Welcome to KBO DFS! Greg Jewett did an excellent introduction article as well as a team-by-team breakdown

But I’ll give you a quick breakdown on how things will be scored here as well!

Scoring

Pitching Coach

Spend Up

Hyun Jong Yang, KIA → $10,000

Talk about a dominant season! Yang is coming off a 16-win campaign that saw him lead the league in ERA with a sparkling 2.29 mark, better than league MVP Josh Lindblom who is now a member of the Milwaukee Brewers. This wasn’t new for Yang as he’s won double-digits games for six straight seasons while also striking out at least 146 and starting 29 games to boot. Kia has a tough task with Kiwoom tonight, but this could somewhat of a contrarian spend up with most people looking at Jake Brigham on the other side of this contest considering name recognition and a cheaper price tag.

Jake Brigham, KIW → $9,300

It was pointed out in Greg Jewett’s opening article that “foreigners” imported to the KBO simply fare well in this league. Pitchers had an ERA of 3.63 compared to 4.16 compared to Korean pitchers. Brigham has had a lot of success in the KBO winning 10-plus games in three straight campaigns while posting a career-best 2.96 ERA just last season. Kiwoom are -138 favorites against a Kia Tigers team who hit the fewest homers in the league and bolstered a pedestrian .264 team average, which put them sixth out of 10 teams. Kiwoom are one of the odds on favorites to win the championship this year and the journey to the promised lands starts with Brigham on the hill.

Raul Alcantara, DOO → $8,600

Not that we should be playing cash games on Day 1 of our KBO experience, but if you are, here’s where we’re going to start our builds on the mound. Alcantara is not by any means your run of the mill strikeout pitcher, but he’s a name we’ve been familiar with in both the KBO and MLB. He threw 172.2 innings last year in his first season in the KBO pitching to a 4.01 ERA notching 100 K’s. The thing is, last year he pitched for the KT Wiz, a team who finished 71-71 and in sixth place. He’s moved on to bigger and better things and is pitching for the Doosan Bears, who are the league’s defending champs and the winners of the KBO in three-of-five seasons. Alcantara is a -172 favorite in the season opener and we should be racking up four extra win points by night's end, or morning, depending on which time zone you’re in.

Honorable Mention(s)

• Drew Rucinski, NC → $9,100

Value

Odrisamer Despaigne, KTW → $7,100

Although Despaigne left a sour taste in our mouths the last time we saw him on a major league mound, he has a chance to redeem himself in the KBO. He actually matches up with another former major leaguer in Dan Straily who opposes him tonight. KT Wiz are favorites here and the price tag is quite appealing. LOTTE, Despaigne’s opponents, finished dead last in the KBO last year winning just 48 games while posting a league worst .250 team average while also scoring the fewest runs. Value, value, value!

Warwick Saupold, HAN → $6,200

Saupold is priced this way due to the team he’s facing and how bad his team is, not because there’s been a lack of success in the KBO. In fact, he threw 192.1 innings during his rookie campaign in the KBO, which was second in the league. He also won 12 games and posted a very strong 3.51 ERA in a league with a rich offensive history. This price point is very hard to ignore and is worth taking a shot on in some tournaments.
 

Hitting Coach

Spend Up

Jose Fernandez & Jae Il Oh, DOO

Both of these dudes rake. Both are priced to the moon at $5.4K and $5.1K respectively but both were amongst the league leaders in almost all offensive categories last year. Fernandez hit .344 ranking him second in the league while Oh drove in 102 runs, slotting in fourth. Both are expensive, both are listed as first basemen, but Hernandez also has eligibility over at second so you could stack them if you wanted to and I’m suggesting you do if playing multiple lineups.

Aaron Altherr, OF NCD → $5,200

A familiar face! Welcome to the show, kid! Altherr had minor success in the big leagues and will look to get back on track in the KBO and has an exploitable match-up to kick the season off. Jung-hyun Baek is a 32-year old that pitches to a long of contact striking out just 82 batters across 157 innings last season. He also hasn’t pitched under a 4.24 ERA and his career began way back in 2007. He has served up 35 homers the last two seasons and Altherr has the righty-lefty advantage at the dish.

Jae-Gyun Hwang, 3B KTW -- $4,700

We want righties in the fold against Dan Straily. Straily allowed an OPS north of 1.300 to RHH in MLB last year. Hwang has a lot of power as he belted 20 bombs last year, ranking him 10th in the league in that category. Not to mention, 14 of those 20 came against righties.

Eui Ji Yang, C NCD → $4,500

Last year's KOB leader in average has a juicy match-up and should be one of the first people in our lineups. Yang hit .366 with a whopping 13 extra-base hits in 83 at-bats against left-handed pitching last year. He hits for power and average and can really do everything at the dish.

Han Joon Yoo, OF KTW → $4,200

We all know who Dan Straily is if we’ve played DFS baseball over the past few seasons because we were always stacking against him. That doesn’t change just because he joined up in the KBO. Right-handed batters hit .400 with an OPS north of 1.300 last year and Yoo had great success against righties last year hitting .306 belting seven of his 14 bombs against them to boot. I really like his price tag here and splits against right-handed pitching.

 Honorable Mention(s)

• Jong Wook Ko, OF SK → $4,500

• Mel Rojas Jr., OF KTW → $5,200

Value

Ha Seong Kim, SS KIW → $3,900

Kim definitely has a tough match-up, one of the toughest on the board, but he’s severely mispriced and is something we can still take advantage of despite his opponent. This is a guy who hit .307 with 19 home runs and 104 RBI while also swiping 33 bags. Just the sheer fact he could get on and give us multiple stolen bases is upside enough at a sub-$4K price tag.

Ah Seop Son, OF LOTT → $3,800

Son makes his season debut against former major leaguer Adrisamer Despaigne, who after six seasons in MLB, never figured out how to retire lefties. Lefties hit .295 with an .808 OPS in those six campaigns and Son is coming off a very respectable season batting .295 himself. Son can do multiple things offensively as he hit 10 home runs last year while also swiping 13 bags. Despaigne got lit up in his first game pitched in the KBO -- granted an exhibition -- allowing four runs on six hits in only 3.2 IP.

Kyung Su Park, 2B KTW → $3,200

He didn’t have a great season in the average department, but Park did his damage against right-handed pitching last year, racking up six of his 10 bombs and 40 of his 65 runs batted in against them. He’s a free square and we’re getting weird stacking against Straily here.

Ji Chan Kim, 2B/3B SAM → $2,300

Kim is making his debut with the team but has been serving as the leadoff hitter throughout their exhibition games. He’s led off in four of six and is being given to us for free. We do not know much about him, but leadoff hitters at this price in DFS will let us spend up elsewhere while getting someone who will get as much volume (at-bats) as anyone else.

Orion’s Belt

This section, named after my near three-month old son, will be our go-to stacks. Let’s dive in!

1) Doosan Bears → This is the easiest decision of the night. The LG Twins are without their two best pitchers tonight and as you can tell from the hitting coach, Doosan was a popular choice. They’re the reigning champions with offensive firepower galore. 

Members of stack: Jose Fernandez, Jae Il Oh, Soo Bin Jeong, Kyoung Min Heo

2) NC Dinos → With the addition of Aaron Altherr, the Dinos could have the most potent offense in the KBO. They face a pitcher who allows a lot of contact and traffic on the bases due to lack of control and put-away stuff. The Dinos are big favorites here and are the clear pivots off of the Doosan Bears.

Members of stack: Aaron Altherr, Eui Ji Yang, Suk Min Park, Chang Min Mo, Sung Bum Na

3) KT Wiz → Yeah yeah, we all can’t believe the great Dan Straily is moving over to the KBO. Obviously this is no MLB, but c’mon, the guy stunk the past few seasons. The Wiz have some big time boppers as they had five guys hit double-figure home runs last year during a season with a different ball, one doctored towards pitching. This will be contrarian for sure.

Members of stack: Mel Rojas Jr., Jae-Gyun Hwang, Han Joon Yo, Min Hyeok Kim, Kyung Su Park