KBO & NPB Dongers Club – June 26th
This article is for the KBO slate and has notes on the NPB slate as well. Good news there is no bad weather anticipated for Friday’s games. Slate locks at the regular 5:30 AM EST time and is full (5 games). PITCHERS Dan Straily He got PPD and pushed back again which gives a slight pause to consider fading him due to pitchers just being creates of habit but then we realize he’s facing Samsung and they are one of the better teams to target with pitching. Only 12 of the Lions 40 home runs as a team have come on the road this season. Combined with Straily’s incredible strike out rate makes him too hard to pass up because even if he doesn’t rack up the strikeouts for some reason, he shouldn’t give up damage against Samsung. He’s chalk we will eat. Warwick Saupold He’s been a lone half way decent bright spot for the Eagles this year. I know KT Wiz have been on fire but this park has shown to play very well for pitching and at $1300 more than his opponent Heyong Jun So, we’re finding a nice SP pivot which is needed with the 80%+ owned Straily as SP1. Casey Kelly Too pricey for my liking today, the $500 over Saupold isn’t enough for me to go with him, but he’s someone I project to get in the 16-18 point range today and is likely the 2nd highest owned pitcher going after Straily with Heyong Jun So being third highest. KBO STACKS Doosan Bears … The marquee match-up this weekend will be the Dino’s and Bears going at it in Doosan’s home park. A great spot to target for offense is quite the understatement, especially with the pitchers on the bump for Friday night. Hard to argue with the Bears 1-4 right now as all four are over 10 PPG in their last 5. Really like the lefties in this spot. Jose Fernandez, Joo Hwan Choi, Jae Hwan Kim, Jae Il Oh LG Twins … Remember when Roberto Ramos was dirt cheap and homered every day? Feels like forever ago. Well he gets to beat up on a righty who has been hit really hard (.243 ISO) by lefties this season. The Twins project to start four lefties at the top of their order and Ramos/Hyun Soo Kim would be the two power bats to benefit the most. Hyun Soo Kim, Roberto Ramos KIA Tigers … The other game to look at for offense is between the Tigers and Heroes. Preston Tucker has been a machine on weekends, but hasn’t done anything since … wait for it … last Friday. With a day off yesterday I expect Tucker to bounce back and have a nice weekend. Preston Tucker, Ji Wan Na, Ho Ryung Kim HR Calls: Hyun-Soo Kim, Preston Tucker, Jae-Il Oh NPB Slate for Friday I really enjoy the NPB and it’s a shame the first night snuck up on us and it had so much overlay because DraftKings didn’t prepare anyone for it. I believe it could grow, but really if you want to build on a small bankroll this is a good spot to go instead of KBO. PITCHER RANKINGS This is a loaded pitching slate and one to pay up for. You cannot afford on the NPB slates to miss when there’s multiple pitchers going for 25 points. There’s just not enough bats in your lineup to make up the difference between one pitcher getting 25 and yours getting 10 or 12. On FanDuel for MLB you can get away with missing a little on pitcher because the 8 hitters and weighted scoring system towards hitters makes it easier to catch-up a gap. On DK with two pitchers sometimes you can make up scoring with SP2 and the extra two hitters. But with so few spots in your lineup you just cannot afford to get cute and in a pitching dominated league like this, we gotta get over 20 tonight or you won’t cash anywhere. Shota Imanaga (YOK) vs Tigers .. Looks like the best strike-otu upside on the slate and is affordable at only $10,900. The Tigers lineup is mostly lefties as well which gives him a nice LvL boost — including Justin 0 for 4 Bour. Tomoyuki Sugiano (YOM) … Heavy favorite but drawing a game on the road against a team with some power in the Swallows. Coming off a great first game of the season he should rack up strikeouts but is at risk for giving up HR. Takahiro Norimoto (TOH) … Expecting a pitchers duel between the Fighters and Eagles — he’s at home which to me is a nice boost. OFFENSE Unlike pitching, offense to me is fairly clear cut and the spot to go all in with a couple teams on today IMO. Giants — Sakamoto and Okamoto are on fire and both homered again yesterday. Throw in Yoshihiro Maru as a third bat. Lions — Yamakawa, Mori, Nakamura, Tonosaki One off bats Masataka Yoshida (ORI) Tetsuto Yamada (YAK) Yuki Yanagita (FUK) Neftali Soto (YOK) Seiya Suzuki (HIR)
KBO – Dongers Club – 6/23
I am splitting up the KBO and NPB articles because I want to keep them apart. It’s just an organization thing to keep the thoughts on one league within an article and the other in a different one. Truthfully, because
Dongers Club – Sun June 21st (NPB/KBO)
Happy advanced Fathers Day to all of us Dad’s. Japan Baseball slate begins at MIDNIGHT tonight! Good news is that DraftKings has finally started to pay attention and is now showing probable pitchers for the games. I really believe these
Dongers Club – Sat 6/20
Well the NPB slate last night was a disaster because I picked the ONE pitcher who you didn’t wanna have on opening day. But my initial gut reaction is that I like the NPB because it’s closer to MLB – but
The Dongers Club – Fri 6/19
Well, this is going to be interesting. I said I would come to you with a combined breakdown between the KBO (Korea) and the NPB (Japan) leagues which start 30 minutes apart on DraftKings on Friday morning. Hey, if you
The Dongers Club – Thu Jun 18
Article / Content Announcement The NPB (Japanese Baseball) league will begin play this Friday. DraftKings has already posted a slate which begin’s at 5:00 AM on Friday morning and will have some names you recognize like Matt Moore, Adam Jones,
KBO Dongers Club – Tue 6/16
Back to a full five game slate kicking things off on Tuesday A.M. and back to the 5:30 EST grind. No rain or weather issues expected. PITCHING Very very deep pitching slate. Eric Jokisch (Kiwoom Heroes – $9,700) … Coming off a lesser performance and facing a team not great against lefties and not very explosive of late team in the Lotte Giants. Over 20% K rate against everyone and should be in line for a nice 6 inning, 6 strikeout performance Chan Heong Jung (LG Twins – $6,500) … I think he gets overlooked because of Jokisch and Alcantara but I really think he’s underpriced at only $6,500. The last two starts have been extremely good and he’s your next up in line to face the bad Hanwha Eagles. Raul Alcantara (Doosan Bears – $7,900) … Equally as good as the other two choices and unlike Chan Heong Jung he is at home and has a lower walk/WHIP rate but lower strike-out rate as well. HITTING STACKS Doosan Bears SK Wyverns … LG Twins … Probably your chalkiest team on this slate along with Doosan. I prefer SK paired with Doosan or SK paired with LG. POSITIONAL TARGETS Catcher Eui Ji Yang is always a no-brainer play but is not worth an extra $1100 over Dong Won Park (KIW) or Kang Nam Yoo (LG). My pick today is Dong Won Park First Base It’s hard to list Doosan first and then not have a Doosan 1B play and that’s the obvious play here today. Four different lefty options against a lefty pitcher might drive some idiots away. Don’t be that person. Jae Hwan Kim has a .264 ISO against LHP this year and batting in the middle of the order is my guy Second Base Keon Chang Seo continues to lead off for Kiwoom and is one pivot off Jose Fernandez/Joo Hwan Choi from the Bears but I like Min Woo Park as a Dino one off. Third Base Jeong Choi, lock in. Shortstop Jae Ho Kim for Doosan has averaged 8.6 PPG over his last five and is only $2,600. Outfield The SK Wyverns stack has to include guys like Romak, Ko and Jeong if you are playing them. That’s my favorite GPP play on this slate. Doosan: Kun Woo Park / Jae Hwan Kim LG: Hyun Soo Kim, Eun Sung Chae SK: Jamie Romak / Jong Wook Ko / Eui Yoon Jeong CHAIRMAN Jamie Romak – 1B/OF – SK Wyverns
KBO Dongers Club
UPDATE: DraftKings removed the Hanwha game from the slate. Utter disaster. I won’t be playing KBO today. The Doosan Bears and Hanwha Eagles game on Saturday morning was suspended after the third inning due to rain. They are going to be continuing this game at 1:00 AM EST on Sunday morning and then playing their regularly scheduled game at 4:00 AM EST. All other games are slated to begin at that same time so we have a 4:00 AM slate (which is the WORST!) but all five games going at the same time and most likely with ZERO rain issues. There is some heavy wind however in the Tigers/Wyverns game that could boost offense for lefties slightly. PITCHING Warwick Saupold – Hanwha Eagles, $9,200 Simple law of averages on this one. It’s essentially a Sunday double header and the Eagles are going to finally get their win today behind Saupold who always pitches deep and with it being a DH day, should be relied upon to go very deep again today. Good chance Doosan rests some hitters in the second game too, so that upside plays in here as well. Hyun Jong Yang – Kia Tigers, $9,800 I mentioned a little wind in this game left to right but with a lefty pitcher that should not be an issue as much and the Wyverns don’t have much power on the left side anyways. So unless Jeong Choi or Jamie Romak wanna take Yang oppo-taco, he should not be bothered there. Only Jamie Romak is the scare for me in the Wyverns lineup, so Yang lets take the near 20% strikeout Yang and move on. Casey Kelly – LG Twins, $8,900 Kelly and Yang are 2a and 2b for me. I like both but Kelly faces the up and down Giants so I have him ranked a little lower because of a higher risk. STACKS TO PLAY Heroes vs Dinos Kiwoom went off on Saturday on the Dino’s and this is another terrific game, but we have to lean back to the Dino’s side somewhat. No doubt this game gets a ton of chalk because of the Vegas odds and chasing the results from the day before. Key Players: Min Woo Park – OF (Dinos) Byung Ho Park – 1B (Heroes) KT Wiz – Contrarian Tae-In Won might look good, but he’s still just in his second season and faces the Wiz for the second time this year — they were one team to do well against him. His low K% makes me like the Wiz to do some damage. Key Players: Mel Rojas Jr – OF … Heating up. Baek Ho Kang – 1B Han Joon Yoo – OF LG Twins – Favorite 5 MAN Stack This is the only spot to look at a 5 man stack today in my mind, because if you go heavy on a team you don’t wanna do it on the chalky Heroes/Dinos in my mind when the Twins can easily destroy Adrian “Overated” Sampson. Key Players: Hyun Soo Kim – OF Yong Taik Park – OF Min Sun Kim – 3B POSITIONAL BREAKDOWN Full Dashboard for player ratings here.
KBO Dongers Club – Sat June 13th
Information you should know. Today’s games at first glance had some weather concerns but as of now (5PM Eastern’ish) it looks like they will all give it a go. There is one double header as the Wiz and Lions are playing a 1:00 AM game followed up by the make-up game from Friday after that. Here’s a list of players who are nursing injuries to monitor Hyung Woo Choi (Tigers) Jung Hoo Lee (Heroes) Ji Hwan Oh (Twins) Note: Roberto Ramos is now on IL PITCHING Ki Young Im (Kia Tigers – $7,600) … My man. My man. My man. This will be his first time going up against the Wyverns this season and he’s been very good against much better competition. One of the pitchers I have started to follow closely is Im and he’s impressed me enough to make him my top arm on this mediocre pitching slate. Odrisamer Despaigne (KT Wiz – $8,400) … Not only does he draw the Lions who are banged up, shuffling their lineup around and projected to start a bunch of trashy hitters, but he also happens to be the highest strikeout arm going today when we look at long term stats. As a bonus in my mind he is coming off his lowest outing of the season after doing well prior to that, so there’s strong trend in my mind for him to bounce back with a 20+ point performance today on DK. Third pitcher to consider: Woo Chan Cha (LG Twins) Chalk Fade Hui Kwan Yu (Doosan Bears – $7,700) … Not someone we can expect upside from with a very low strike-out rates, but why not pick on the team who hasn’t won in weeks in the Hanwha Eagles? Unfortunately this slate doesn’t give us a ton of other options to feel safe about and so this is where we see a player with limited upside still gain about 50% ownership today. Shouldn’t kill you, but someone I see no value in playing in a tournament. STACKS KIA Tigers … If only the ballpark was better. I dont want to over emphasize batter/pitcher splits but Ho Ryung Kim has been pretty good leading off and has raked against RHP so far. Add on that Seung Won Moon struggling against RH batters this season and he should be a no brainer leading off at $3,500. Ho Ryung Kim (OF) Preston Tucker (OF) Ji Wan Na (OF) Hyung Woo Choi (1B) – Day to day. Seung Taek Han (C) NC Dino’s … They get a RHP who is better than people think but … well, he’s not good enough to dominate the Dino’s forever. Some guys that leap off the page for me today include Eui Ji Yang off a weak chalk spot last night and of course Sung Bum Na / Aaron Altherr who has seemingly raked every weekend this season. Eui Ji Yang (C) Sung Bum Na (OF) Aaron Altherr (OF) POSITIONAL TARGETS Catcher Eui Ji Yang – Dinos Seung Taek Han – Tigers Dong Won Park – Heroes First Base – Not in love with this position outside of Baek Ho Kang, but he’s $6,100. Needs more than just the auto HR he’s gonna get. Baek Ho Kang – Wiz Yoon Seok Oh – Giants Second Base Min Woo Park – Dinos Jose Fernandez – Bears Third Base Suk Min Park – Dinos Ji Hyuk Ryu – Tigers Min Sung Kim – Twins Shortstop Ha Seong Kim – Heroes … Probably the best infielder to spend up on in my mind. Ji Hwan Oh – Twins – Questionable Outfield … This is where your hitting $ gets spent today. Ho Ryung Kim (OF) Sung Bum Na / Aaron Altherr – Dinos Preston Tucker – Tigers Kun Woo Park – Bears Keep an eye on: Hyun Soo Kim … Is really lost right now at the plate, but in a great spot to turn things around. THE CHAIRMAN OF THE DONGERS CLUB Ho Ryung Kim – OF – Tigers
KBO Dongers Club – Fri 6/12
The weekend will kick off with some potential weather issues. This appears to be one of those situations where most games are impacted by some wide spread potential rain. The KBO historically leaves Monday’s open for not only off days