DFS KBO: Wednesday Cheat Sheet

Tuesday's KBO action saw plenty of upsets. The Giants beat the Heroes 7-5, even with Eric Jokisch on the mound. Jokisch only allowed two earned runs, so he didn't single-handedly sink fantasy teams. With just one strikeout, though, he certainly didn't live up to his lofty price. Elsewhere, the increasingly vulnerable Dinos fell 7-4 to the Tigers, with the bullpen the primary culprit, as Drew Rucinski struck out eight in a quality start. Meanwhile, the Bears lost their third straight game to a bottom-half team, losing 4-3 to a Lions side which has now won five of six. Whether or not the favorites can turn things around in the second game of the week will be interesting to watch. Wednesday's slate looks to be quite deep on pitchers worth stacking against, which could mean the ownership rates of top hitters will be fairly spread out. As of writing, the Dinos-Tigers game in Gwangju looks to be threatened by rain, though the weather may not become a problem until late in the game, if it shows up at all.

Pitchers

Chris Flexen ($8,600 DraftKings, $23 FanDuel as "Doosan Starting P") is back after missing one start due to a hamstring issue and is surprisingly affordable on FanDuel. His underlying numbers may not quite support his 2.92 ERA and 1.19 WHIP, but his combination of an above-average 19.9 percent strikeout rate and a roughly average 8.6 percent walk rate is certainly nothing to complain about. He wasn't particularly good over his last three starts, striking out eight while walking nine, so that along with the hamstring issue does provide some risk. If the brief time off solved the problem, though, his matchup against a mediocre Lions offense in the league's most pitcher-friendly park, Jamsil Baseball Stadium, makes him a strong option.

Mike Wright ($10,300 DraftKings, $29 FanDuel as "NC Starting P") may be tough to fit into your lineup, but he certainly has a chance to be worth his lofty price tag. His 2.77 ERA through his first seven KBO starts will almost certainly rise -- it's taken a .255 BABIP and an 85.9 percent strand rate to get him to that mark -- but it may not Wednesday against an unimpressive Tigers lineup which is tied for sixth in scoring. Wright's 11.1 percent walk rate is worryingly high, but his 21.6 percent strikeout rate gives him rare upside.

None of the truly cheap options on DraftKings look anywhere close to trustworthy, but Chan Gyu Lim ($8,000 DraftKings, $24 FanDuel) looks like a solid mid-priced option on both sites. You wouldn't know it just looking at his 5.24 ERA and 1.43 WHIP, but he's actually pitched fairly well this season, as his ERA is inflated by a 59.5 percent strand rate. His 22.2 percent strikeout rate and 5.9 percent walk rate are both quite good. He's had a bit of a homer problem, allowing 1.3 HR/9, but that may not be a worry against an Eagles lineup which ranks last in the league in home runs, just one of a very long list of stats in which they bring up the rear.

Top Targets

Jung Hoo Lee ($5,300 DraftKings, $14 FanDuel) hasn't slowed down after hitting .359/.430/.598 in May, as his .367/.426/.633 line through 13 June games is right in line with those numbers and even slightly better in the power department. His career-best .362 batting average comes with a .363 BABIP, but he's never finished with a BABIP below .352 in his four-year career, so it doesn't look as though much regression is coming there. He'll get the platoon advantage against Giants righty Jun Won Seo, whose solid 3.72 ERA isn't backed up by his 11.0 percent strikeout rate.

Tigers righty Min Woo Lee's 5.09 ERA comes with decent peripherals, which is enough to keep me off a full Dinos stack on a day which is quite full of exploitable pitchers. I certainly don't hate using any Dinos here, though, so I'm very happy to include Sung Bum Na ($6,100 DraftKings, $16 FanDuel) wherever I can find the budget space. He's in the middle of a rare cold stretch, hitting .200 with a worryingly high 51.9 percent strikeout rate over his last six games, but that's a very small sample compared to his dominant .315/.398/.610 slash line over the course of the season. Lee's 16.2 percent strikeout rate is modest at best, so Na should make more contact Wednesday and could be in for a bounceback performance.

Bargain Bats

Ji Hoon Choi ($2,700 DraftKings, $5 FanDuel) went just 1-for-5 as part of a recommended Wyverns' stack in Tuesday's slate, but I'm still a big fan of him as a minimum-price option on FanDuel. Through the first 20 games of his career, the young outfielder is hitting a strong .333/.366/.439 with three steals, and while it's taken a .386 BABIP to get him to that mark, he can remain a good value even with a fair amount of regression given his price. He'll likely bat leadoff Wednesday and will get the platoon advantage against Wiz righty Byung Wook Jo, who has pitched just two innings in his KBO career.

Eun Sung Chae ($3,300 DraftKings, $11 FanDuel) is a strong mid-priced option on both sites. While the Twins' offense is undeniably worse without Roberto Ramos (ankle/back), they can still beat up bad pitching, scoring 19 runs over their last two games, a pair of contests in which Chae went 5-for-8 with a double and a homer, raising his season slash line to .316/.363/.489. He'll get the platoon advantage against Eagles lefty Chad Bell, who's come nowhere close to living up to expectations in his four starts since returning from an elbow injury. In 15.1 innings, he's allowed 15 earned runs, striking out 12 while walking 11.

Stacks To Consider

Wiz vs. Tae Hoon Kim: Mel Rojas Jr. ($5,400 DraftKings, $16 FanDuel), Han Joon Yoo ($3,600 DraftKings, $12 FanDuel), Jae Gyun Hwang ($5,200 DraftKings, $9 FanDuel)

Kim had a pair of solid seasons pitching almost exclusively in relief in 2018 and 2019, posting ERAs of 3.83 and 3.88. He hasn't been able to keep up that level of performance upon his move to the rotation this year, however, slipping to a 4.91 ERA. His 1.27 WHIP is a good mark, but that seems to be the product of an unsustainable .213 BABIP. The southpaw's combination of a 13.8 percent strikeout rate and 14.5 percent walk rate is a rather large red flag, and he's been particularly poor in that regard over his last two starts, striking out just three while walking nine.

With a lefty on the mound for the Wyverns, I'm not inclined to pay up for Baek Ho Kang ($5,900 DraftKings, $16 FanDuel) with the platoon disadvantage, but Rojas makes for a more than capable top-tier bat to lead this stack. The switch-hitting outfielder has been excellent all season, hitting .379/.420/.703 with 12 homers and 36 RBI, good for second in the league in the latter two categories. He's been on a tear recently, hitting .409 with three homers and seven RBI in his last five games. Rojas has dominated lefties this season, hitting .472 with five homers in just 36 at-bats.

Yoo typically bats right in front of Rojas in the cleanup spot, something which doesn't make a ton of sense given Rojas' numbers, though it's not as if Yoo is anything close to a poor hitter. The 38-year-old is still going strong at the tail end of his career, hitting .319/.373/.536, giving him a batting average above .300 for the seventh straight season. His power is modest at best, as he's homered four times and has never hit more than 23 bombs in his career, but his ability to make contact isn't in any doubt, as he's only struck out in 10.7 percent of his plate appearances this season and hasn't posted a strikeout rate above 12.0 percent since 2013.

Hwang returned to the lineup Tuesday following a seven-game absence due to a finger injury, providing another quality option at a very shallow third-base position on DraftKings. He's a bit pricey on that site for someone who hits as low as sixth, but he's worth a look as part of this stack as he immediately follows Yoo and Rojas in the order. He's only managed two homers so far this season, but he has a track record of hitting for decent power, clearing the 20-homer threshold in each of his last four KBO seasons. He can provide value even when he's not hitting the ball out of the park, as he's hit .306 while chipping in with three steals in 25 games this season.

Bears vs. Dae Woo Kim: Jose Fernandez ($6,200 DraftKings, $17 FanDuel), Joo Hwan Choi ($2,400 DraftKings, $11 FanDuel), Jae Ho Kim ($2,800 DraftKings, $9 FanDuel)

The Bears' lineup sits second in the league with 6.0 runs per game this season, though they've been slightly down of late, scoring a modest 5.0 runs per game over their last 10 contests, a mark which would place them fifth. They're a bit banged up, as they'll be without Jae Il Oh (side) and potentially Kun Woo Park (thigh) as well, they still have more than enough talent to put up some big numbers against Dae Woo Kim. The veteran's 3.81 ERA and 1.35 WHIP through 26 innings as a swingman are both solid marks, but just about everything else about his statline suggests regression is coming. Much of his success can be attributed to his .222 BABIP, as he simply can't put hitters away, posting an anemic 7.8 percent strikeout rate, a number which looks even worse next to his 10.3 percent walk rate. The righty's 5.91 career ERA looks like a far more accurate reflection of his talent level.

Fernandez is the engine at the heart of this stack and the Bears' lineup. While his hitless day Tuesday brought his batting average below .400, there's little reason to complain about any aspect of his .393/.440/.600 slash line. Pitchers with far better stuff than Kim's simply haven't been able to get him to swing and miss, as he's cut his strikeout rate from 8.4 percent last season to 7.1 percent this year. He's as good a bet for multiple hits as anyone in the league, as he has three such games in his last six contests and 19 on the season overall. He's nearly five times as likely to get two or more hits as he is to go hitless, something he's done just four times this year.

Choi has settled into the third spot in the Bears' order and is remarkably cheap (especially on DraftKings) for a player who occupies that spot in one of the league's better offenses. His numbers don't pop off the page, but his .260/.342/.472 slash line is solid across the board, as are his six homers. His batting average should rise along with his .260 BABIP, as he's hit .293 over the course of his 13-year career. The sustainability of his power is tougher to predict, as he's only once managed more than seven homers in a season, but he hit as many as 26 as recently as 2018.

Jae Ho Kim won't get the platoon advantage in this game, but he's a cheap option who fills the shallow shortstop spot on DraftKings and who moved up to fifth in the order Tuesday due to Jae Hwan Kim's extended slump. Jae Ho Kim has been on a tear over his last 11 games, hitting .429 to bring his season slash line up to .359/.410/.444. The 35-year-old is undoubtedly due for a fair amount of regression, as his .390 BABIP is unlikely to last, and he doesn't do a whole lot other than hit for average, but given his price and position, he can regress a fair amount and still be a useful option.