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 is at 2:00 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.
Due to their game being rained out on Wednesday, the SK Wyverns and LG Twins are playing a doubleheader tonight. FanDuel is only including the second game on the slate, and as of this writing, the starting pitchers haven't been announced yet. I've listed their projected starters on Rotowire in italics, but be sure to confirm who's officially starting later today.
(UPDATE: FanDuel is now locking the slate at 2:00 am ET and using Game 1 of the doubleheader between the SK Wyverns and LG Twins. Ricardo Pinto is starting for the Wyverns and Min-ho Lee is on the mound for the Twins. Pinto and Lee have been added to tonight's chart.)
| Pitcher | Salary | L/R | Opp. | FIP | ERA | WHIP | K% | BB% | Opp. R/G | Opp. K% | Park |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Wright (NC) | $28 | R | DOO | 4.90 | 2.65 | 1.18 | 22.3% | 11.5% | 6.29 | 15.0% | 1012 |
| Won-tae Choi (Kiwoom) | $26 | R | @SAM | 3.49 | 3.44 | 1.12 | 17.3% | 4.3% | 4.78 | 18.9% | 1093 |
| Ricardo Pinto (SK) | $26 | L | @LG | 4.34 | 4.15 | 1.70 | 13.7% | 11.2% | 5.90 | 16.5% | 959 |
| Min-woo Lee (Kia) | $25 | R | @KT | 3.26 | 3.86 | 1.10 | 17.2% | 8.0% | 5.74 | 18.0% | 973 |
| Young-ha Lee (Doosan) | $23 | R | @NC | 4.40 | 4.24 | 1.68 | 15.1% | 14.5% | 7.10 | 17.3% | 1012 |
| Min-ho Lee (LG) | $23 | R | SK | 3.78 | 1.10 | 0.92 | 14.5% | 9.7% | 4.17 | 18.9% | 959 |
| Jun-won Seo (Lotte) | $22 | R | HAN | 5.98 | 4.28 | 1.34 | 9.9% | 5.7% | 3.28 | 19.7% | 1022 |
| Dae-woo Kim (Samsung) | $21 | R | KIW | 6.41 | 4.29 | 1.43 | 8.5% | 11.7% | 5.69 | 18.7% | 1093 |
| Min-jae Jang (Hanwha) | $21 | R | @LOT | 4.92 | 7.58 | 1.84 | 14.0% | 3.2% | 4.55 | 17.0% | 1022 |
| Min-soo Kim (KT) | $20 | R | KIA | 6.99 | 12.19 | 2.81 | 13.8% | 6.9% | 4.94 | 16.2% | 973 |
Let's check out which pitchers and stacks stand out on tonight's slate
Pitchers
This isn't the most exciting slate of arms tonight, as Mike Wright is the only confirmed starter with a strikeout rate above 20% but is unfortunately facing the mighty Doosan Bears.
That leaves us with Won-tae Choi (Kiwoom Starting P; $26) as our safest choice against the Samsung Lions. Although Choi doesn't bring the firepower we typically like to see in DFS, his 17.3% strikeout rate is one of the night's best marks behind Wright, and he pairs it with a low 4.3% walk rate. The KBO veteran has also posted a sub-4.00 ERA in back-to-back campaigns, further giving us some confidence in his abilities. Although the Lions play in a hitter-friendly venue, they're a below-average offense that strikes out nearly 19% of the time.
Min-woo Lee (Kia Starting P; $25) has a higher walk rate and a more difficult matchup than Choi, but his 17.2% strikeout rate puts him in play, as well. The KT Wiz can be dangerous, but their home venue's park factor could help Lee out.
Jun-won Seo (Lotte Starting P; $22) has some unsightly numbers... but he's facing the Hanwha Eagles, who have quickly become the league's collective punching bag. The Eagles have now lost 16 straight and are the only team that's yet to win double-digit games. The risks are obvious with Seo, but considering the lack of elite hurlers tonight, he doesn't have to be perfect to come through.
Lastly, if LG's Chan-gyu Lim ends up starting in the second game of tonight's doubleheader (starters haven't been announced yet), his 22.7% strikeout rate makes him intriguing against the SK Wyverns.
Stacks
Min-soo Kim has't been fooling anyone in 2020, owning some truly dreadful numbers across the board. He's mostly pitched out of the bullpen, so the sample is pretty small (10.1 innings), but it's not like he was anything special in 2019, either, recording a 4.96 ERA and 1.43 WHIP.
The Kia Tigers are the beneficiaries of this matchup, and star slugger Preston Tucker ($17) continues to be the only pricey bat of the bunch. Hyung-Woo Choi ($11), Ji-Wan Na ($9), and Ho-Ryeong Kim ($8) are all great values in the top half of the order, and Min-Sang Yoo ($7) has moved up to fifth the last couple games.
Between his 2020 marks and a career 5.72 ERA, Min-jae Jang doesn't look like the guy to turn things around for the Hanwha Eagles. The Lotte Giants have a solid but affordable foursome up top between Ah-Seop Son ($12), Jun-Woo Jean ($13), Chi-Hong An ($9), and Dae-Ho Lee ($10). Dixon Machado ($10) is the guy to look for in the lower half, showing a solid .182 ISO with four dingers and three stolen bases thus far.
The Kiwoom Heroes disappointed last night, but we should go right back to the well against Dae-woo Kim, who has more walks than strikeouts this season and has never been effective in the KBO. Kim owns an ugly career 5.96 ERA and 1.65 WHIP. We're still waiting for Byung-Ho Park ($12) to blow up, but don't give up on the guy who led the KBO in home runs last year (33).
Lastly, you probably don't need to be reminded that the NC Dinos are in play just about every night. The Dinos have now slugged 51 home runs -- no other team has exceeded even 33. Doosan's Young-ha Lee has been incredibly erratic through six starts with a slate-worst 14.5% walk rate.