KBO Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Friday 6/12/20
South Korea's KBO League is bringing live baseball back in our lives, and that means the return of daily fantasy baseball with real cash prizes on FanDuel!
First pitch on Friday is at 5:30 am ET, and official lineups typically come out an hour before game time at the earliest.
Scoring is identical to what we see in MLB DFS, but FanDuel is condensing the number of starting spots to seven. You start one pitcher as usual, and then only need to roster two infielders, two outfielders, and two utility players to fill out the rest. Your total team salary is also $100 instead of $35,000.
Some websites that can help you get started include MyKBO Stats, FanGraphs, and Baseball-Reference.
Below is an overview of tonight's starting pitchers sorted by FanDuel salary with their 2020 numbers. Opposing team stats are also from this season. Multi-year park factors from the Korean website, Statiz.
Note that on FanDuel these hurlers are listed by their team names (ex: "SK Starting P"), so those are also included
| Pitcher | Salary | L/R | Opp. | FIP | ERA | WHIP | K% | BB% | Opp. R/G | Opp. K% | Park |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chang-mo Koo (NC) |
$30 | L | KIW | 2.11 | 0.66 | 0.71 | 29.7% | 6.1% | 5.60 | 18.6% | 1012 |
| Drew Gagnon (Kia) |
$27 | R | @SK | 2.49 | 3.48 | 1.07 | 29.0% | 5.1% | 4.03 | 18.6% | 1038 |
| Odrisamer Despaigne (KT) |
$27 | R | @SAM | 3.31 | 4.29 | 1.31 | 19.0% | 4.5% | 4.82 | 18.7% | 1093 |
| Dan Straily (Lotte) |
$26 | R | @LG | 3.22 | 2.23 | 1.21 | 26.1% | 9.1% | 5.75 | 16.4% | 959 |
| Jong-hoon Park (SK) |
$26 | R | KIA | 3.98 | 3.44 | 1.26 | 24.1% | 9.2% | 5.03 | 16.2% | 1038 |
| Tyler Wilson (LG) |
$25 | R | LOT | 3.85 | 4.29 | 1.15 | 18.5% | 5.5% | 4.56 | 17.2% | 959 |
| Won-joon Choi (Doosan) |
$22 | R | @HAN | 5.80 | 7.64 | 1.58 | 16.7% | 3.6% | 3.18 | 19.4% | 978 |
| Chad Bell (Hanwha) |
$21 | L | DOO | 8.59 | 9.00 | 2.09 | 12.3% | 15.8% | 6.25 | 15.2% | 978 |
| Seung-min Lee (Samsung) |
$21 | L | KT | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 5.97 | 18.4% | 1093 |
| Seung-ho Lee (Kiwoom) |
$20 | L | @NC | 6.31 | 7.39 | 1.68 | 13.3% | 10.9% | 7.09 | 17.3% | 1012 |
Let's check out which pitchers and stacks stand out on tonight's slate
Pitchers
Following a rather uninspiring group of arms on Thursday's slate, Friday brings about a who's who of KBO aces.
At this point, Chang-mo Koo (NC Starting P; $30) is automatically in play any time he's starts, regardless of opponent. Koo leads the league in strikeouts and has allowed three earned runs total over six starts. The southpaw will inevitably have a dud at some point, but you should feel confident rolling him out against a Kiwoom Heroes team that's a plus for strikeouts.
That being said, tonight's top honors go to Drew Gagnon (Kia Starting P; $27). Gagnon is neck-and-neck with Koo in strikeout rate and draws a cupcake matchup versus the SK Wyverns, who have scored the second-fewest runs per game. Gagnon is also $3 cheaper, which should only add to his popularity.
You could frankly make an argument for any of the next four pitchers in tournaments, but Dan Straily (Lotte Starting P; $26) has the best overall numbers in this second tier, including an excellent 26.1% strikeout rate. Although Straily draws a mediocre matchup against the LG Twins, the Twins' home ballpark skews towards pitchers.
Lastly, it's worth mentioning that while Won-joon Choi (Doosan Starting P; $22) faces the punchless Hanwha Tigers -- now losers of 17 straight -- he's been pitching exclusively out of the bullpen, so he's unlikely to record enough innings to be a value. Choi has typically been throwing only one or two innings at a time (15 appearances) and maxed out at just 60 pitches in early May.
Stacks
Much like Chang-mo Koo, his NC Dinos are in play just about every night as a top stack, and tonight is no different against Seung-ho Lee. Lee has performed poorly across the board through six starts, and the 21-year-old posted modest numbers over 23 starts in 2019, too, with a 15.4% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate.
The top bats on the Dinos are getting increasingly more expensive, but guys like Min-woo Park ($12), Myung-gi Lee ($9), and Suk-Min Park ($10) remain affordable. Min-woo and Myung-gi lack individual power but regularly bat first and second ahead of the Dinos' top sluggers. Suk-Min hasn't had as many ceiling games as some of his teammates, but he's still showing a rock solid .375 wOBA and .193 ISO.
As a lefty-heavy lineup, the Doosan Bears are less exciting when they face southpaws, but Chad Bell and the Hanwha Eagles aren't a matchup to shy away from. Although Bell performed pretty well last season, he's coming off an elbow injury and has really struggled to get things going through three starts, with more walks than strikeouts.
All your favorite Bears are in play, and Kun Woo Park ($10) is an especially nice value as perhaps the only righty stick batting in the top half of the order. He resumed leadoff duties last week after being dropped in the order for a spell.
Left-hander Seung-min Lee is making his KBO debut as an injury fill-in for the Samsung Lions, and it's a big ask to expect a 19-year-old who just graduated high school to keep the KT Wiz off the board.
Leadoff man Woo Joo Sim ($10) will have the platoon advantage, and fellow righty Han-Joon Yoon ($12) has been batting in the heart of the order the last four games. Kyung-Soo Park ($8) can help you fit in the pricey bats of Baek-Ho Kang ($16) and Mel Rojas Jr ($16). Kyung-Soo has put up a .385 wOBA and .178 ISO this season.
