What's up guys? Slate lock is 5:30 AM EST on Wednesday morning, so make sure those lineups are filled out! The KBO releases lineups about an hour before lock, sometimes earlier on their sites in case anyone was wondering.

Pitching Coach 

Spend Up

Young Ha Lee, DOO → $8,900

Although Doosan let us down in game number one, there is a reason they won the championship last year, three times in the last five years while finishing second the two times they didn’t win. Lee won a whopping 17 games last year and although he pitches to contact, he’s a -178 favorite here. He did walk 61 batters in 29 starts last year, which is a bit concerning, so we need him to find the strike zone here.

Eric Jokisch, KIW → $8,500

This right here is the most prolific strikeout pitcher we have on tomorrow morning’s slate. Jokisch struck out 141 opponents across 181.1 IP while posting a robust 3.13 ERA in 2019. Jokisch’s offense reigned supreme last night putting up 11 runs, which would be some nice run support here. Considering how heavy strikeouts weigh, it’s hard to ignore Jokisch as our top spend up.

Mike Wright, NCD → $7,700

I think this is the popular play of the night as the NC Dinos seem to be becoming a lot of people’s favorite team and fast. Is it because the beast of a mascot they have? Probably, but nevertheless, they looked impressive on Opening Day shutting out the Samsung Lions who had a .256 team average last year, the second worst in the league. Wright did not have success across five big league seasons, but across eight seasons in the minors, he pitched to a 3.85 ERA.

Value

William Cuevas, KTW → $7,200

The price point is what stands out right off rip. Secondly, Cuevas had a successful season winning 13 games while notching a 3.62 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. KT Wiz are also -150 favorites here, so that's the trifecta in my book. Again, like Greg Jewett pointed out in the KBO briefing on the site, “foreigners” ERA was significantly lower last season.

Ricardo Pinto, SK → $4,000

Pinto will be making his KBO debut as a starter here at min price. He has worked mostly out of the bullpen the last few seasons between the minors and majors, but has made 90 career minor league starts. He threw 125.2 IP between the AA, AAA and MLB last season so he should be stretched out enough to get us enough length to justify the play. They’re big favorites in this one to boot (-174).

Hitting Coach

Spend Up

Jeong Choi, 3B/SS SK → $5,900

Choi hit 29 bombs last year, which ranked second in the league. He’s extremely expensive, but gets a meeting with a pitcher in Joon-Seop Im posting a 1.7 WHIP. Choi is one of the best power hitters in the league and should be in a bunch of lineups considering all the value we have on the mound tonight.

Jose Fernandez, 1B/2B DOO → $5,800

Sure he made the hitting coach yesterday, but he now gets a really nice lefty-righty match-up here. He torched RHP last season belting 13 of his bombs against them while hitting .356 to boot. The Doosan offense is going to explode here.

Baek Ho Kang, OF KTW → $5,700

Kang was one of 10 players to go yard in the opener and once again has a good match-up here. Jun Won Seo, his opponent, pitched to a 5.47 ERA with an abysmal 1.6 WHIP while only striking out 60 batters across 97 innings. Kang hit 10-of-13 homers against RHP last season.

Byungho Park, 1B KIW → $4,800

Park went bingo-bango in the opener notching three hits as well, posting 24 DK lineups and showing up in almost every winning lineup. Park led the league with 33 homers last year and has gone for 30-plus in two straight. The power upside is very hard to ignore.

Eui Ji Yang, C NCD → $4,800

Yang was the league leader in batting average last year as well as OPS and is an elite offensive talent. He has hit .350 or better in back-to-back seasons and has only failed to hit under .300 once since 2015. This is one of the better spend up’s on the slate AND he’s not even 5K.

Jae Hwan Kim, 1B/OF DOO → $4,600

Doosan is going to be hard to ignore again tonight considering the JUICY match-up they have. Kim went deep in the opener and has the lefty-righty advantage in this spot. It wouldn’t surprise me to see it happen again here.

Honorable Mention(s):

  • Aaron Altherr, OF NCD → $5,700

  • Hyun Soo Kim, OF LG → $5,400

  • Jae Gyun Hwang, 3B KTW → $4,700

  • Kyoung Min Heo, 3B DOO → $4,300

Value

Ha Seong Kim, SS KIW → $4,000

For some reason, Kim is still priced the way he is and it’s something we should absolutely take advantage of. We’re talking about someone who went yard on Opening Day after posting a season with 19 HR, 104 RBI and 33 SB. No reason not to lock and load here if not spending up on Choi.

Sung Bum Na, OF NCD → $3,300 

The outfielder made our stacks section yesterday and went yack in game numero uno. He bats third for this potent offense and is even looking to advance to MLB, which would be a big step in his career. For that to happen, he needs to have a big 2020 campaign and is almost an auto-play at this price in this match-up.

Tae Kyun Kim, 1B HAN → $3,200

The Hanwha Eagles provide us with a lot of value on this slate. Kim led Hanwha last season batting .305 and although he doesn’t have a TON of pop, he gets on base a lot. 

Kwang Ming Song, 2B/3B HAN → $3,000

Song had three hits, two went for extra-bases and two runs scored in the opener and is batting in the heart of the Hanwha order. He’s only 3K and although I like Pinto on the other side of this game, he’s not untouchable.

Orion’s Belt

This section, named after my three-month old son, will be our go-to stacks! Enjoy!

1) KT Wiz → We documented the match-up the Wiz have tonight multiple times but in case you skipped right to this section, they’re facing a 19-year old pitcher coming off a season in which he posted a 5.47 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP. The Wiz are the top stack on my board.

Members of stack: Baek Ho Kang, Jae Gyun Hwang, Mel Rojas Jr., Han Joon Yo, Min Hyeok Kim

2) Doosan Bears → I didn’t change any of the teams I want to stack, just flipped the order a bit. Doosan is going to face off against Eun Beom Song, but it should mostly be a bullpen game for LG, which bodes well for Doosan. Last year's champs will bounce back from their Game 1 loss.

Members of stack: Jose Fernandez, Jae Hwan Kim, Kyoung Min Heo, Jae Ho Kim, Jae Il Oh

3) NC Dinos → The Dinos offense is going to be potent this year and they showed glimpses on opening night belting three homers. Although Ben Lively -- former major leaguer -- is starting, the Dino’s are good enough to give him all sorts of issues.

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