Last night’s slate, for me personally, was a helpful reminder of the power of sports in general, and baseball in particular, to distract during trying times. I assure you, if you take a three hour break from the news, Twitter, Facebook, and everything else to watch a baseball game, you’ll feel better for it. The only downside is coming back to realize how little moved on while you were gone. Make your KBO DFS picks and actually put the game on and enjoy it, thank me tomorrow.

KBO DFS Picks: DraftKings + FanDuel Hitters

Last night’s slate was a story of have and have nots. Gone were simply satisfactory performances of recent slates, in their place were large run totals or next-to-nothing. With half the KBO scoring three or fewer runs and the other half going over seven it was boom or bust time for KBO DFS players. Only one game was both high-scoring and close with the Bears and Wiz combining for 19 runs in an 11-8 Bears win. The Lions managed to shut out the Twins, winning 2-0. The other three games were lopsided affairs.

Four pitchers on last night’s slate went over 20 points on DraftKings, and a fifth was right on their heels with 18. The unexpected performance of the night for me had to be the Wyvern’s Seung-won Moon striking out 8 Dinos and allowing just a solo home run over six innings. That the Wyverns’ bullpen managed to hold on to the victory after his exit was a minor miracle in itself.

The bulk of this analysis comes directly from reviewing Awesemo’s KBO DFS projections and the top stacks tool. Check out the rest of our KBO content, Awesemo’s projections, rankings, and ownership on the site for all your KBO DFS needs.

As usual, I’m going to look game by game, calling out a hitter or two from each team, and giving some top stacking options as we go. Pricing and popularity will be considered, more so as KBO DFS trends begin to emerge over the coming weeks. The numbers included with Suggested Stack are the projected lineup positions I would target for stacking that team, but do not restrict yourself exclusively to those spots. For example, if it says Wyverns 3-6 it means 3,4,5,6 in the projected lineup. If it says 1-2-3-5 it means those guys. If it means a two-man it will say so. I’m also going to start trying to include positions more, hopefully it helps speed up the process of finding guys as you build lineups.

With lock still hours away (5:30am), official lineups have not been released, so be sure to double-check status before you plug players into your lineup.

Lotte Giants @ Kia Tigers – 8.5 run total (3.98/4.71) – Suggested Stack: Tigers 4-5-6

Riding a 4-4, five RBI, one run, one home run performance from Min-sang Yoo, the Tigers cruised last night in a 7-2 romp. Production could be found all over the Tigers lineup, with multiple runs and hits coming from most of the relevant bats going in. They got just enough from their starting pitcher to keep the Giants bats in check last night. The Giants could be in for more of the same tonight, drawing high-end Kia starter Hyung-jong Yang. Yang has a solid KBO track record and knows how to finish hitters off. The story doesn’t end there on Yang, however, looking back on his career his FIP has ended each season between half a run and two runs higher than his ERA, suggesting he gets a lot of help from defense on balls in play. The Giants lineup has several professional veteran hitters in it, if they can exercise patience and get on base, they could create opportunity, but their implied total is mostly keeping me off this one. The names aren’t surprising. My HR model loves Jun-woo Jeon ($14/$4.6k) again tonight, with a KBO-leading power rating. Awesemo’s projections are a bit more tepid, but he’s still the highest rated Giants bat. Using him in three-man stack would probably be the approach to take to them here, no major commitments to this lineup tonight. Most of these bats will have almost no ownership, Chi-hong An ($9/$2.9k) is in play from the middle and even Dixon Machado ($13/$4.8k) hitting low in the order is workable.

The Tigers bats just rolled last night; things could have been worse on the scoreboard in the end. Tonight, they draw import starter Adrian Sampson, which has their run total in the middle of the pack. They rank in the bottom three stacks on both sites tonight but are going slightly under-owned for even a bad spot here, and the jump from eighth to fifth in the stack rankings isn’t massive. It’s been a day or two since I mentioned him, but Ji-wan Na ($9/$3.3k) is a strong option in the heart of the Tigers offense. Na bats ahead of last night’s hero Min-sang Yoo ($7/$3.3k) and behind Hyung-woo Choi ($11/$5.2k), the trio could be a sneaky little three-man for KBO DFS players tonight.

Doosan Bears @ KT Wiz – 12.5 run total (6.70/6.07) – Suggested Stack: Bears 2-3-4-5-7

This is the big one tonight. With a whopping 12.5 run total and both teams implied over six runs, this should be a knockdown drag-out slugfest of a ballgame. That’s saying a lot for a game following an 11-8 deluge of runs and KBO DFS production last night, but we have two starters with current-year ERAs over 7.00 taking the mound tonight. Yong-chan Lee, the starter for the Bears, at least has a solid career track record that suggests a turnaround should be coming, if this is the real Hyeong-jun So remains to be seen. So did hold the Doosan lineup down in his first start, giving up only two runs but he’s looked awful in his three starts since. These offenses rank as the top two in Awesemo’s stack tool tonight, they’re going to be popular but probably necessary. On the Bears side we can take advantage of the positional flexibility and DraftKing’s steadfast refusal to increase some of their pricing. On FanDuel they’re slightly more difficult to roster but equally or more important. Kun-woo Park ($12/$3.6k) will be in play on both sites at lower ownership. As we’ve touched on previously, Park has a strong history of driving the ball in the gap and is an RBI machine in the right spot. Don’t sweat the lack of home run history, this is a guy who can produce without hitting the ball over the fence and he can help unlock unique Bears constructions along with the more obvious names. Mix and match Bears at will.

The Wiz had a night of their own last night, putting up eight runs and getting even more production from the indefatigable Mel Rojas Jr. ($15/$6.1k) who we must consider again tonight. The daunting thing about playing some Mel is his ownership which is north of 35% on both sites. The Wiz lineup has a few options that can help offset some of that burden on your construction. Jae-dae Bae ($8/$2.4k) remains cheap and capable and isn’t too popular. If sites have the same issue DraftKings (and I) had with his name last night, confusion could create opportunity. Options from one through seven should be in play here from a projection standpoint, and ninth hitter Min-hyeok Kim ($8/$) is almost un-owned but has table-setting speed as an “alternate leadoff hitter” from the bottom of the lineup in a wraparound. Game-stacking with this game is likely to be popular tonight, but the sheer workable numbers of builds make it viable.

SK Wyverns @ NC Dinos – 10.0 run total (4.70/6.04) – Suggested Stack: Dinos 1-3-4-5-6

Crisis alert! The ESPN power rankings lowered the mighty Dinos to second in the league after last week’s mediocre performance. ESPN KBO insider Daniel Kim explained that the rationale was more about the Dinos’ bullpen rather than anything with their impressive bats, as the now-first-ranked Twins have the KBO’s only bullpen ERA under four. Then the Dinos responded to the demotion with a flat 8-2 loss to the rolling Wyverns. Suddenly winners of five straight, the Wyverns will look to keep things in gear against a young lefty making his first start of 2020. My HR model was popping for Jamie Romak ($11/$5.4k) once again today, and Jeong Choi ($14/$4.5k) joins him a few spots later in the lineup, creating a playable stack that would include some mix of Eui-yoon Jeong ($7/$2.5k), Jin-gi Jeong ($9/$3.6k), and leadoff hitter Soo-kwang Noh ($6/$3.1k). The bad news is those are the most popular names on this team. It’s just not a spot I’m in love with tonight.

So I talked them up and they land with a splat. It happens. The Dinos lineup is in another prime spot tonight, and KBO DFS players should pay attention as their ownership numbers have slipped slightly. I’m happy to let others walk away from these guys while I go back for more. The implied total is the only one on the slate that is both over six and also not part of the Doosan-KT game, but they’re trending for half the ownership of each of those squads tonight. Factoring in the match-up against a guy making his second career start and seventh appearance at age 25 and this one starts to gleam with appeal. Jin-hyuk No ($9/$3.4k) is the Swiss Army knife in the pocket of this lineup. Hitting sixth in an RBI spot, inexpensive, under-owned, and eligible at both middle-infield spots on DraftKings? No can drive the ball enough to give us a ton of upside there. Include him in stacks with Min-woo Park ($13/$4.7k) and Sung-bum Na ($16/$5.3k) who both slipped below 20% ownership despite being two critical bats in the best offense in the league. This lineup is one I’m going to build out fully, and there are great options to get to unique contrarian constructions with quality upside.

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Samsung Lions @ LG Twins – 8.5 run total (3.61/5.01) – Suggested Stack: Twins 1-5

A surprise pitcher’s duel last night and a suppressed run total again tonight has these two teams ranked low in the stack tool, but KBO DFS picks fans who have been reading regularly know I love me some Twins and I’ll probably force some in in spite of projections and better judgment. Follow at your own peril. The Lions, on the other hand, I think we can all agree are just not a strong option tonight against import ace Casey Kelly. With an implied run total more than three full runs (!) lower than the Bears, and two and a half runs below two other options, what are we hoping for beyond a variance play? If that’s your plan I would probably play it as safe as possible with stacks focused around a core including Won-seok Lee ($8/$3.6k), Hak-ju Lee ($6/$3.4k), and Lions’ home run column pick Dong-yeop Kim ($9/$2.9k).

I really didn’t expect to be a Twins fan at any point in my life. Even the idea of the “…and twins!” ads from years ago, sure that’s two pretty girls for you but what is it you’re asking of those sisters and their relationship in those commercials, Coors? Anyway, these Twins are a ton of fun most of the time but went pop on us yesterday. Young Yoon-dong Heo (that phrase still doesn’t click with my English-speaking brain, that took 14 minutes to type) is making his second start and is still only 18 years old. He had a KBO-strong outing against Lotte in his debut, but he did walk four and allow four hits while using 97 pitches to only strike out one batter over five innings. That suggests there was some luck involved. Against Lotte he can get away with a game like that, if he puts up that type of performance against the Twins we could see fireworks. It’s helpful on DraftKings that they decided to write a fairly glowing report about his previous start in his player notes, potentially suppressing the popularity of Twins bats and maybe driving his up at an extremely low pitching price. Bob “He Said it was OK to Call Him Bob Now” Ramos ($17/$4.2k) was the homer model’s choice du jour for the Twins but he’s not sneaking up on anyone. The rest of you aren’t playing these other bats that much, so I’ll get on options like Hyun-soo Kim ($14/$5.6k) and Min-Sung Kim ($9/$4.2k) both of whom have demonstrable ability to hit the ball out of the park and drive in runs over their KBO careers.

Kiwoom Heroes @ Hanwha Eagles – 9.5 run total (4.98/4.72) – Suggested Stack: Heroes 2-6

Have you ever had one of those nights where you thought you had all the right guys in your KBO DFS lineup, the teams you stacked went off, the pitching mostly came through, and you ended up disappointed? That’s how I felt last night, but I can’t blame the Heroes, I just put them together in the wrong order. The bats came though in a big way, hanging a whopping 15 on the awful Eagles. The Heroes get Warwick “Brightspot” Saupold tonight, though, so it might be asking too much for them to repeat that performance. Oddsmakers agree, pushing their implied team total below five runs. The Heroes rank fourth in the stack tool but because of the matchup they are drawing lower ownership than they deserve, going back to them could be a reasonable somewhat contrarian move. There’s enough sparsity of ownership that anything is in play if you mix and match a bit. I’ll never criticize a Byung-ho Park ($12/$4.7k) play, and Keon-chang Seo ($11/$3.4k) is the same quality option with some positional flex. Woong-bin Kim ($5/$2.0k) is carrying a playable projection and fits into the batting order with the more popular guys, at four percent projected ownership at either 2b or 3b on DraftKings he makes a sharp play on DraftKings again after a big game last night.

Someone in our Awesemo KBO DFS picks Slack channel (aka “Baseball”) asked about the pitch count for the Heroes’ starter tonight. He’s making his debut as a starter after very limited KBO relief action, but has spent time on the Heroes’ developmental team, so he’s a kid they want to bring along. He is expected to be limited tonight, but I haven’t been able to find a number on it. If I had to guess I would say anything over 60-65 pitches would be a surprise given the news we know at this point. That said, his name is Young-gun Jo…. how do we not at least consider a guy with that handle against the worst team in the league? Nobody wanted to roster Eagles bats last night, and I still don’t. Even in what could be a good spot they only rank in the middle of Awesemo’s stack tool, and no block of players in the batting order stands out as appealing. There’s not much to love outside of yesterday’s picks (Hoying, Sung-yeol Lee, Yong-kyu Lee, and Eun-won Jung), but if you have to bolt someone onto that list Kwang-min Song ($9/$4.3k) is your best bet from a later RBI spot and carrying under 2% ownership.