Another long day, but hopefully some distractions as we get back into KBO DFS Picks and the Korean Baseball Organization in general. With FanDuel down for the night for mysterious maintenance, the DraftKings slate is the only game in town.
With some good news seemingly coming along on the MLB front, after the players put a new offer on the table, and the Japanese league kicking off their training schedule tomorrow, with a goal of opening on June 19th, it will be interesting to see how the baseball DFS landscape looks a month from now.
KBO DFS Picks: DraftKings + FanDuel Hitters
KBO doesn’t play on Mondays, which makes this a prime opportunity to run down some of our early individual league leaders:
Hits/Avg: Jose Miguel Fernandez (44/106 .468), Mel Rojas Jr. (38/103 .409), Hyun-soo Kim (36/101 .391), Roberto Ramos (30/91 .375), Jeong-dae Bae (31/91 .373)
On-Base %: Jose Miguel Fernandez (.515), Mel Rojas Jr. (.461), Sang-su Kim (.457), Roberto Ramos (.451), Hyun-soo Kim (.446)
Slugging %: Roberto Ramos (.812), Jose Miguel Fernandez (.691), Mel Rojas Jr. (.688), Dong-won Park (.680), Preston Tucker (.611)
HR: Roberto Ramos (10), Sung-bum Na (7), Preston Tucker, Mel Rojas Jr., Dong-won Park, Dong-min Han (6)
RBI: Preston Tucker (25), Jose Miguel Fernandez (23), Eun-sung Chae (23), Roberto Ramos, Dong-won Park (21)
The bulk of this analysis comes directly from reviewing Awesemo’s KBO DFS projections and the top stacks tool. Check out the rest of our KBO content, Awesemo’s projections, rankings, and ownership on the site for all your KBO DFS needs.
As usual, I’m going to look game by game, calling out a hitter or two from each team, and giving some top stacking options as we go. Pricing and popularity will be considered, more so as KBO DFS trends begin to emerge over the coming weeks. The numbers included with Suggested Stack are the projected lineup positions I would target for stacking that team, but do not restrict yourself exclusively to those spots. For example, if it says Wyverns 3-6 it means 3,4,5,6 in the projected lineup. If it says 1-2-3-5 it means those guys. If it means a two-man it will say so. I’m also going to start trying to include positions more, hopefully it helps speed up the process of finding guys as you build lineups.
With lock still hours away (5:30am), official lineups have not been released, so be sure to double-check status before you plug players into your lineup.
Be aware when making your early KBO DFS picks, the Doosan @ KT and Samsung @ LG games both have significant weather concerns. Precipitation at this point looks to be around 50% probable, so stay on top of those games.
 Lotte Giants @ Kia Tigers – 9.5 run total (4.27/5.44) – Suggested Stack: Tigers 2-6
A showdown of two teams caught up in the logjam in the middle of the standings, the 11-12 Giants come in to face the 12-12 Tigers. Both teams’ recent performance is precisely reflective of their season long records, playing right around .500 ball over their last 10 games. The Giants get Ki-young Im who held them down over eight innings two weeks ago. Im is pitching well so far this year and his strikeouts are up a tick from his career averages early on. This is a guy who gave up 20 home runs in just 105 innings in 2018, however, Giants power could play. Both the top stacks tool and the public seem to be off the Giants here though, with the team ranking near the bottom of the stacks tool and everyone on it tracking under 10% ownership. Getting to the big bats here is easy and could be sharp in the end. Jun-woo Jeon ($4.1k) and Dae-ho Lee ($4.5k) are two of Awesemo’s highest projected on the Giants and rank out well in my HR model. Using them as bookends of a 3-man Giants stack is probably where my first few Giants builds would go.
The Tigers have a top three implied run total on what projects to be a low-scoring night. They rank fourth in Awesemo’s top stacks tool for KBO DFS and are falling a bit short on ownership. This puts them on my radar for sure in a good spot against a bad starter. And that’s being nice about it. Se-woong Park simply hasn’t been good in his young KBO career. The Tigers bats from one through six all look strong in the projections tonight. Weaving in the low-owned options like projected second hitter Sun-bum Kim (4.1k) and projected sixth hitter Min-sang Yoo ($3.8k) along with the more likely higher-projected candidates will be important. The positional flexibility provided by four of the bats in this lineup makes it easy to mix and match Tigers to create unique constructions.
Doosan Bears @ KT Wiz – 10.5 run total (5.36/5.36) – Suggested Stack: Wiz 2-4
The first of two games with a concerning threat of rain has two of the best offenses in the league and our highest implied game total tonight. To say that keeping an eye on this one heading into lock will be important for making the correct KBO DFS picks tonight is a massive understatement. The defending champion Bears are still finding their footing overall at 14-9, playing .500 ball over their last 10. They get import starter Odrismaer Despaigne tonight, so it might be a big ask for their offense to get jump-started here. Despaigne is off to a flashy start to his 2020, with four quality starts in five tries, and a strong 28:5 K:BB over his 32 innings. Awesemo’s projections and the top stacks rankings don’t fear the big arm though, with the Bears ranking third. The key bats in this lineup are always going to be popular, so taking time to take advantage of multi-position eligibility to work in lower-owned KBO DFS plays here will be advantageous. The smart money is on the big bats like Jose Fernandez ($6.0k), Jae-il Oh ($3.4k), and Jae Hwan Kim ($5.4k) in the heart of this order. At 25% ownership it probably makes sense to consider skipping over Joo-hwan Choi ($2.2k) despite the price and projection, in favor of lower-owned plays like Kyoung-min Hur ($2.4k).
The Wiz are another frustrating team playing around .500 ball. Their record betrays what should be a better team, with KT still among league leaders in most offensive categories. Bears starter Hui-kwan Yu is a capable veteran lefty and is off to a solid start in 2020. His issue will always be the K:BB ratio though, with this season on trend with 10 of each over his 22 innings. The Wiz are landing near the middle of Awesemo’s top stacks and are displaying a curious lack of power potential for me in the HR model, which I haven’t seen from them this season. Yu have plenty of history with the long ball over his career, so I’m not sure what to make of it. With that in mind, if you’re looking to the Wiz here you know your Mel Rojas Jr. ($6.0k) shares are going to be around 30% popularity, so work in a few quality bats like Jae-dong Bae ($2.4k) and Yong Ho Jo ($2.7k) who are trending under 10% ownership in the two spots above Rojas in the lineup.
SK Wyverns @ NC Dinos – 10.0 run total (4.17/6.08) – Suggested Stack: Dinos 1-3-4-5-6
The Wyverns have a little something going all of a sudden, winning their last four and climbing out of the cellar at 7-16. Stealing one from the Bears before getting the also terrible Eagles will do that for a team, though, I’m not buying the turnaround. This is a team that was supposed to be better than we’ve seen so far, but they’ve taken too many lumps with injuries to really believe. Vegas agrees, saddling the Wyverns with the lowest implied total of the slate. Dinos starter Jae-hak Lee has shown us enough that I’m not inclined to target him with Wyverns bats in any special way. In KBO DFS if you can get to one of the import players at low ownership there’s always an argument for doing it. Jamie Romak ($5.6k) is currently trending under 10% hitting cleanup here. Romak has the Wyverns’ best projection from Awesemo and an above-average rating in my HR model. Using him as a one-off or in small stacks with other low-owned guys around him is your contrarian approach to this slate.
The Dinos have hit 10 more home runs than any other team in the league. They’ve hit one more home run than the Eagles and Wyverns combined. This is a very good team on any night. The Dinos rank second in the top stacks tool, but they’re pulling more ownership than I would like to see. They’re so good that you have to have shares of them in play, it comes down to unique constructions and playing them with differentiated options at pitcher or in your second stack. Leaving money on the table in Dinos builds is a great plan if you can pull it off. Catcher Eui-ji Yang is trending toward more than 55% ownership again tonight. This lineup is also wild in that as of the other day it was starting three players who only start at catcher on DraftKings. Fortunately, Jin-sun Kang ($3.5k) has been shifted to 1B/OF starting tonight. This eliminates a few creative angles into this stack, but probably opens more high-end opportunities. Hee-dong Kwon ($2.3k) makes for a cheap low-owned play another place down in this lineup. These are guys to keep in mind with the wildly popular guys hitting in front of them.
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Samsung Lions @ LG Twins – 10 run total (4.80/5.42) – Suggested Stack: Twins 1-5
The Lions come into Seoul on a rainy day looking to face the mighty 16-7 LG Twins. If this one plays, I’m not sure what KBO DFS players are seeing in the Lions. They’re ranked in the middle of the top stacks tool, trending for twice the ownership as their probability of being the top stack. This is a team that has played .500 ball over their last 10 and is at 10-14 on the year. They popped for a few big totals last week, so maybe you guys are suffering from some recency bias out there? This isn’t a week for bias of any kind, I’m scrapping the Lions here if they stay that popular. This is not an endorsement and Awesemo’s projections have him under six DraftKings points tonight, but Tyler Saladino (3.9k) hits in the middle of this order and is tracking for essentially no ownership. If you’re playing the popular guys it seems almost too easy to include him.
The Twins are one of my favorite teams to talk about in the KBO. They play a fun version of baseball to watch and have quality bats that are extremely KBO-DFS relevant on most nights. Awesemo’s top stacks tool has the Twins ranked in the bottom half of stacks tonight, however, so I’m cautious. The Lions’ young starter Tae-in Won did well against the Twins two weeks ago and is rolling his last couple starts. I still think the veteran Twins bats have a shot to get to a second-year starter here. I’m not sure if I’m happy for him or sad to see it happen, but Roberto Ramos finally got a nod of respect, with DraftKings bumping him up to $4,000 today. Never fear, he remains the highest projected hitter on the slate by more than 1.6 DraftKings points. In baseball we always want to view these projections as a mark of the quality of opportunity and spot. Ramos is also the only popular bat in this lineup, with a projected ownership above 40% while everyone else is below 10%. This creates opportunity up and down the lineup even as simply as taking it from the top with Chun-woong Lee ($3.6k), Hyun-soo Kim ($5.5k), and Eun-sung Chae ($3.2k).
Kiwoom Heroes @ Hanwha Eagles – 10.0 run total (5.83/4.41) – Suggested Stack: Heroes 8-1-2-3-4
The Heroes are looking at an opportunity to get their record in shape early in the week here against the terrible Eagles. At .500 on the season, the Heroes are better than their record indicates. The Eagles are exactly who their 7-17 record indicates they are. Eagles starter Ee-whan Kim so far looks like a prototypical KBO starter, pitching to contact and carrying a limited K:BB ratio. The Heroes rightly rank out atop the stacks rankings today and should provide some quality KBO DFS picks. The ownership is in-line with their quality here, making the Heroes a terrific option in early constructions. Keon-chang Seo ($3.5k) leads off with positional flexibility, I would expect most people will drop him into the 2B slot, so using him at first could be a bit different. Everyone down to projected seventh hitter Hye-sung Kim ($2.1k) looks playable in Awesemo’s projections. Even eight-hitting Taek-keun Lee ($2.0k) is in play, with his dramatic slump dropping him to minimum salary. Lee has the history in his bat to make a turnaround, or at a minimum provide a little pop on some random nights.
The Eagles are the current cellar dwellers in the KBO. Unfortunately, in a league with only 10 teams, we’re going to be talking about them over and over. This team didn’t show a ton of life last week, getting shut out twice and only going over five runs once. There are holes in this lineup construction that make straight-line stacks fall apart. With Hanwha ranked last in the stacks tool and trending for next to no ownership, feel free to mix and match between the quality spots if you must. Jared Hoying ($4.8k) makes sense at less than 20% ownership if you’re looking to this team. Sung-yeol Lee ($3.5k) is the only other player getting any attention. Use these two together or combine with Yong-kyu Lee ($4.0k) and Eun-won Jung ($4.9k) above them in the lineup.
Favorite Stack: Kiwoom Heroes
HR Call: Byung-ho Park (Kiwoom)
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