DFS KBO: Wednesday Cheat Sheet

Tuesday's KBO slate featured just a single matchup between the league's six playoff contenders. Raul Alcantara secured the win in that one with a quality start for the Bears, who scored seven runs (five earned) off the Dinos' Mike Wright in their 7-3 victory to pull within three games of first place. The win meant the Bears improved by a game against each of the other contending teams, who all lost against bottom-four sides. The Eagles got nine strikeouts from Min Woo Kim (albeit with four runs allowed in five innings) before eventually defeating the Twins 6-5 on a tenth-inning walkoff hit by pitch for Jin Ho Jung. Elsewhere, the Giants beat the Heroes by an 8-5 score in a game in which the starting pitchers combined to throw 4.2 innings. Meanwhile, in a battle of former major leaguers, David Buchanan struck out seven over six scoreless innings while Odrisamer Despaigne allowed seven runs in 6.1 runs while striking out just one as the Lions crushed the Wiz, 7-0. That wasn't close to the biggest blowout of the day, however, as the Wyverns smashed the surging Tigers, 16-1, getting six shutout innings from Young Woo Jo in his first start of the year while Tyler White hit his first KBO homer. 

Whether or not we'll see a set of two-game sweeps by the league's weakest teams remains to be seen, as rain across the country could prevent many of the series from being concluded. Only the Giants-Heroes game, which takes place indoors at Gocheok Sky Dome, appears completely safe as of writing.

Pitchers

With Dan Straily in a slump and Chris Flexen not likely to pitch too deep into the game in his second start back from a broken foot, Casey Kelly ($8,500) looks like the pick of the day's aces. The fact that he gets to face the league-worst Eagles offense certainly doesn't hurt, though he's a very strong option in his own right. He owned a rather mediocre 5.21 ERA and 1.45 WHIP through his first seven starts, but he's turned things around in a big way since then, posting a 3.06 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP over his last 14 outings. Zoom in on just his last seven starts, and the picture looks even better, as he owns a 2.00 ERA and a1.00 WHIP over that stretch, only once allowing more than two runs.

Hyun Jong Yang's ($8,100) season-long 4.84 ERA and 1.42 WHIP are both quite unimpressive, though neither is a fair reflection of how he's pitching at the moment. He owned an awful 6.31 ERA and 1.51 WHIP over his first 13 starts, but he's since turned things around in a big way. In his last nine outings, he's posted a 2.94 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP, allowing more than three runs just once and striking out eight or more batters five times. He's still not in the same ballpark as his numbers from his dominant 2019 campaign, in which he finished with a 2.29 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP, but he's still pitching very well for his price. He should stay hot here against the ninth-ranked Wyverns lineup.

Among the day's cheapest arms, Hyun Hee Han ($6,800) offers perhaps the most upside. His 5.59 ERA is of course quite poor, though it's held back by a two-start stretch back in July in which he allowed 17 runs while recording just 11 outs. Remove those, and his ERA goes all the way down to 4.38. His combination of a 18.2 percent strikeout rate and a 6.1 percent walk rate, both of which beat the league average, is quite strong, and he's capable of posting big strikeout numbers on occasion. He recorded a season high of 10 back in late July against the Giants, the same team he'll face Wednesday.

Top Targets

The Bears easily could have been one of the recommended stacks here against Dinos lefty Young Kyu Kim, who owns a 7.02 ERA in 33.1 innings, though their lefty-heavy lineup combined with a pair of other compelling options led me to turn elsewhere. Right-handed leadoff man Kun Woo Park ($4,600) looks like quite a good option against Kim, however. His role on the league's second-best lineup has helped him score 86 runs, good for fourth in the league. He has five multi-hit games so far in the month of September and could easily add a sixth in this one.

Hyung Woo Choi ($4,700) earns a mention here ahead of his more expensive teammate Preston Tucker, though both could be worthy of inclusion against Wyverns righty Jong Hoon Park, who owns an unimpressive 5.05 ERA. The 36-year-old Choi hasn't lost a step this season, as his .954 OPS means it would take quite a late-season slump for him to not finish with an OPS north of .900 for the eighth straight season and the 10th time in the last 11 years. There's been no sign that such a slump is coming, as he's hitting .333/.410/.667 over his last nine games.

Bargain Bats

While Hyun Hee Han was listed above as a cheap pitcher with upside, he's not nearly consistently dominant enough that you should avoid the Giants entirely if you don't include him yourself. While the Giants are very righty-heavy, Ah Seop Son ($3,700) will be the lone hitter in the top half of their lineup to bat left-handed and is very much worth a look with the platoon advantage here. Son has missed time with a hamstring injury recently but returned to the starting lineup Tuesday. He has at least one hit in 14 of his last 15 games, posting a .426/.429/.596 slash line over that stretch.

While the Twins have suddenly gone cold, following up a stretch in which they were undefeated in nine games with a stretch in which they've won just one of seven, Chang Gi Hong ($2,900) has remained hot. He's stretched his hitting streak to 16 games, a stretch in which he's hitting .359/.453/.500. He has minimal power, homering just three times on the year, but his .285 batting average combined with his 17.0 percent walk rate make him quite a good leadoff man. He'll set the table for the Twins as they look to get back on track against Jin Wook Kim, whose decent 4.11 ERA comes with a 1.50 WHIP and a 22:14 K:BB.

Stacks to Consider

Lions vs. Min Soo Kim: Ja Wook Koo ($5,100), Daniel Palka ($3,000), Dong Yeop Kim ($2,600)

The Lions rank a mere eighth in scoring this season, but they've outscored their opponents by a combined score of 18-0 over their last two games and should have a good shot to stay hot against Min Soo Kim. The righty's 6.34 ERA and 1.75 WHIP tell the story well enough on their own, but a closer look doesn't paint him in any better light. His 6.1 percent walk rate is strong, though that number could be that low because hitters have already gotten a hit off of him before he has the chance to throw four balls. He's striking out just 13.4 percent of opposing batters while giving up a .336 batting average. If all that isn't enough to convince you, he's also coming off a pair of starts in which he's allowed 10 runs in nine innings.

Koo has rebounded from a 2019 campaign in which he hit a fairly mediocre .267/.330/.444, hitting .318/.391/.486 in 84 games. His power is modest at best, as he's homered just 11 times, but he's among the better hitters in the league in most other areas. His batting average ranks a solid 13th among hitters with at least 300 at-bats, and he's chipped in with 14 steals, tying him for 11th in that category. He's swung a particularly hot bat in September, posting a 1.059 OPS through 12 games while scoring 12 runs and driving in 15 more.

Palka has been productive enough through his first 18 KBO games, hitting .246/.316/.464 with four homers. If that was all he was capable of, he'd still be a decent value at his rather low price, but it's likely that the former MLB player is capable of much more. Players deemed worthy of one of a team's three foreign player spots should be considered as some of the league's best players until proven otherwise, and 18 games of good but not great hitting isn't nearly a big enough sample to prove that he's incapable of more. He's gone 6-for-16 with a homer and five RBI over his last four games and should stray hot with the platoon advantage against Kim here.

Dong Yeop Kim won't get the platoon advantage, unlike the aforementioned pair, but he's quite a good value nevertheless. He's had a bit of a rocky season, getting demoted twice, though the latest demotion seems to have served its intended purposes, as he's hit .400/.426/.674 in 30 games since his return, numbers that are way out of line with his price tag. He's been on another level entirely in his last four games, going 12-for-18 at the plate with three homers.

Wiz vz. Tae In Won: Mel Rojas Jr. ($5,900), Jae Gyun Hwang ($5,600), Baek Ho Kang ($5,500) 

The opposite side of that same contest offers another interesting, albeit more expensive, stack. While the team was held scoreless by David Buchanan in the series opener, they're likely to have a far easier time against Won. The 20-year-old righty's 4.75 ERA and 1.50 WHIP aren't good but aren't terrible, though they may overrate how well he's pitched. While his 8.4 percent walk rate is adequate, he allowed far too much contact, posting a 12.6 percent strikeout rate. He had an ERA of 3.12 and a 1.37 WHIP through his first 12 outings of the year, though a mediocre 40:25 K:BB forecast plenty of regression. That regression has come quite hard, as he's posted an 8.31 ERA and a 1.78 WHIP in his last seven outings.

It's hard to start a Wiz stack with anyone other than the likely MVP, Rojas. After a surprisingly cold stretch to end August, in which he hit .132/.150/.276 over the final 17 games of the month, he's fully back on track in September. Through 13 games this month he's homered five times and driven in 14 runs while posting a .388/.456/.755 slash line. It's debatable to what extent that counts as a hot streak, however, as it's not all that far above his season-long .346/.405/.685 line.

Hwang started the year quite cold, posting a .657 OPS through his first 33 games. He's picked things up in a big way since then, however, hitting .335/.411/.581 over his last 63 contests. His .992 OPS over that stretch would rank third in the league had he been able to keep it up since the start of the year. He's been even hotter over his last 15 contests, hitting .393/.462/.679 while scoring 18 runs. Batting in front of the likes of Rojas and Kang should give him the chance to score a few more Wednesday.

Kang went through a strange power drought that lasted for over a month from mid-July to mid-August, going 25 games without a single homer. In the 24 games since then, however, he's homered six times while hitting .333/.423/.611. That's quite relieving to see, as he managed only 13 homers last season after bursting onto the scene with 29 as an 18-year-old rookie back in 2018. His 18 homers in 91 games this season would translate to 27 if he played 138 games, the same number he did as a rookie, so he appears to have gotten effectively all the way back to his original level.