KBO DFS: Previewing the slate for May 16

KBO DFS on DraftKings is back. I will be covering the weekend slates this season and each KBO article will be free. If you like this article, make sure you check out all of our daily MLB DFS coverage from the best team in the industry. DraftKings is offering a five-game KBO slate Sunday, with lock set for 12:58 a.m. ET. I am here to give you my top KBO DFS pitchers and some stacks to consider.

KBO reminders:

• Only 10 teams in the KBO, so these teams will play each other 16 times. Games are played daily in series of 2-3, with an off day Monday (our Sunday night). 
• Each team can have up to three foreign players, with a maximum of two foreign pitchers. Majority of these players are former MLB and MiLB players. 
• One of the biggest advantages is waking up 30 minutes before lock and checking weather and starting lineups (especially during the week when games start at 5:30 a.m. ET). Starting lineups don’t come out until 30 minutes before lock. Having a plan for quick pivot options and glancing at weather updates is key.
• Please make sure to check my twitter (@DFSchaser) for more thoughts and any updates as the day progresses. Starting pitchers are only projected and could change from the time this article is written to when teams make announcements. 
• Rain and PPD Updates: Check KBO’s official twitter page and/or the weather 30 minutes prior to lock (just set your Weather Channel app to Seoul, South Korea, and overlay using this map, courtesy of batflipsandnerds.com, to look at which games are likely to play).

Slate note: Lots of quality starting pitching options on this slate as the top arms for each team are still on a similar pitching day schedule. In addition to listing two cash arms, I ranked my top six options that would make up my pitching player pool. DraftKings took away the big contests, but if you are going to enter multiple lineups I would use a combination of these six. There is also rain to deal with again on Sunday in South Korea. If playing cash and you want to be safe, roster both pitchers from the Hanwha Eagles vs. Kiwoom Heroes game who will be playing in a dome. 

Starting pitcher cash options

1. Ryan Carpenter (HAN) — Carpenter checks in as the most expensive pitcher on this slate, but he is also my highest projected raw points option. He is pitching indoors, which with the uncertain weather in South Korea tonight is a huge piece of my projections and reason to roster him in cash games. He owns the highest K/9 rate of the starting pitchers at 9.61 and second-lowest WHIP (1.22). He faces my Kiwoom Heroes who have a few healthy weapons on their roster, but overall have underperformed this season offensively.
2. Drew Rucinski (NCD) — Rucinski has definitely had a few poor starts early in this season (and that does scare me a little bit), but the velocity on his fastball is up from last year (which makes his cutter more effective as an out pitch) and he has a great matchup against the KIA Tigers who are third worst in the league and don’t have anyone on their roster with an OPS over .800 (with at least 100 PA). Rucinski also has one of the lowest HR/9 rates in the league amongst starting pitchers (.225), 2nd highest K/9 (9.23) and lowest FIP on this slate (3.17).

GPP options 

• Dan Straily (LOT) — I love this price on Straily.! Opens up your roster to another top bat. 
• Daniel Mengden (KIA) — Has been pitching incredibly well in his first season in the KBO and brings a 9.08 K/9 into Sunday’s matchup (ninth in the league amongst qualified starters), but has a really tough matchup against the NC Dinos. Should have almost no ownership with the matchup. 
• William Cuevas (KTW) — This is a longshot here, but Cuevas draws a great matchup against the last place Lotte Giants. His fastball has lost a few ticks since going overseas, but his slider looked really good in his last outing when he struck out six Samsung Lions in five innings. He sneakily has the fifth-best K/9 rate on the slate at 7.43 (which is surprisingly better than Eric Jokisch).

Starting pitcher rankings 

1. Ryan Carpenter — pitching indoors
2. Drew Rucinski
3. Daniel Mengden
4. Dan Straily 
5. Won Joon Choi
6. Eric Jokisch — pitching indoors

Team hitting stack rankings

1. Doosan Bears
2. LG Twins  
3. Samsung Lions

Short team stack list, but I don’t see any reason to get cute on this slate. Batters in the chart below (top 10 OPS) are always in play if you can afford them. 

OPS leaders (min. 100 plate appearances)

Data from Fangraphs.com