down in this one.

With so much depth among Tuesday's pitchers, you may be forced to select a few hitters against some fairly decent arms. Targeting some Giants against Odrisamer Despaigne, who owns a 4.74 ERA and a 1.62 WHIP over his last four starts, doesn't seem like a bad idea. Byung Kyu Lee ($2,500) will get the platoon advantage against him and comes quite cheap. He's settled in as the number five hitter and certainly seems to deserve a key role, as he's hitting .407/.485/.627 over his last 18 games,

Stacks to Consider

Bears vs. Geon Wook Lee: Kyoung Min Hur ($5,200), Joo Hwan Choi ($4,600), Jae Il Oh ($4,200)

The Bears' lineup had been slumping for quite some time, but they exploded for 28 runs across their three-game sweep of the Tigers over the weekend. This is one of the best lineups in the league, so it shouldn't be a surprise to see them rounding back into form. They're a strong bet to remain hot against Lee, who owns a 5.64 ERA on the season. His ERA sat as low as 3.29 at the end of July, but things have gone downhill dramatically since then, as he's allowed four or more earned runs in seven of his 11 starts since the beginning of August. He's been particularly poor over his last six outings, posting an 8.89 ERA and a 1.71 WHIP while striking out 18 batters and walking 21.

There are quite a few ways to build a Bears stack, but I've gone with a trio who has been hitting well lately rather than picking the biggest names, leaving out Jose Fernandez and Jae Hwan Kim. (Both are certainly worthy of consideration, however.) Hur won't get the platoon advantage here, but that shouldn't matter much given the way he's hitting lately. In his last nine games, he's hitting .406/.487/.625, helping him move up to the leadoff spot for the last three games. He's clearly seeing the ball very well lately, as he doesn't have a single strikeout in his last 12 games. 

Choi has settled into the third spot in the order for the last 11 games, and it's hard to say he hasn't deserved the role. In his last 14 games, he's hitting .438/.525/.688 with a pair of homers and more walks (9) than strikeouts (7). He's been even better than that over his last four games, grabbing a pair of hits in all four. On the season overall, the 32-year-old's .312/.379/.480 slash line represents a huge step forward from his .277/.332/.365 line from last season.

Oh's slump was a huge part of the Bears' struggles in September, as he hit a pathetic .093/.183/.111 over the final 15 games of the month. Flipping the calendar to October has helped him quite a bit, however, as he's gone 4-for-9 with five walks, a homer, and six RBI in four games so far this month. While he won't stay quite that hot going forward, there's every reason to believe he'll be a quality hitter down the stretch, as he's posted an OPS of .864 or better in each of the last five seasons.

Tigers vs. Warwick Saupold: Preston Tucker ($5,000), Hyung Woo Choi ($4,700), Won Joon Choi ($3,200)

Finding a second stack Tuesday is far harder than normal, but the mediocre Tigers lineup looks appealing enough here against the shaky Saupold. The Australian may be coming off a strong performance in which he tossed seven scoreless, one-hit innings against the defending champion Bears, but it's not as though he's been in a good run of form. That excellent outing followed a run of three straight starts in which he walked more batters than he struck out, posting a 6.19 ERA and a 1.94 WHIP over that stretch. On the season as a whole, his 5.4 percent walk rate is strong, but he gives up far too much contact, striking out just 13.2 percent of opposing batters, leading to a 5.09 ERA.

Tucker has just one hit in his last three games, though that's not necessarily enough time to conclude that he's suddenly gone completely cold. Those three games immediately followed a seven-game stretch in which he hit .444/.531/.556. On the season as a whole, he's hitting .303/.403/.565, a big step up in the power department from his .479 slugging percentage from his KBO debut last year. He should reverse his short slump with the platoon advantage against an unreliable righty Tuesday.

Hyung Woo Choi has actually moved ahead of Tucker for the team lead in OPS, as his .980 mark beats out Tucker's .967. That's the product of an extended run of excellent form, as he's hitting .382/.443/.630 over his last 44 games. You might expect the slugger to fade down the stretch in his age-36 season, but that's clearly not happening. There's little reason to believe he'll drop off any time soon, as he's set to finish his eighth straight season with an OPS of .896 or higher and is within striking distance of finishing a full season with a quadruple-digit OPS for the fifth time in his career.

The Tigers' offense drops off significantly after the above pair of left-handed sluggers, though leadoff man Won Joon Choi will also get the platoon advantage against Saupold and has swung quite a hot bat lately. Over his last 25 games, he's hitting an excellent .381/.459/.526. He's homered just once on the year, but his solid .365 on-base percentage on the season makes him a good fit as a table setter. He doesn't have much of a track record in recent seasons, struggling to a .545 OPS in a part-time role last season, but he should still be worth his cheap price in this one.