This article is part of our DraftKings KBO series.
We got another full KBO slate on Friday, with five games featuring a wide array of results. Se Woong Park allowed a single hit in eight scoreless innings, outdueling Chan Kyu Im, who allowed just one earned run over six frames, as the Giants beat the Twins, 2-0. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Bears and Heroes combined for 25 runs, 16 of which were scored by the former team, with Seung Ho Kang homering and driving in five. Somewhere in between those two, four hits from Yoon Suk Oh and a five-run rally in the seventh inning helped the Wiz beat the Lions, 7-6, while Jae Hak Lee recovered from a terrible first half to allow just one run in seven innings as the Dinos beat the Eagles by a 5-1 score.
The weather looks cooperative again for Saturday's slate, which starts at the slightly earlier time of 4:58 a.m. ET. The group of starting pitchers leans towards the weaker side, though there are some strong options at the top of the slate.
Pitchers
Arguably the only reason not to select Ariel Miranda ($10,900), even with his high price, is because you want to differentiate yourself from the crowd. He has a strong case as the best pitcher in the league, and an even stronger case as the best fantasy pitcher. His 22.7 fantasy points per game leads all other pitchers in the league by 2.7 points, with only two other pitchers coming within four points of that total. He laps the rest of this particular slate, with no one coming within eight points of his average tally. Avoiding runs is of course something he's quite good at given that high point total, though his 2.82 ERA merely ranks eighth among qualified starters. Where he really stands out is his 31.0 percent strikeout rate, which leads everyone else in the league by over three percentage points. That gives him huge upside every night, even against a Heroes lineup which ranks third in scoring.
Eui Lee Lee ($9,300) is quite expensive, but he's shown enough promise to justify that price tag. He earned a spot in Korea's Olympic rotation and struck out a very impressive 18 batters in just 10 innings of work, though he did allow a mediocre five runs. He's shown plenty of strikeout prowess at the KBO level as well, with his 24.0 percent strikeout rate ranking seventh among pitchers who have thrown at least 70 innings. The 19-year-old lefty is far from a finished product, as his 13.8 percent walk rate is too high for him to be a true frontline starter, but a high-strikeout, high-walk arm is better for fantasy purposes than the alternative given that strikeouts provide points on their own. He cruised to a 3.03 ERA over his final six starts before the break and will look to stay strong against the seventh-ranked Landers lineup Saturday.
Most of the day's cheaper options are priced that way for a reason, but Chae Heung Choi ($7,800) offers more upside than most out of the middle tier, even against a good Wiz lineup. That upside isn't based on anything he did in the first half, unfortunately, as he struggled to a 5.53 ERA and 1.73 WHIP in 10 starts. He missed the beginning of the campaign with an abdominal injury, however, and he didn't look right at all early on, posting a 7.82 ERA over his first five starts. He appeared to be turning a corner late in the first half, recording a much better 3.49 ERA over his final five outings. The lefty recorded a very respectable 3.58 ERA and 1.25 WHIP last season even while calling the league's most hitter-friendly park (where he won't be pitching Saturday) home, so he has the potential to be much better down the stretch.
Top Targets
Jae Hwan Kim ($5,200) has swung a very hot bat since the break, going 7-for-16 with a pair of homers and six RBI. The veteran outfielder was one of the best hitters in the league from 2016 through 2018, posting a quadruple-digit OPS all three years and winning the MVP trophy in the last of those seasons. He's now in the middle of his best season since that run, slashing .275/.403/.516 with 17 homers in 71 games. He had a bit of a strikeout problem last season, with his 25.1 percent strikeout rate ranking fourth-worst among qualified hitters, but he's cut that by a full four percentage points this season, suggesting his strong numbers should be sustainable. He'll get the platoon advantage Saturday against Heroes righty Chan Heon Jeong, who owns a fine but unintimidating 4.03 ERA.
I couldn't justify another Eagles stack given how poor the team's offense has been overall, though it was certainly a tempting idea against Dinos righty Tae Gyeong Kim, who has a grand total of one KBO inning under his belt. As usual, Eun Won Jung ($4,600), is the team's best bet, offering a mid-tier option at either second or third base. Jung has very little power, homering just four times this season, but he's still managed to work a league-leading 66 walks in 82 games thanks to his excellent eye. When combined with his .295 batting average, that's helped him to a .423 on-base percentage, the sixth-best mark among qualified hitters.
Bargain Bats
The Giants also could have been one of today's stack recommendations, as they'll face 22-year-old Twins lefty Ju Young Son, who owns a 7.32 ERA over 19.2 career KBO innings. The Giants' offense is deep with good but not great hitters, with seven players averaging between 6.9 and 9.0 fantasy points per game. Chi Hong An ($3,700) is the second-cheapest of those but has scored the fourth-most points per game, making him the most cost-efficient member of the group. He's been batting cleanup lately despite the fact that he's homered just five times on the season, but his .307/.371/.450 slash line is more than good enough to make him worth his modest price even with that lack of power.
Hyoung Woo Choi ($3,500) will continue to earn frequent mentions in this section as long as he's priced cheaply enough to qualify, as it's very rare that you'll see a hitter with his talent in this price range. The price tag looks fair considering his mediocre .220/.380/.365 slash line, but that line doesn't reflect the hitter he's proven to be. He was one of the best hitters in the entire league last season, winning the batting title with a .354 average while hitting 28 homers. While you'd expect a decline in his age-37 season, you certainly wouldn't expect one of this magnitude. His early struggles can be attributed to an eye condition that he's since seemingly gotten over, as he's hit .375/.487/.594 over his last nine games on either side of the break.
Stacks to Consider
Dinos vs. Si Hwan Jang: Eui Ji Yang ($5,400), Sung Bum Na ($5,100), Ki Hwan Kim ($2,100)
Jang's above-average 19.1 percent strikeout rate last season made him an occasionally interesting fantasy option, but it's hard to argue he had a good season overall, as that mark came with a 12.3 percent walk rate and a 5.02 ERA. The Eagles would likely be happy if he could just manage to get back to that level this season, however. While his ERA has only risen modestly to 5.60, he can thank an unsustainable 2.4 percent HR/FB rate for that. The rest of his peripherals have been very poor, as his strikeout rate has plummeted to 13.8 percent, a mark that comes in well below his 16.5 percent walk rate. His 2.04 WHIP means that the Dinos should get on base early and often and score plenty of runs Saturday.
The Dinos lost four everyday players to season-long suspensions for COVID-19 protocol violations last month, so they shouldn't be expected to remain the league's top lineup the rest of the way, but they still have plenty of top-tier hitters. That starts with the catcher, Yang, who's been the best hitter at any position this season. His 1.111 OPS leads all qualified hitters, while he leads in RBI (73) and sits tied for second in homers (20). Na hit well in the early part of the season, though his 13 homers and .849 OPS through his first 68 games were below his lofty standards. He got hot right before the break and hasn't slowed down since returning to play, homering six times in his last 10 games and posting a 1.126 OPS over that stretch. Kim's inclusion here is almost exclusively due to the fact that he's been batting in front of that pair out of the leadoff spot thus far in the second half. Nearly anyone would be worth his near-minimum price given that context, and he's hit well enough to keep the role for now, going 5-for-16 since the break.
Twins vs. Jun Won Seo: Hyun Soo Kim ($4,400), Geon Chang Seo ($3,600), Justin Bour ($2,200)
Jun Won Seo spent the first half of the season pitching almost exclusively in relief, as his lone start out of 19 appearances lasted just two innings. It's not hard to see why he failed to earn any more opportunities, as he struggled to a 7.20 ERA and 1.88 WHIP. Those numbers look well deserved, as he struck out just 12.8 percent of opposing batters while walking 13.7 percent. The 20-year-old righty fared better than that in his two previous years in the league, though he was far from dominant, recording ERAs of 5.47 and 5.18. This game may be taking place at the league's most pitcher-friendly park (Jamsil Baseball Stadium), but there's little reason to believe Seo or the unreliable Giants bullpen will be able to slow the Twins down.
The Twins lineup features a variety of rather affordable options, most of whom will get the platoon advantage against Seo. That applies to each member of the trio listed here, a group which has occupied the second through fourth spots each game since the break. Kim is a very steady veteran who doesn't appear to have lost a step in his age-33 season. His .852 OPS this season marks the 11th time in his career that he's been above .800 in that category. Seo, who was acquired in a trade with the Heroes over the break, won an MVP trophy back in 2014. He's nowhere near that level any more but is still a solid and inexpensive option at second base thanks largely to his .373 on-base percentage. Bour hasn't done much in his first three games in Korea, going 1-for-12 with a homer, but that tiny sample shouldn't matter nearly as much as his success stateside. No one who homered 92 times against the toughest competition in the world should be remotely this cheap at the KBO level.
