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 Thursday 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.
We don't have 2019 KBO stats for foreign players making the jump to this league, but foreigners generally perform well overall. Last season, foreign pitchers performed nearly 22% above league average, and hitters performed about 16% better, per MyKBO Stats.
Below is an overview of tonight's starting pitchers and their relevant stats sorted by FanDuel salary. With most pitchers having at least three starts under their belt, we're switching over to their 2020 numbers moving forward, and 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Brooks (Kia) | $27 | R | LOT | 3.37 | 3.23 | 1.24 | 21.3% | 4.1% | 4.20 | 16.8% | 1003 |
| Drew Rucinski (NC) | $27 | R | SK | 3.23 | 2.51 | 1.18 | 22.6% | 5.3% | 4.40 | 19.0% | 1012 |
| Min Kim (KT) | $26 | R | DOO | 6.34 | 5.23 | 1.60 | 12.4% | 15.5% | 6.08 | 15.0% | 973 |
| Raul Alcantara (Doosan) | $25 | R | @KT | 4.73 | 3.90 | 1.47 | 17.4% | 4.5% | 6.48 | 17.5% | 973 |
| Chan-heon Jung (LG) | $25 | R | SAM | 5.07 | 5.06 | 1.44 | 21.2% | 6.1% | 5.31 | 17.9% | 959 |
| Tae-hoon Kim (SK) | $25 | L | @NC | 4.34 | 3.00 | 1.04 | 17.2% | 11.8% | 6.48 | 18.2% | 1012 |
| Kyung-eun Noh (Lotte) | $24 | R | @KIA | 3.91 | 5.57 | 1.57 | 14.9% | 7.4% | 5.08 | 16.9% | 1003 |
| Jung-hyun Baek (Samsung) | $24 | L | @LG | 8.93 | 7.20 | 1.60 | 19.1% | 4.3% | 5.92 | 17.0% | 959 |
| Min-woo Kim (Hanwha) | $22 | R | KIW | 5.44 | 3.90 | 1.16 | 23.3% | 10.3% | 6.04 | 18.4% | 978 |
| Eric Jokisch (Kiwoom) | $21 | L | @HAN | 2.33 | 0.90 | 0.87 | 23.9% | 4.4% | 3.50 | 19.7% | 978 |
Let's check out which pitchers and stacks stand out on tonight's slate
Pitchers
Normally, we begin at the top of the salary list to find a slate's best pitching plays, but in this case, we're starting all the way at the bottom.
Eric Jokisch (Starting Kiwoom P; $21) is not only the night's lowest-priced hurler, but he boasts pretty much the best 2020 numbers across the board and draws arguably the league's worst offense in the Hanwha Eagles. He's an absolute bargain at this salary and figures to be one of the slate's most popular arms.
Outside of Jokisch, we have Aaron Brooks (Kia Starting P; $27) and Drew Rucinski (NC Starting P; $27) back up top, who are also enjoying strong starts to the season. They're priced more accordingly and also face less dangerous lineups in the Lotte Giants and Sk Wyverns.
Of this trio, Brooks may have a tougher time hitting his ceiling against a Giants team that only strikes out at a 16.8% clip. Still, all three pitchers are heads and shoulders above everyone else tonight.
Stacks
Min Kim has perhaps the worst overall numbers in the above chart, averaging more walks than strikeouts over four starts. He wasn't so hot in 2019, either, posting a 4.91 FIP, 13.5% strikeout rate, and 9.6% walk rate over 150.2 innings.
Oh, and he's facing the Doosan Bears, who already devoured him for seven earned runs earlier this year. The top Bears bats are expensive as always, but with Jokisch at our disposal, it won't be as difficult to fit them in. Jae il Oh ($16) is back in the lineup these days, and Joo-Hwan Choi ($11) remains a solid value as a guy who's already hit 5 home runs and slugged 26 a couple years ago. Soo-Bin Jung ($7) has led off the past seven games, automatically making him a fantastic punt in this monstrous lineup.
Jung-hyun Baek's 8.93 FIP is hard to miss, although it should be taken with a grain of salt over just two starts. That being said, he produced a lackluster 4.91 FIP, 12.1% strikeout rate, and 8.3% walk rate over 157.0 innings in 2019, so this looks like a good spot for the LG Twins to excel.
Outside of Roberto Ramos ($17) and Hyun-Soo Kim ($14) this won't be a hard team to stack, with no other player priced above $11. Ramos is pacing the league with 10 dingers already to his name.
With strong offenses like Doosan and LG likely drawing ownership -- in addition to the Kiwoom Heroes, who are also in a good spot -- perhaps the Kia Tigers won't get as much attention against Kyung-eun Noh. The right-hander owns the slate's second-worst strikeout rate, and the 36-year-old has rarely been an effective KBO pitcher, owning a career 5.16 ERA and 1.54 WHIP.
Like the Twins, the Tigers are cheap outside of star Preston Tucker ($17). Hyung-Woo Choi ($11) and Ji-Wan Na ($9) in particular are both great values at their price tags. Ho Ryung Kim made his Tigers debut a couple games ago and has been batting leadoff, but as of this writing, he doesn't appear to be in FanDuel's player pool.