This article is part of our DraftKings KBO series.
Thursday's KBO slate was shortened to four games by rain, but the remaining contests featured their fair share of excitement. In the most important matchup of the day, the Twins moved back to within a game and a half of the first-place Wiz, with Hyun Soo Kim's ninth-inning single driving in the lone run of the day after Chan Kyu Im and Hyeong Jun So combined to throw 11.1 scoreless innings. Elsewhere, the Dinos pulled to within a game of the fifth and final playoff spot with their 8-5 win over the Landers, with Aaron Altherr going 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBI. Meanwhile, Kun Woo Park homered and scored three times as the Bears and Tigers tied, 5-5, while Han Wool Kang led the way with three hits for the Lions as they dispatched the Eagles by an 11-3 score.
Friday's slate features a new set of matchups and looks to be rain-free but overcast as of writing, though it's hard to trust any slate to remain full with how uncooperative the weather has been lately. The day features a fairly standard split of strong and shaky pitching.
Pitchers
Ariel Miranda ($10,500) may be far more expensive than any other pitcher on the slate, but he'd arguably still earn the top spot here if you added another thousand or two to his price tag. He's scored three more fantasy points per game than anyone else in the league and more than four more points per game than anyone on this slate. He's gotten to that mark by striking out far more batters than anyone else, as his run of three straight double-digit strikeout performances has helped him to a 31.7 percent strikeout rate. No qualified starter is within three points of that mark, and only two are within six points. That strikeout prowess gives Miranda a huge ceiling, and it's not balanced out by any other significant weakness as he's gotten over some early control troubles to post a perfectly adequate 8.7 percent walk rate, helping him to a 2.92 ERA. To top it all off, he's facing the last-ranked Eagles lineup here. The only reason not to select Miranda is to differentiate yourself from the crowd, which could work if he has a rare bad outing but is likely to do nothing but make your lineup worse.
If you like big strikeout upside but don't want to pay that kind of price for it, consider Wes Parsons ($8,800). Parsons has missed time due to injuries this season and comes up just short of counting as a qualified starter, but if he did, his 27.4 percent strikeout rate would rank third. It hasn't been a perfect season for the former major leaguer, as his 12.1 percent is too high for a frontline starter, but he's been effective overall, posting a 3.80 ERA. Assuming he's now over the elbow issues that likely contributed to him walking nine batters across his final two starts of the first half, he should be a strong option down the stretch for the Dinos. He'll get a fairly easy assignment for his first start of the second half against a Twins team that ranks eighth in scoring.
The following sentence is one I believe I've written several times this year: Dan Straily ($7,000) may not be having his best season, but he's far too good to be priced this low. The 2020 version of Straily was dominant, finishing second in ERA (2.50), first in WHIP (1.02) and first in strikeout rate (26.4 percent). The 2021 edition of Straily hasn't been nearly as good, posting a 4.21 ERA, 8.8 WHIP and 22.1 percent strikeout rate. He hasn't lost any velocity or significantly changed his pitch mix, however, and we could point to a 60-point jump in his BABIP (from .274 to .334) as the cause of some of his struggles. The veteran righty is coming off one of his worst starts of the year, as he allowed four runs on nine hits while lasting just three innings last week against the Twins, but he was far better in his first start after the break, tossing seven scoreless innings against the Dinos. He's no longer dominant and no longer entirely reliable, but even the current version of Straily is still easily worth this surprisingly low price tag, even against a strong Wiz lineup.
Top Targets
On the other hand, while I do think Straily is worth his price tag, it's not the craziest idea to bet against him given his inconsistency, especially if his inexpensive cost draws a large crowd. If that means you can get Baek Ho Kang ($6,300) at a lower ownership rate than usual, that's certainly worth considering. Kang has been so good this season that he's worth paying up for against nearly every opposing starter, as he trails only Eui Ji Yang in fantasy points per game (10.5) and OPS (1.089). He's flirted with a .400 batting average throughout the season and was at that mark as recently as Tuesday. Kang's .443 BABIP will undoubtedly fall and take a bite out of his batting average with it, though that could be replaced with more power, as he's homered just 11 times this season but had a career-high 29 as an 18-year-old rookie back in 2018.
It's probably going to be tough to fit both Kang and Ja Wook Koo ($6,200) into your lineup, but the Lions outfielder makes an excellent alternative for those with Dan Straily on their teams or who skip Kang for other reasons. Koo has been streaky throughout the season, but he's one of the best hitters in the league when things are going well, and they certainly have been in the eight games since the Olympic break, a stretch in which he's slashed .355/.447/.581. He's especially dangerous as the Lions' hitter-friendly home park, where his career OPS of .953 is far higher than his road mark of .826. He'll get the platoon advantage Friday against Landers righty Tae Yang Lee, who owns a 4.58 ERA.
Bargain Bats
Hyoung Woo Choi ($3,700) remains cheap enough to qualify for this category, and he'll continue to feature frequently until that's no longer true. At age 37, you'd expect a fair amount of regression from the .354/.438/.590 line he managed last season, but you wouldn't expect him to drop all the way to .228/.389/.380, as has been the case through 47 games this year. That 126-point drop in batting average can be attributed in part to an unlucky .244 BABIP, but the eye condition he battled early in the year seems to be an even more significant factor. It looks as though he's fully past that issue, thankfully, as he's hit .364/.491/.591 over his last 13 games on either side of the break. He should stay hot Friday against Heroes righty Chan Heon Jeong, whose 3.80 ERA is perfectly respectable but not nearly good enough to scare you away from hitters with Choi's talent.
Will Craig ($2,000) is now available on DraftKings after being unavailable for his first five games in Korea. Like most foreign bats, he'll start out at the minimum price due to his lack of KBO experience, making him one of the biggest possible steals on the slate. Hitters with MLB experience (which in Craigs's case is just 20 rather unremarkable games) should be considered among the best bats in the league until they prove otherwise, though we don't even need that caveat with Craig. He's hit the ground running, going 6-for-14 with a pair of doubles to start his KBO career. He'd be a steal at double this price, even against promising rookie Eui Lee Lee, who owns a 3.71 ERA.
Stacks to Consider
Bears vs. Si Hwan Jang: Jose Fernandez ($5,400), Jae Hwan Kim ($5,300), Suk Hwan Yang ($4,700)
Jang was occasionally an interesting budget fantasy option last season thanks to his above-average 19.1 percent strikeout rate, but that was about it as far as the positives went, as he walked 12.3 percent of opposing batters while struggling to a 5.02 ERA and 1.61 WHIP. His performances thus far this season make last year's version of him look like an ace. In 13 outings (12 starts plus one relief appearance), he owns a 6.32 ERA, and that number may even flatter him. He's allowed more than two baserunners per inning while striking out just 13.0 percent of opposing batters and walking 16.8 percent. No pitcher who's thrown at least 40 innings comes anywhere close to his 2.11 WHIP, and no one has a walk rate that much worse than their strikeout rate. The Bears should be on base all day against him and should score plenty of runs.
Most of the Bears' best bats would be fine picks against Jang, but we'll go here with a trio who have been hitting third through fifth in recent games. Fernandez has consistently been one of the best contact hitters in the league since he came to Korea in 2019, ranking fourth in batting average (.337) and third in strikeout rate (7.1 percent). He's coming off back-to-back multi-hit games and will get the platoon advantage against Jang, as will cleanup hitter Kim. Kim has fallen into a small slump, going hitless in his last three games, but he's been quite good throughout the year, with his .889 OPS representing his strongest mark since his MVP campaign back in 2018. Yang doesn't come with the same pedigree and bats right-handed, but he's having a strong enough season to be a very worthwhile pick against a pitcher like Jang. He's hit .370 with three homers since the break, giving him 19 homers and an .867 OPS for the year.
Dinos vs. Ju Young Son: Eui Ji Yang ($5,700), Aaron Altherr ($4,800), Jin Sung Kang ($3,100)
Son was the second-overall pick back in the 2017 draft, but the 22-year-old left has shown little signs of that kind of pedigree in his limited KBO action thus far. He's thrown just 23.2 innings at that level, struggling to a 7.23 ERA and 1.99 WHIP. Those numbers look well-earned considering that he's struck out just 12.7 of the batters he's faced while walking 18.6 percent. He's only thrown six KBO innings thus far this year after missing the previous two seasons due to military service, but nothing that tiny sample gives reason for encouragement. He's allowed five runs in six innings, striking out just three while walking seven. The Twins do have a strong bullpen, but the Dino bats should do plenty of damage against Son before the young southpaw leaves the game.
The stack listed here features a trio of righties who should bat in the middle of the order against Son. Yang is good enough that he doesn't need a strong matchup or the platoon advantage to be the best choice at the catcher position, but it certainly doesn't hurt. His season thus far has gone well beyond "good for a catcher," as he leads all qualified hitters at any position with a 1.109 OPS while also leading in RBI (76) and tying for second in homers (21). Altherr had just one hit in the first seven games of the second half, but he bounced back in a big way Thursday against the Landers, going 3-for-4 with a homer. His 19 homers are just three shy of the league lead. Kang emerged from obscurity to become one of the best hitters in the league in the early part of last season. He faded down the stretch and has been more pedestrian this season, but his .274/.363/.413 slash line is more than enough to justify his low price given the matchup against Son.
