DFS KBO: Saturday Cheat Sheet

Rain once again affected the KBO slate Friday, with the Wiz and Lions seeing their contest canceled, but the rest of the games were able to go ahead as scheduled. Predictions of a pitching-heavy day did indeed come true, with teams scoring just an average of 3.3 runs and no team scoring more than six. You couldn't go wrong with many starters on the slate, though Seung Ho Lee's six shutout innings against the Dinos was probably the most noteworthy and unexpected performance. Lee's Heroes went on to defeat the league leaders in the 10th inning thanks to Hye Sung Kim's game-winning fielder's choice. The Giants and Twins also went to 10 innings, with the Twins winning on Keun Woo Jeong's walkoff single. Saturday's slate will be a split one, as the Wiz and Lions are playing a doubleheader to make up for Friday's rainout. Only the first game of that twin bill will be counted on the main slate for both DraftKings and FanDuel. Additionally, rain appears to be threatening almost the entire country, with the Giants-Twins matchup in Seoul and the Tigers-Wyverns game in Incheon looking like the only safe contests as of writing. This article will preview the slate as if all five games will go ahead as scheduled, but readers would be wise to check the weather reports as late as possible this evening.

Pitchers

David Buchanan ($8,200 DraftKings, $27 FanDuel as "Samsung Starting P") is the most expensive option on FanDuel but a mid-priced choice on DraftKings. Buchanan's season stats are held back by a couple of poor starts in his first three turns on the mound, including a 10-run blowup against the Twins, but even factoring those in, his 3.79 ERA and 1.18 WHIP on the season are quite good. He's allowed zero or one run in four of his six starts this year and has allowed a total of just one run across his last three outings. He'll carry that momentum into a fairly tough test against the third-ranked Wiz lineup, though he held the league's top two offenses, the Dinos and Bears, to one run in 14 innings in a pair of late-May starts, so he should be able to handle this challenge as well.

There's very little agreement in pitcher prices between the two sites, as Seung Won Moon ($9,000 DraftKings, $24 FanDuel as "SK Starting P") is quite expensive on DraftKings but quite cheap on FanDuel. The righty's 4.68 ERA on the season isn't particularly good, but there are reasons to expect a strong performance Saturday against the Tigers' sixth-ranked lineup. He's been quite good in his last two starts, allowing three runs on eight hits in 12 innings while striking out 15 and walking three. His strikeout and walk numbers on the season are both very strong, as he's struck out 23.2 percent of opposing batters while walking just 4.2 percent.

On the opposite side of that same contest, Ki Young Im ($7,600 DraftKings, $25 FanDuel as "Kia Starting P") is also worth a look. The 27-year-old righty looked mediocre or worse in all but one of his six seasons prior to this year, but he looks to be in the middle of a breakout campaign. Through six starts, he owns a 3.34 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP, backing those numbers up with a 20.9 percent strikeout rate and a 3.0 percent walk rate. He'll face the ninth-ranked Wyverns lineup, a unit which appears to have gone cold again following a brief hot streak in late May.

Top Targets

Jung Hoo Lee ($5,100 DraftKings, $14 FanDuel) was limited to pinch-hit duty Friday due to a shin injury which occurred when he fouled a ball off himself Thursday. He singled in his pinch-hit at-bat and was able to play an inning in the field, so his odds of starting Saturday appear to be fairly good. The young outfielder, who owns an excellent .369/.432/.600 season slash line, will get the platoon advantage against righty Jae Hak Lee, a rare non-dominant Dinos starter. Lee may be better than his 5.08 ERA suggests, as his 1.31 WHIP is perfectly adequate and his 3.75 ERA last season was a fine mark, but his 14.1 percent strikeout rate this season is far from intimidating.

Losing MVP favorite Roberto Ramos to ankle and back injuries is a huge blow to the Twins' lineup, but they still have a star hitter in Hyun Soo Kim ($5,300 DraftKings, $14 FanDuel). Kim will be without one of the league's best RBI guys hitting behind him, but he does more than enough damage on his own to be worth a look, especially against Giants righty Se Woong Park, who's struggled to a 5.40 ERA and a 1.53 WHIP this season. Kim has only homered three times this year, but he's tied for the league lead with 13 doubles, part of a season which has seen him hit .358/.419/.537 overall.

Bargain Bats

Yong Taik Park ($2,300 DraftKings, $10 FanDuel) moved up to the third spot in the order in Ramos's absence. Like his teammate Kim, he'll get the platoon advantage against an unimposing righty in Saturday's contest. At 41 years old, Park has very little power left, but the KBO's all-time hits leader can still make plenty of contact. His .282 batting average last season was the first time he'd dropped below .300 in that category in a full decade, but he's right back at that mark this season, hitting .300/.346/.380 through 31 games.

As is nearly always the case, the Dinos could be considered for a stack in this contest, as they'll face Heroes righty Hyun Hee Han, who owns a mediocre 4.96 ERA and a 1.53 WHIP through six starts this season. Myung Gi Lee ($3,000 DraftKings, $9 FanDuel) offers a cheap way to get a piece of the league's best lineup if you don't have room for a full stack. The number two hitter has been on a roll lately and is riding a nine-game hitting streak in which he's batting .500. That's brought his season slash line up to .336/.372/.391. His contact ability and prime position in an incredible lineup make up for his lack of power.

Stacks to Consider

Bears vs. Seung Ju Han: Jose Fernandez ($6,200 DraftKings, $17 FanDuel), Jae Il Oh ($3,900 DraftKings, $15 FanDuel), Joo Hwan Choi ($2,500 DraftKings, $11 FanDuel)

If you haven't noticed, the Eagles, losers of 18 straight games, are quite bad. The chances of them taking a KBO-record 19th straight loss Saturday seem quite high, as they'll be trotting out a 19-year-old rookie making his KBO debut against the league's second-best lineup. Han held his own in four Futures League starts this season, though it's not as if his 4.50 ERA at that level indicates he's definitely destined for success against a higher level of competition. He struck out just 12.5 percent of batters in those starts, so he's unlikely to give the Bears' loaded lineup much trouble in this one.

Fernandez had gone cold at the start of June following a blistering May, hitting .250/.302/.325 in the first nine games of the month. A series against the lowly Eagles should help him get back to looking like an MVP candidate, though, as was certainly true in Friday's contest, where he went 2-for-4 with a double and a homer. With the platoon advantage against a completely unproven righty Saturday, expect another big day from the Cuban designated hitter.

If first base wasn't such a deep position on DraftKings, Oh would be an obvious play nearly every day, as he's rather underpriced given his track record and current numbers. In 27 games this season, he's hit five homers and 11 doubles, giving him a .356/.430/.614 slash line. His 1.044 OPS is well above his .864 mark from last year, but we shouldn't necessarily expect huge regression, as he'd posted an OPS above .900 for four straight seasons before the ball was de-juiced.

Positional eligibility means you can't use all three members of this stack on DraftKings, though you should be able to sub in pretty much anyone who hits in the top half of the Bears' lineup given the matchup. Despite not having the same track record as his aforementioned teammates, Choi shouldn't necessarily be the one to cut, as he's an excellent value for his price, especially if he remains in the number three slot which he moved up to in Friday's game. The veteran owns a solid .252/.318/.478 slash line on the season, numbers which could rise along with his .253 BABIP. His six homers already represent the third-highest total of his 13-year career, though he managed as many as 26 as recently as 2018.

Lions vs. Odrisamer Despaigne: Sang Su Kim ($4,800 DraftKings, $9 FanDuel), Hak Ju Lee ($3,700 DraftKings, $7 FanDuel), Ja Wook Koo ($4,800 DraftKings, $9 FanDuel)

This is undoubtedly a risky stack, as Despaigne looked excellent over his first five starts, cruising to a 1.69 ERA, a 0.94 WHIP and a 28:5 K:BB. He's fallen off a cliff over his last two outings, however. In his first start in June, he allowed 10 runs on 15 hits in five innings against the Bears while striking out just two. Getting beat up by a strong Bears lineup is one thing, but he didn't look good his next time out against a far lesser Giants squad, allowing four runs on seven hits in five innings while striking out four and walking three. I'd typically prefer to look at a larger sample when evaluating a pitcher, but the magnitude of the difference between his early work and his last two starts suggests something could be wrong with the veteran righty. There's plenty of upside in stacking the Lions here, especially in the league's most hitter-friendly park.

This entire stack is far more expensive on DraftKings than on FanDuel, though positional scarcity helps explain that. Kim is a prime example of that phenomenon, as his ability to fill a surprisingly shallow third-base slot helps justify his high price tag. The leadoff man has generally been a league-average hitter or worse over the course of his 12-year career, though he owns a strong .305/.431/.371 slash line this season. He doesn't hit for much power, but his 15.3 percent walk rate this year is excellent. Getting on base that often has helped him to three steals, though he's been an even greater steals threat in the past, swiping 21 bags last season and a career-best 53 back in 2014.

Lee was listed as the Lions' number two hitter in Friday's contest, which wound up getting rained out. Assuming he remains there Saturday (which would require Tyler Saladino still being out with a back issue), he's worth consideration here. He's interesting in this contest due to all sorts of secondary factors like price, position, lineup spot, platoon advantage, matchup and park, as his numbers this season certainly aren't very good. His .212/.296/.400 season slash line is quite poor overall, but he at least enters this game on a four-game hitting streak, a stretch in which he's homered twice.

Number three hitter Koo, who will also get the platoon advantage against Despaigne, has been the Lions' best hitter this season, though he's been limited to just 14 games due to a thigh injury. He hit .361 with a .997 OPS in 11 games prior to suffering the injury in late May and has five hits in three games since his return. The 27-year-old recorded an OPS of .910 or better in each of his first four seasons in the league before seeing that number drop to .771 with the de-juiced ball last year, but he should be back in lofty territory this season with the ball flying again.