This article is part of our DraftKings KBO series.
Tuesday's KBO slate looked like it might only have four games, but the Eagles-Lions game was able to go forward and offered plenty of performances to interest fantasy players. The Lions earned a 9-0 victory thanks to seven shutout innings and eight strikeouts from David Buchanan, while Ja Wook Koo led the offense with four hits. The Twins proved to be even more fertile ground for potential stacks, hitting seven total homers, including two apiece from Hyung Jong Lee and Hyun Soo Kim, while getting seven innings of one-run, two-hit ball from Chan Kyu Im in their 14-1 blowout win over the Tigers. Elsewhere, the Bears also reached double digits, with Suk Hwan Yang going 3-for-5 with a homer and five RBI to help his team earned a 10-3 win over the Heroes.
Wednesday's slate is again at some risk of being shortened to four games due to rain, though the risk in Daegu for the Eagles-Lions contest seems less significant than it did Tuesday as of writing, so players from that game will be included here. The day features just one former MLB arm but plenty of intriguing local starters.
Pitchers
Drew Rucinski ($9,600) is that lone foreign arm, and he's been quite a good one ever since joining the Dinos back in 2019. He finished with an identical 3.05 ERA in each of his first two KBO campaigns, but he's taken a step forward in his third season in the country, recording a 2.51 ERA through 13 trips to the mound. He's been especially dominant over his last four outings, allowing a total of just two runs over that stretch, good for an 0.64 ERA and 0.79 WHIP. His 23.6 percent strikeout rate is well above league average and above the 20.2 percent mark he produced last season, giving him a high ceiling to go with a very high floor. The fourth-ranked Giants lineup isn't the easiest assignment, but he had his best outing of the year against them back in late May, striking out 10 while walking just one and allowing just three hits over eight scoreless innings.
Young Pyo Ko ($9,300) may have missed the last two seasons due to Korea's mandatory military service, but he hasn't shown even a speck of rust since returning to the Wiz this season, recording a quality start in all but one of his 11 outings thus far. His 5.11 ERA in his two seasons as a starter prior to his two-year absence was better than it looked given that the KBO was still in its juiced-ball era, but he's emerged as one of the best pitchers in the league this season, cruising to a 3.41 ERA and 1.05 WHIP. Even while producing a mediocre 5.11 ERA in 2017 and 2018, his combination of a 21.0 percent strikeout rate and 3.3 percent walk rate was excellent, and he hasn't lost anything in that regard this season, recording a nearly identical pairing of a 21.3 percent strikeout rate and 4.0 percent walk rate. He should be in line for yet another quality start Wednesday against the last-ranked Tigers lineup.
For a cheaper option, consider Chae Heung Choi ($7,600). His 6.69 ERA and 1.84 WHIP through seven starts this season are both quite poor, but he ought to be much better going forward. He missed the start of the season due to an abdominal injury and didn't look entirely healthy in his first five starts after returning in early May, struggling to a 7.82 ERA and 1.93 WHIP. His numbers in his last two outings still aren't all that remarkable, as he allowed five earned runs on 15 hits over 11 innings, but that nevertheless represents a notable improvement, especially when considering those starts came against the Dinos and Bears. He'll face a much easier Eagles lineup on Wednesday, a unit which ranks ninth in scoring and could make him look much more like he did last season, when he finished the year with a 3.58 ERA and 1.25 WHIP.
Top Targets
Jae Gyun Hwang ($5,000) got off to a strong start this season, hitting .324/.425/.426 through his first 18 games. He then went on to miss over a month after a bad hop in the infield led to a broken nose and subsequently surgery. He struggled to a mediocre .656 OPS in his first eight games back at the start of June, but he's been on fire over his last nine contests, hitting .310/.429/.690 with three homers. He'll have a chance to continue that kind of form Wednesday, as he'll face Gi Yeong Im, whose 4.84 ERA represents his best mark since 2017.
Eun Seong Chae ($4,700) hit one of the Twins' seven homers in Tuesday's blowout victory, his second in five games and his eighth on the year. While he's not quite a premier power threat, topping out at 25 homers in 2018 and hitting a modest 15 in 109 games last year, he's emerged as a strong all-around hitter over the last several years. Since the start of the 2018 season, he's slashing .313/.364/.483. He's hitting .354 with four homers and 19 RBI over his last 22 games and should stay hot Wednesday, as he'll get the platoon advantage against Landers lefty Won Seok Oh, a rookie with a 4.34 ERA and a 1.48 WHIP.
Bargain Bats
Sticking with the Twins, Hyung Jong Lee ($3,300) will also get the platoon advantage against Oh and should offer similar value to Chae at a considerably cheaper price. While he's hitting just .234 on the season, he can blame a .241 BABIP for most of his struggles. He's doing everything else right even when his batted balls aren't finding holes, as he's walked at a 14.8 percent clip and owns a .242 ISO. He's homered four times and driven in 12 runs over his last four games, a power surge he should be able to maintain for some time (albeit not to the same extreme extent) given that he homered 17 times in just 81 games last season.
Jamie Romak ($4,000) is right on the borderline for what I usually consider a bargain for the purposes of this article, but the fact that he's down in that range is a surprise given his pedigree at the KBO level. Since joining the league back in 2017, he ranks second with 150 homers and seventh with 397 RBI while hitting .278/.379/.544. His slash line may be down this season, but his .242/.352/.479 line would still make him worthwhile at his inexpensive price even without that track record. He appears to be picking things up, too, as he's homered twice in his last three games. He could knock another one out Wednesday against 19-year-old Min Ho Lee, who owns a 4.80 ERA on the year.
Stacks to Consider
Lions vs. Ki Joong Kim: Jose Pirela ($6,200), Min Ho Kang ($5,000), Won Seok Lee ($3,200)
Kim could have a bright future ahead of him, as the young lefty was selected second-overall in the most recent draft and is already in the Eagles' rotation at age 18. Nothing he's done since turning professional suggests he has a particularly bright present, however. He's shown very little in three starts at the KBO level, struggling to a 6.75 ERA and 1.88 WHIP while striking out just 12.7 percent of opposing batters. He made five starts in the Futures League prior to making his KBO debut in early June, but those didn't go much better, as he struggled to a 5.70 ERA and a 2.24 WHIP while opposing batters hit .352 against him. That track record would make him a great stack target even if he wasn't pitching in the league's most hitter-friendly park Wednesday.
We'll go with three righties here against the young left-hander, though Kim is unintimidating enough that the Lions' top lefties shouldn't be ruled out. Pirela is the most expensive hitter on Wednesday's slate, an honor that seems deserved based on his dominant performances at home. 12 of his 16 homers have come at Daegu Samsung Lions Park, a stadium where he's slashing .343/.390/.657. Kang has cooled down after a blistering start but remains one of the top offensive catchers in the league, as his .892 OPS ranks third at the position. Lee isn't anything special at the plate but is a bargain at home. He owns an .864 OPS in Daegu this season compared to a .668 OPS elsewhere.
Dinos vs. Kyung Eun Noh: Eui Ji Yang ($5,900), Sung Bum Na ($5,800), Jin Hyuk No ($4,500)
The Dinos are outscoring every other team in the league, so it doesn't take much to make them one of the day's top stack recommendations. They don't have to be nearly that good to be worth stacking against Noh, however. The 37-year-old doesn't appear to have much left in the tank at this point. He spent 2019 pitching in Australia before returning home to produce a passable 4.87 ERA last season, but he hasn't come anywhere close to that in eight starts this year. He owns a 7.57 ERA and 1.91 WHIP on the season but has been even worse than that lately. He's allowed nine runs in a combined 5.2 innings over his last two starts and has struck out just three batters while walking nine over his last four outings.
A lineup as good as this one offers plenty of options to choose from at various price points, so feel free to swap out one of these players for someone cheaper due to budget constraints. If you can fit Yang in, though, you would certainly be wise to. He leads all qualified hitters with a 1.125 OPS, a number that would be incredible even if he wasn't 34 years old or wasn't a catcher. He's only getting better as the season progresses, homering six times in his last eight games to move to the top of the leaderboard with 17 on the season. Na will get the platoon advantage against Noh, which could help him hit more like the guy who posted a .324/.392/.596 slash line last season. He's having a down year this year, though his .281/.359/.496 line is still one most hitters in the league would be very happy with. No will also get the platoon advantage and serves as a solid mid-tier option at both middle-infield spots. He's swung a hot bat over his last 16 games, hitting .360/.450/.540.
