KBO DFS: Saturday Cheat Sheet

While Friday's KBO slate looked to be rather light on trustworthy pitching, things didn't wind up playing out that way. Just one team scored more than six runs (though that team, the Dinos, scored 13, helped by a pair of Sung Bum Na homers), while six teams scored four or fewer. Several strong pitcher options were available, with Young Ha Lee and Mike Wright allowing zero earned runs in six innings, Ricardo Pinto allowing one in six and Won Tae Choi allowing two in seven. Saturday's schedule will be a unique one with two games (Tigers vs. Bears and Dinos vs. Eagles) taking place at 1 a.m. ET while the rest of the games take place at 4 a.m. All five games will be part of the main slate on both DraftKings and FanDuel, though DraftKings is also hosting a single-game contest for Dinos vs. Eagles as well as a late-game contest featuring just the three later matchups. Prices listed here will be for the full slate. Saturday's slate looks rather pitching-heavy, so judging by Friday's unexpected results, we'll probably see every team score in double digits.

Pitchers

Only the wide array of interesting alternatives will prevent Chang Mo Koo ($9,300 DraftKings, $29 FanDuel as "NC Starting P") from having sky-high ownership. He's facing an Eagles lineup that ranks last in the league with just 3.4 runs per game, 0.8 runs behind the rest of the pack. Additionally, Koo himself has a very strong case as the best pitcher in the league. Through five starts, including against three top-four lineups in the Wiz, Bears and Heroes, he's allowed just two earned runs, giving him a 0.51 ERA and 0.60 WHIP. The 23-year-old lefty has backed those numbers up with a 30.9 percent strikeout rate and 7.3 percent walk rate.

If you like strikeout-to-walk ratio, you'll love Drew Gagnon ($6,800 DraftKings, $26 FanDuel as "Kia Starting P"), who's beating Koo in both categories, striking out 33.0 percent of batters while walking just 5.4 percent. The similarities end there, as his ERA sits at a fine-but-unremarkable 3.95 after struggling against the Twins his last time out. He'll face an even tougher test in this one against the third-ranked Bears lineup, but he struck out eight in seven scoreless innings against the second-ranked Wiz in late May, so the potential for a huge performance is certainly there. As the second-cheapest pitcher on DraftKings, he's worth the risk that comes with a difficult matchup.

Dan Straily ($7,000 DraftKings, $25 FanDuel as "Lotte Starting P") has also displayed unexpected strikeout prowess in the KBO, striking out 26.4 percent of batters after posting a strikeout rate no higher than 22.1 percent in any of his eight MLB seasons. He's been quite good this season by nearly every metric except his 10.7 percent walk rate, as he's cruised to a 2.70 ERA and 1.32 WHIP through six starts. He'll face a mediocre Lions lineup that ranks seventh in scoring even while playing half their games in the league's most hitter-friendly home park, which they won't get to take advantage of Saturday.

With a very deep pitching pool and with the three starters mentioned above all being fairly expensive on FanDuel, I'll give a rare fourth recommendation here: Tyler Wilson ($7,600 DraftKings, $22 FanDuel as "LG Starting P") is confusingly cheap on FanDuel and playable as a mid-priced option on DraftKings. While his 4.60 ERA this season is disappointing compared to his 2.92 mark last year, almost everything else about his stat line is a near match of his 2019 numbers. His WHIP is an exact match at 1.16, as is his walk rate (5.8 percent), while his strikeout rate has fallen negligibly from 18.0 percent to 17.4 percent. His primary problem appears to be a jump in his home-run rate from 0.3 HR/9 to 0.9 HR/9, but even that higher number is still better than league average. He doesn't have the best matchup against the fourth-ranked Heroes offense, but he's still very much worth considering.

Top Targets

Jeong Choi's ($4,900 DraftKings, $14 FanDuel) resurgence continued as he reached base two more times Friday, giving him a .387/.568/.645 slash line over his last 10 games. That's a remarkable improvement from his .125/.279/.214 line over his first 17 games of the year. His recent performance is a far more accurate representation of his ability, however, as he hasn't finished with an OPS below .900 in over a decade. He'll get the platoon advantage against Lions lefty Chae Heung Choi on Saturday, who owns a 3.21 ERA through his first five starts this season but who struggled to a 4.81 mark as a swingman last year.

Preston Tucker ($5,900 DraftKings, $17 FanDuel) earns a mention here yet again, even with Chris Flexen and his 2.61 ERA on the mound for the Bears. With so many quality pitchers on the slate, you'll likely wind up starting a hitter or two against one of them, and Flexen looks like potentially one of the least intimidating, as he's walked nine batters while striking out just six over his last two starts. For his part, Tucker enters the game riding a five-game hitting streak and has hit .333/.381/.641 over his last 10 contests.

Bargain Bats

Aaron Altherr ($4,700 DraftKings, $11 FanDuel) only fits into this category on FanDuel, but he's absolutely worth a look on that site (and potentially on DraftKings as well) even though he's stuck batting in the bottom third of the order. He homered for the second straight game Friday, giving him three homers and eight RBI over his last five games. Looking back over his last 17 contests, he has an excellent .317/.394/.683 slash line, rebounding very well from his .172/.273/.276 slash line from his first 10 games in the league. He just missed a spot on the Dinos stack discussed below but is certainly worth consideration with the platoon advantage against unimposing Eagles lefty Chad Bell.

Ah Seop Son ($3,500 DraftKings, $12 FanDuel) missed out on the fun had by some of his teammates Friday, but he's worth a look again Saturday. He doesn't hit for power, but he's excellent at getting on base, posting a .316/.430/.398 slash line. He'd recorded an on-base percentage above .400 for six straight seasons before dropping to .360 with the de-juiced ball last year. He'll get the platoon advantage Saturday against Wiz righty Je Seong Bae, whose 2.67 ERA isn't backed up by his 1.45 WHIP or his 15.3 percent strikeout rate.

Stacks to Consider

Twins vs. Seung Ho Lee: Roberto Ramos ($4,200 DraftKings, $17 FanDuel), Hyun Soo Kim ($5,200 DraftKings, $14 FanDuel), Eun Sung Chae ($3,200 DraftKings, $11 FanDuel)

In one of the deepest pitching slates in recent memory, Lee sticks out like a sore thumb. The 21-year-old lefty hasn't done much right through five starts this season, struggling to a 7.83 ERA and 1.65 WHIP while striking out a modest 15.4 percent of batters. He fared better in 23 starts last year, though it's not as if his 4.48 ERA or 1.51 WHIP were particularly intimidating. The Twins' best hitters might not get the platoon advantage against him, but he hasn't been good enough for that to be much of a worry.

Speaking of Twins lefties, Ramos leads this stack as he does any time you're looking to stack Twins. His high price on FanDuel, combined with the platoon disadvantage, makes him somewhat less appealing on that site, but he's an easy play on DraftKings, where he's still just the 10th-most-expensive first baseman despite being the early MVP favorite. He's shown no ill effects of a collision that knocked him out of Sunday's game, grabbing five hits in four games this week, including a pair of homers Friday.

If Lee doesn't scare you away from using the left-handed Ramos, fellow lefty Kim should be on the table as well. His .367/.425/.523 slash line would make him the best hitter on several teams in the KBO, though he loses out on that title on the Twins due to Ramos' presence. While he's only homered once this season, he's made up for that by making excellent contact, and it's not as if he's been totally devoid of power, either, as he's hit a league-leading 12 doubles.

Right-handed No. 3 hitter Chae makes for the perfect third member of the stack, slotting in between Kim and Ramos in the line, though you'll have to make sure he's playing if you're looking to include him, as he left Friday's game with an apparent knee injury. If he does play, he's an excellent value, as he's hit .330/.368/.500 on the season. If he's unavailable, consider No. 5 hitter Min Sung Kim ($4,000 DraftKings, $9 FanDuel) instead, another right-handed bat who's hitting a respectable .284/.363/.420 on the year.

Dinos vs. Chad Bell: Eui Ji Yang ($5,900 DraftKings, $14 FanDuel), Suk Min Park ($4,700 DraftKings, $10 FanDuel), Jin Sung Kang ($3,700 DraftKings, $10 FanDuel)

Bell has the clout that comes with being a former Major Leaguer, but given his performance this season and the overall strength of the pitchers on this slate, he still looks like one of the day's more exploitable pitchers. His season debut was delayed due to elbow issues, and he hasn't shown enough through two starts to convince me that he's fully healthy. He's thrown a combined seven innings across his two appearances, allowing 14 baserunners (including seven walks) while striking out just four. It's hard to have much confidence in him against the league-leading Dinos lineup.

Even with a lefty on the mound, I don't hate Sung Bum Na ($5,400 DraftKings, $16 FanDuel), whose two homers Friday gave him 10 on the season, but he's quite expensive, and the loaded Dinos lineup provides plenty of excellent right-handed alternatives. Yang leads that list as the best catcher in the KBO and one of the league's best hitters regardless of position. There aren't many catchers for whom a .300/.389/.538 slash line can come close to counting as a disappointment, though you could consider it to be in that category for Yang, who's recorded an OPS north of 1.000 in each of his two previous seasons.

Park is one of the best options at the very shallow third base slot on DraftKings. His .292/.389/.514 slash line gives him an OPS above .900 for the first time since 2016, though he's crossed that threshold seven times in his 15-year career. The veteran already has five homers, well on his way to his first 20-homer season in four years. The right-handed hitter typically bats fifth, right behind Yang.

Kang follows the aforementioned pair, usually batting sixth. The fact that he's no longer incorrectly listed as a catcher on DraftKings, which he was for the first several weeks of the season, makes him less of an automatic play on that site, but it also means you can fit both him and Yang into your lineup. Kang has been one of the stories of the season, emerging from near-complete obscurity to hit a remarkable .443/.512/.786 with six homers. An unsustainable .439 BABIP has certainly propped up those numbers, but he's clearly reached a new level in his performance, as he'd managed just three homers in 117 games prior to this season.