DFS KBO: Wednesday Cheat Sheet

Rain on Sunday and Monday meant that teams across the KBO could skip some of their back-end starters in favor of their top arms Tuesday. That had the expected effect, with four teams being held to two runs or less. The Tigers and Twins were shut out by the Lions and Giants, respectively, with David Buchanan tossing seven scoreless innings for the Lions and Dan Straily tossing eight shutout frames for the Giants while allowing just two hits. Elsewhere, Odrisamer Despaigne held the Eagles to one run in seven innings in the Wiz's 7-2 win, while Jake Brigham lasted five innings in his first start back from an elbow injury, holding the league-leading Dinos to a single run on three hits as the Heroes won 5-1. Offense was still available, though it was mostly limited to the battle between the Wyverns and the Bears, which the Wyverns won by a score of 12-7. Jeong Choi led the way with his 12th homer of the year and three runs scored. A few more low-scoring affairs can be expected Wednesday with a handful of top-tier starters headlining the slate, but there are plenty of prime stack targets to choose from as well.

Pitchers

Raul Alcantara ($9,500 DraftKings, $20 FanDuel as "Doosan Starting P") looks like the top option on the day, especially on FanDuel, where he should be extremely highly owned as he's inexplicably far cheaper than any other option on the slate. The 27-year-old's 3.14 ERA and 1.10 WHIP through 12 starts tell the story of his dominance well enough on their own, and he's backed those numbers up with an excellent combination of a 21.9 percent strikeout rate and a 3.8 percent walk rate. He's been even better than that lately, though, posting a 1.53 ERA and a 0.65 WHIP over his last four starts while striking out 27 and walking just a single batter. That dominant trend should continue against the Wyverns, who sit ninth in scoring even after Tuesday's rare offensive explosion.

Tyler Wilson ($7,000 DraftKings, $25 FanDuel as "LG Starting P") has been rather unconvincing this year, posting a 4.48 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP after cruising to a 2.92 ERA and 1.38 WHIP last season. His 16.1 percent strikeout rate and 7.2 percent walk rate are both mediocre as well and represent steps back from his 2019 numbers. His price reflects his generally unremarkable performance, however, and he has a good chance to be a strong value play Wednesday against a Giants side which ranks eighth in scoring this season.

Eric Jokisch ($10,100 DraftKings, $28 FanDuel as "Kiwoom Starting P") is, in theory, a major risk against the league-leading Dinos' lineup, but it's not clear that any matchup is a risk for him given how he's pitched this year. He's yet to give up more than three earned runs in any of his 12 starts this season and has allowed three just once, leading to an incredible 1.41 ERA to go with his equally dominant 0.89 WHIP. It's worth noting that he hasn't faced either of the league's top two offenses, the Dinos or the Bears, so far this season, but he's yet to allow an earned run in 19 innings against the other two top-five offenses, the Wiz and Twins. His modest 18.5 percent strikeout rate does cap his upside, but the fact that he's listed here despite his price and opponent is an indicator of just how dominant he's been all year.

Top Targets

In the interest of not gushing about Mel Rojas Jr. -- who's as playable as ever Wednesday -- every day, I'll discuss his teammate Jae Gyun Hwang ($6,000 DraftKings, $11 FanDuel) today. His price differs widely between the two sites, though his high DraftKings price tag (which is partially justified by his eligibility at a shallow third-base position) is a more accurate reflection of his recent performance. The former San Francisco Giant struggled for much of the year but has now locked down the second spot in the order after an excellent stretch in which he's hit .408/.469/.648 over his last 17 games, scoring 20 times. His form should continue in this one, as he'll get the platoon advantage against Eagles lefty Bum Soo Kim, whose 3.95 ERA isn't supported by his underlying numbers, as he's walked 14.8 percent of opposing batters.

Any of the Bears' top left-handed bats could be good plays against Wyverns righty Ricardo Pinto, whose respectable 4.14 ERA comes with a 1.68 WHIP and a 40:35 K:BB. Jae Il Oh ($4,500 DraftKings, $15 FanDuel) is the cheapest of the excellent trio that includes his teammates Jose Fernandez and Jae Hwan Kim. He's been strong all season but has swung a particularly hot bat over his last 15 games, hitting .354. He appears to be fully past the pair of side injuries which have limited him to 45 games this season.

Bargain Bats

If the Eagles had enough hitters that I was even remotely confident in, they'd be a stack recommendation against Wiz righty Min Soo Kim, who's struck out just 11.4 percent of opposing hitters en route to a 5.73 ERA this season. They don't even have one hitter who fits that label, unfortunately, though I'm intrigued enough by what cleanup hitter Jin Haeng Choi ($3,500 DraftKings, $5 FanDuel) has done of late to give him a look, especially on FanDuel, where he costs the minimum. In his last nine games, the 34-year-old has hit .333 with three homers. It's hard to have too much faith in the veteran, given that he's coming off a pair of poor seasons, but his price is cheap enough that he's worth a gamble given the matchup.

Ji Wan Na ($4,100 DraftKings, $9 FanDuel) is more of a mid-priced player than a true bargain on DraftKings, but he's worth considering on both sites. He's bounced back from a poor 2019 campaign in which he posted a .670 OPS in limited action, hitting .286/.369/.469 so far this year. He's been particularly hot lately, as his hitless day Tuesday ended a streak in which he'd reached base in 11 straight games while hitting .326/.412/.581 with three homers, giving him nine on the season. Unlike his left-handed teammates Preston Tucker and Hyung Woo Choi, who often show up in this column, he'll get the platoon advantage against Lions southpaw Jung Hyun Baek, who's struggled to a 5.44 ERA this year while allowing 10 homers, tied for most in the league.

Stacks To Consider

Heroes vs. Sung Young Choi: Ha Seong Kim ($6,100 DraftKings, $16 FanDuel), Byung Ho Park ($4,700 DraftKings, $14 FanDuel), Dong Won Park ($5,400 DraftKings, $9 FanDuel)

The Heroes scored a respectable five runs on 10 hits in the series opener Tuesday with the struggling Jae Hak Lee on the mound for the Dinos, but they could be in for a bigger day Wednesday against Choi. Choi's 3.94 ERA last season wasn't particularly trustworthy, as it came with an unimpressive combination of a 16.9 percent strikeout rate and a 13.3 percent walk rate. He's regressed as expected this season, with his ERA jumping to 5.16. He's managed to trim his walk rate to a still-poor 9.4 percent, but that's about the only thing he's improved on. His strikeout rate has plummeted from 16.9 percent to 10.2 percent while his HR/9 has spiked from 0.3 to 2.1.

The Heroes have a deep group at the top of their lineup, allowing us to lead with the righties with a southpaw on the mound for the opposition. Kim has swung a hot bat all year, hitting .284/.392/.532 with 14 homers and nine steals on the season, numbers that would play anywhere, not just at shortstop. He's been on fire since the calendar flipped to July, hitting .348/.411/.652 with 16 RBI in just 12 games while homering four times in his last four contests. The number two hitter will have a great chance to make that five homers in five games given Choi's homer problems this season.

Speaking of homers, 34-year-old Byung Ho Park certainly hasn't lost the ability to knock one over the fence. While his overall .237/.371/.500 slash line is below his typical level, the result of a league-worst 29.7 percent strikeout rate, his pop remains, as he's tied or second in the league with 16 homers. Five of those homers have come in his last 11 games, a stretch in which he's hitting .342 while trimming his strikeout rate to 15.9 percent and driving in 14 runs. The cleanup man should have plenty of chances to add to his RBI total in this one unless Choi miraculously turns things around.

Jung Hoo Lee ($5,000 DraftKings, $14 FanDuel) is a strong enough hitter to merit consideration even with the platoon disadvantage Wednesday, but I've gone with catcher Dong Won Park here instead. Park is a great option in a shallow catcher pool on DraftKings and is useful for his cheap price on FanDuel. He's been one of the best offensive backstops in the league this season, leading the group with 10 homers while coming in second among qualified catchers with an .881 OPS. He'd been on an extended slump from June 10 through July 9, hitting just .164/.282/.299 over a 21-game stretch, but his bat appears to be waking up again, as he's gone 6-for-16 with a homer and three doubles over his last four contests.

Twins vs. Adrian Sampson: Roberto Ramos ($4,900 DraftKings, $17 FanDuel), Hyun Soo Kim ($4,600 DraftKings, $13 FanDuel), Hyung Jong Lee ($3,400 DraftKings, $6 FanDuel)

The Twins certainly haven't been playing their best baseball lately, going from looking like a legitimate title contender to little more than a bubble team in the playoff race after posting a 5-15-1 record in their last 21 games. Their offense has been particularly poor over their last four games, scoring a total of eight runs while getting shut out twice. To be fair, they've faced Raul Alcantara, Drew Rucinski and Dan Straily over that stretch, so the chance to face a considerably weaker arm in Sampson could be what they need to turn things around. Sampson has been rather unimpressive through his first eight KBO starts, struggling to a 5.44 ERA and a 1.65 WHIP. He can blame a .365 BABIP for some of his struggles, and his 5.8 percent walk rate is a strong number, but he's struck out just 14.3 percent of opposing batters. Even normalizing his batted-ball luck would leave him as nothing more than a mediocre arm.

Ramos stormed out of the gate in his first KBO season, hitting .380/.448/.796 with 13 homers in his first 31 games before landing on the injured list with ankle and back issues. He struggled in his first 11 games back in the lineup, hitting a poor .175/.292/.225, but he's been turning things around of late. In his last 10 games, he's hitting .308/.386/.538 with three homers. That's still a few levels below where he was at his best, but it's certainly a more than adequate performance, so he can be started with confidence against a shaky right-hander like Sampson.

Kim also went through a cold stretch at a very similar time as Ramos' slump, hitting .214/.217/.310 over an 11-game period from June 19 to July 2. As with his teammate, though, he's picked things up recently, hitting .324/.390/.811 with five homers and 14 RBI over his last nine games. He's not typically known for his power, as he hit just 11 homers last year, but he already has 10 this season to go along with 20 doubles, the second-highest mark in the league. Even if he doesn't keep up his sudden burst of power, the number two hitter should be involved in most of the Twins' rallies with the platoon advantage against an unreliable righty.

Lee won't get the platoon advantage here, but he's a very interesting budget option nonetheless. His price tag reflects the fact that he's played just three games this season, but it doesn't reflect his talent. A fractured hand suffered back in spring training kept him off the field until last Friday, but he's slotted into the number three spot in all three games since his return, sandwiched between Kim and Ramos, grabbing a hit in each game. That key lineup spot indicates how highly the Twins think of him, trust that he earned with an .844 OPS in 2018 and a .799 mark with the de-juiced ball last year.