DFS KBO: Wednesday Cheat Sheet

Tuesday's KBO action featured a wide range of results from the day's top arms. Jake Brigham allowed four runs in just 3.2 innings as his Heroes fell to the Tigers, 10-6, with Preston Tucker and Hyung Woo Choi combining to go 7-for-9 with a homer and five RBI for the visitors. Tyler Wilson owwas blown up for seven runs on 11 hits in just four innings as the Giants defeated the Twins, 8-5. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Seung Won Moon threw five scoreless innings but Drew Rucinski threw seven, buying time for the Dinos to eventually score three runs off the Wyverns' bullpen in their 3-0 win. Elsewhere, William Cuevas allowed just a single run in eight innings as the Wiz defeated the Lions, 4-1, with Mel Rojas Jr. tying Roberto Ramos with his 38th homer of the season. In the final game of the set, the Bears got past the Eagles by a 7-3 score, helped by homers from Jae Hwan Kim and Kyoung Min Hur. 

Wednesday's slate, which begins bright and early at 1 a.m. ET, looks reasonably deep at the top of the pitcher pool but contains quite a few arms who look like ideal stack targets.

Pitchers

Eric Jokisch ($10,000) is deservedly the most expensive pitcher on the slate, as he has quite a strong case as the best pitcher in the entire league. His first-place ranking among qualified starters in both ERA (2.07) and WHIP (0.99) certainly hints in that direction. He's allowed more than three earned runs exactly once all season. He did have another poor start recently, lasting just two innings while allowing three earned runs in his first start back from a shoulder issue in early September, but he looks fully healthy now. In his three starts since that outing, he's struck out 21 batters in 21 innings while recording a 0.86 ERA and a 0.71 WHIP. The seventh-ranked Tigers' lineup is unlikely to be too big of a challenge for him in this one. 

In the middle tier, Young Gyu Kim ($7,500) looks too expensive for his 6.09 ERA, but he's worth a look anyway, primarily because he'll be facing the ninth-ranked Wyverns lineup that will likely be without one of its best hitters in Jeong Choi (paternity leave). While Kim's overall numbers are poor, he's been respectable in four starts since returning to the rotation, posting a 4.50 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP. He's coming off his best outing of the year, allowing just one run one three hits in six frames against the Lions. His 15.6 percent strikeout rate on the season hurts his upside, though he did strike out 19 batters in 19.2 innings at the Futures League level and owns a 3.20 ERA at that level.

Among the budget options, Ben Lively ($7,000) comes with plenty of risk against Mel Rojas Jr. and the Wiz at the league's most hitter-friendly park, but he also comes with far more upside than is typical for a player in his price range. He hasn't been able to recreate his 3.95 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and 24.6 percent strikeout rate from his nine-start KBO debut last season, though he's been trending in that direction lately. He's allowed one or fewer runs in three of his last four starts, posting a 2.08 ERA and a 0.77 WHIP even with one rather poor start mixed in.

Top Targets

If the Bears didn't have so many slumping hitters, I may have recommended them as a stack against former Detroit Tiger Warwick Saupold, who's struggled to a 5.36 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP. Jae Hwan Kim ($4,600) showed signs of getting hot again with his homer in Tuesday's series opener and is certainly worth a look with the platoon advantage against the righty. He also hadn't been slumping nearly as badly as many of his teammates, as his big day Tuesday raised his slash line over his last 12 games to .256/.362/.692.

While Young Gyu Kim was listed above as a potentially interesting affordable option, he's far from guaranteed to have a good game, so including Jamie Romak ($5,000) against him if you don't include him yourself looks quite appealing. The Canadian slugger will get the platoon advantage against the young lefty and has been quite hot over his last 10 games, hitting .294/.385/.706 with three homers. That's given him a solid 25 homers on the year, though he'll need 10 more down the stretch if he's to beat his average of 34.3 from his first three seasons in Korea.

Bargain Bats

The Eagles are facing a 35-year-old lefty in the Won Jun Jang who's yet to throw a single pitch this season and who threw just two innings last year, meaning they'd be an ideal lineup to stack if they weren't the league's worst unit. Kwang Min Song ($3,200) could be worth a cheap flyer regardless of whether or not you include any of his teammates, however. The 37-year-old has generally been quite poor this season, as his .237/.268/.398 slash line suggests, but that certainly hasn't been the case over his last eight games, a stretch in which he's hitting .379/.419/.655. 

Se Woong Park and his 4.31 ERA are decent enough that I wouldn't necessarily go with a full Twins stack here, but I certainly wouldn't avoid their lineup entirely. Leadoff man Chang Gi Hong ($3,100) remains a strong, affordable option. He's gone a bit cold since his 18-game hitting streak ended two weeks ago, but his season-long .277/.404/.414 slash line is still quite good. That high on-base percentage gives him plenty of opportunities to get driven in by hitters like Hyun Soo Kim and Roberto Ramos in the heart of the Twins' order.

Stacks to Consider

Lions vs. Dae Eun Lee: Ja Wook Koo ($4,500), Daniel Palka ($2,900), Dong Yeop Kim ($2,900)

This may wind up being mostly a bullpen game, as Lee is making his first start of the year and hasn't recorded more than five outs in any of his 15 relief appearances. He did start eight games last season but was primarily a reliever, and a good enough one to save 17 games. He saved just one in game in three opportunities this season before being demoted with a 7.86 ERA in eight innings. The 31-year-old didn't do much to fix things in the Futures League, posting a 5.19 ERA over 17.1 frames. His 3.86 ERA in seven appearances since returning to the KBO level in early September is decent enough, though he's struck out just a single batter, which hardly suggests he's suddenly a dominant arm. The Lions should take advantage of their hitter-friendly home park during his innings and against whichever long relievers follow him.

Platoon advantage likely matters very little here, as Lee is unlikely to pitch deep into the game, but we may as well start with a pair of lefties anyway. Koo has been the Lions' top hitter throughout the season, leading the team's regulars with an .849 OPS. He's been right at that level throughout September, posting a .312/.379/.484 slash line while homering three times and stealing four bases. He's hit just a modest 11 homers on the season, but it's hard to complain too much about a guy who's hitting .311 with 17 steals, good for 10th in the league.

Palka struggled to a .212/.289/.388 slash line in his first 22 games in Korea, but former MLB players generally deserve the benefit of the doubt after dropping down to the KBO level. He began to demonstrate why last week, grabbing at least one hit in all six games by posting a 1.058 OPS with a pair of homers. Even though his overall .726 OPS remains rather forgettable, he's still far too cheap for someone with the credentials of having had some success at the highest level of the game, as he did in 2018, when he hit 27 homers in 124 games for the White Sox.

Kim is underpriced in a similar manner to Palka, though for entirely different reasons. His low price fits his .604 OPS from last season as well as his .702 OPS from his first 48 games this season, when he was demoted for the second time this year in order to sort out his swing. The move clearly worked, as he's hit .376/.404/.624 in 42 games since returning to the KBO level. He's been even better than that over his last 16 contests, hitting .422/.441/.703 with five homers, 15 runs scored and 16 more driven in.

Dinos vs. Geon Wook Lee: Sung Bum Na ($6,100), Eui Ji Yang ($6,300), Hee Dong Kwon ($2,800)

It doesn't take all that much to incentivize stacking the league's top lineup, but a matchup against Lee should be more than enough to do it. The righty's 5.19 ERA and 1.43 WHIP are poor but not terrible, though there are reasons to believe he's deserved even worse. His 17.1 percent strikeout rate is only slightly worse than league average, but his 14.0 percent walk rate is far too high. He owned a 3.29 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP through the end of July, but he has a 7.92 ERA and a 1.76 WHIP in nine starts since then.

Na suffered a very poorly-timed hamstring injury three weeks ago, as he'd hit .362/.417/.693 over the 31 games prior to his injury. After missing nine games, however, he's returned in as good form as ever, going 8-for-14 with a 1.411 OPS in five games. The MLB hopeful is having exactly the season he needed to have if he wants to make the jump across the Pacific. He's tied for third in homers (29), sits third in runs (91), tied for sixth in RBI (96) and trails only Mel Rojas Jr. in OPS (1.022).

Yang is quite expensive, but he blows out the competition at the catcher position, scoring more than 50 percent more DraftKings points per game than the next-best catcher. His 23 homers are seven more than anyone else at the position has managed, while his 100 RBI lead that group by 32. He also tops all catchers in all three elements of his .324/.406/.576 slash line. He's only getting better down the stretch, hitting .386/.454/.686 over his last 41 contests.

Na and Yang make for a very expensive pair, so selecting Kwon out of the many playable options to round out this stack should help keep it somewhat affordable. He's had an up and down season, as he had an OPS of 1.002 through July 2 before hitting just .202/.318/.298 over his next 45 contests. He's done much better lately, however, posting a .286/.422/.400 slash line over his last 12 games, helping him move up to the second spot in each of the Dinos' last five games. Hitting in that spot in front of players like Na and Yang makes him quite a useful fantasy option for his modest price.