KBO Pitching Picks for 5/16/2020
⚾️ Last night was a bit of a struggle with a last minute rain out before lock and a tough pitching slate. Today is not much better with pitching options, but I have highlighted my favorite plays of the slate tonight, all of which have massive upside.
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Pitchers I like for 5/16
Pitchers are sorted by DraftKings price. Each pitcher breakdown will include name, team, price (DK | FD respectively), matchup (opposing offense league rank), notes and format. We will keep things brief again today and focus only on my favorite high-upside plays for the slate. * indicates LHP.
Warwick Saupold
Team: LOT @ HAN
Price: $9,700 | $27
Matchup: BA (3rd) | OPS (4th) | SO (9th (2nd fewest)) | BB (4th)
Notes: Ranks out as our top projected guy on both websites tonight but faces a tougher matchup with the Lotte Giants who rank pretty well across the board. Saupold has looked good in both his starts though and there are not many good options on this slate today. He has just 7 strikeouts in 15 innings this year and LOT isn’t striking out much. I think this is pretty risky, and he’s expensive but he can pay off and it’s hard to ignore the top projection from our Research Station
Format: GPP
Yong Chan Lee (CORE)
Team: DOO @ KIA
Price: $8,500 | $23
Matchup: BA (7th) | OPS (10th) | SO (1st) | BB (1st)
Notes: Doosan has been on fire and he will be popular likely because of his matchup. KIA ranks near last in all categories so far this season. Lee was able to fan 1 guy per inning last start and after giving up 3 early, he settled down but then gave up 3 more that scored after he let them on base in the 7th inning. Lee was good last year posting a 2.48 ERA while striking out 7.8 batters per 9 innings He had a very low WHIP too. With the power offense in DOO, he should be able to get the win tonight. KIA didn’t fare well last year against RHP either. KIA is also striking out the most in the league so far this season averaging 7.5 K/game.
Format: CORE
Kyun Eun Noh
Team: LOT @ HAN
Price: $7,700 | $22
Matchup: BA (6th) | OPS (7th) | SO (2nd) | BB (9th)
Notes: Going to throw away his first start of the season as he has such a fantastic matchup here tonight. HAN is struggling to score runs right now and are striking out a bunch while barely walking. They have one of the lowest OPS so far this year and 74 K’s through their first 10 games. Last year, Noh finished his last 5 starts with just a 2.05 ERA and in 2019 HAN had the highest K% on the slate today while having a wOBA of just .313. He’s close to a 2nd core for me, but I want to leave my SP2 options open on a bad pitching slate.
Format: ALL
Min Kim
Team: SAM @ KTW
Price: $7,500 | $20
Matchup: BA (9th) | OPS (9th) | SO (2nd) | BB (3rd)
Notes: Risky, risky play here with Kim, but he has such a fantastic matchup and I doubt people play him after his awful start in his first start this year. I am going to take that with a little grain of salt as he faced Doosan, who have been the best team in the league so far this year. Looking back to 2019, Samsung did not fair all that well against RHP and this is more of the fact that SAM has not been doing that well this year. This is extremely risky again, but he could pay off if he is able to put together a semi-strong outing at home here
Format: GPP
Young Gyu Kim
Team: NCD @ SK
Price: $6,200 | $24
Matchup: BA (10th) | OPS (10th) | SO (4th) | BB (8th)
Notes:I do not like his price on FD at all, but I do have interest in his price on DK here as a decent SP2 option. He will probably get forgotten as he posted a 1.6 WHIP in his first start. he was able to strike out 4 hitters though in 5 innings of work. SK ranks dead last in BA and OPS early on this season and did not fare that much better last year. They are striking out a bunch too and not taking too many walks. I like Kim here as a salary saving option to pay up for some more bats on the slate tonight. I can see him going 5-6 innings here with 6 K’s and scoring well for his price on DK.
Format: VALUE (really like for SP2 savings)
Glossary
OPS (On-base plus Slugging)
SO (Strikeout)
K/9 (Strikeouts per 9 innings)
BB (Walk)
ERA (Earned Run Average)
WHIP (Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched)
QS (Quality Start)
IP (Inning Pitched)
ER (Earned Run)
R (Run)
DK (DraftKings)
FD (FanDuel)
KBO (Korean Baseball Organization)
LHP (Left Handed Pitcher)
BABIP (Batting Average Balls in Play)
Chalky – High Ownership
