MLB

KBO Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Thursday 7/2/20

Is Dan Straily still worth rostering despite a tough matchup against the NC Dinos? Which other spots should we be looking at?

MLB finally has a timeline for its return at the end of July (yay!), so that means MLB DFS is on the horizon.

But you don't have to wait until then to get your daily fantasy baseball fix! The KBO rolls on with daily contests on FanDuel.

First pitch on Thursday 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.

PitcherSalaryL/ROpp.FIPERAWHIPK%BB%Opp. R/GOpp. K%Park
Jae-hak Lee
(NC)
$29RLOT4.555.601.4714.9%9.2%4.6616.3%1012
Dan Straily
(Lotte)
$28R@NC3.032.431.0326.1%7.2%6.5017.4%1012
Geon-wook Lee
(SK)
$27R@SAM4.872.781.2116.5%13.5%5.0817.8%1093
Casey Kelly
(LG)
$26RKT4.395.121.3717.1%6.9%5.8418.9%959
Young-gun Jo
(Kiwoom)
$25RDOO7.666.871.969.1%14.8%6.3115.0%979
Min-woo Lee
(Kia)
$24RHAN4.295.121.2915.4%7.7%3.5319.6%1003
Byung-wook Jo
(KT)
$24R@LG4.833.551.425.7%5.7%5.4516.2%959
Warwick Saupold
(Hanwha)
$23R@KIA3.653.501.3714.8%4.0%4.8317.2%1003
Tae-in Won
(Samsung)
$22RSK5.002.961.3414.2%8.6%3.6519.1%1093
Jong-gi Park
(Doosan)
$21R@KIW3.512.810.9422.0%6.8%5.7419.2%979


Let's check out which pitchers and stacks stand out on tonight's slate

Pitchers

We have a difficult pitching slate tonight, as we would normally roster Dan Straily ($28; Lotte Starting P) with little hesitation, but he's facing the mighty NC Dinos. Still, that 26.1% strikeout rate runs laps around everyone else on the board, and he's put up strong performances against tougher lineups like Kiwoom and LG, so he's still arguably our best bet.

The other reason to lean on Straily is there isn't really an obvious secondary choice. Casey Kelly ($26; LG Starting P) has a solid 17.1% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate, but as shown by his ERA, he's been incredibly inconsistent. Although the KT Wiz aren't exactly a cupcake matchup, they also aren't a bad source of punchouts, and the ballpark suppresses hitting.

You could also opt for the ol' start-whoever-is-facing-the-Hanwha-Eagles strategy. The Eagles haven't been quite as helpless as they were earlier in the season, but this is still the KBO's worst offense. While Min-woo Lee ($24; Kia Starting P) doesn't have particularly exciting marks, his 4.29 FIP suggests he's performed better than his ERA. Note that he's returning from a shoulder injury, though, so he may not have the longest leash.

The top value could very well be Jong-gi Park ($21; Doosan Starting P), who owns a promising 22.0% strikeout rate through his first three career starts. It's a small sample to trust against a strong Kiwoom lineup, but the Heroes can be had for strikeouts. On a slate with so many question marks, it could be worth just taking the savings and loading up on bats.

Stacks

And if you do go cheap at pitching with Jong-gi Park, his Doosan Bears are an obvious destination to spend that extra cash. They're up against right-hander Young-gun Jo, who has rotten numbers across the board over five starts (six appearances). He isn't likely to turn things around against a Bears lineup that's loaded with strong lefty sticks. Joo-Hwan Choi ($13) and righty leadoff man Kun-Woo Park ($13) are two of the easier top bats to fit in, though note that Park has been in and out of the lineup lately.

The LG Twins are also a viable stack against another inexperienced hurler in Byung-wook Jo. The 22-year-old has shown little firepower through 12.2 innings, registering just three strikeouts, which isn't likely to get the job done against the Twins. Furthermore, once Jo is out of the game, LG can also take advantage of a bullpen that's sporting the second-worst ERA in the league (6.21). The Twins may not have a ton of pop outside of Roberto Ramos ($17), but they remain a solid offense that's still averaging well over five runs per game. Chun-Woong Lee ($8) and Ji-Hwan Oh ($9) form a speedy and cheap tandem up top ahead of the big bats.

The Samsung Lions aren't as fun with Tyler Saladino still out, but they're worth a look versus Geon-wook Lee. Although Lee has a sparkling 2.78 ERA, his 13.5% walk rate and 4.87 FIP show that he's been playing with fire, and a course correction could be coming soon. As is usually the case, the Lions are easy to stack, with Ja-Wook Koo ($10) being the only active player priced in double-digits.