And we're back on track today in examining the various eccentricities of each of the primary daily fantasy sites, their roster structures, scoring systems, and the types of players that are most useful for each particular site. Today is FantasyAces day, and quirky roster construction is the topic du jour. Previous Profiles: FanDuel | DraftKings | Draft Day | Fan Throwdown

FantasyAces Profile

Uniqueness: 3rd (Hitting), 5th (Pitching) Scoring System Quirkiness: 8th (Hitting), 6th (Pitching) Roster Quirkiness: 1st Pitching Premium: 2nd FantasyAces is the newest of the eight sites we talk about here at DFSEdge, but they are definitely not the least of them.  FantasyAces has come on strong this year and proven themselves a worthy daily site selection, going as far as to reach an agreement with Pablo Sandoval to promote their games. Uniqueness Uniqueness is a measure of how differently players score on a particular site relative to the average daily site. Uniqueness serves as a good estimate for how much your strategy needs to change when playing on a given site. (Note: Pitching Uniqueness only includes starting pitchers despite some sites utilizing relievers.)

Site	Hitting Uniqueness
DraftKings	3.7%
	3.6%
FantasyAces	2.9%
	2.7%
	2.6%
Fan Throwdown	2.5%
FanDuel	2.2%
DraftDay	1.7%

Aside from DraftKings, Fantasy Aces receives the highest Hitting Uniqueness score we've seen to this point, although it's well below the top two and just barely at the top of a big cluster in the middle.  It's also middle of the road in terms of Pitching Uniqueness, but it definitely seems like there will be some ways to exploit the pre-established perceptions of hitters that people bring with them into their FantasyAces games.  Let's take a look. Scoring System Quirkiness (Hitting) Scoring System Quirkiness is a measure of how much a given site's scoring system differs relative to the average daily site. Since sites award points on different scales (i.e. DraftDay gives 20 points for a HR; FanDuel gives 4 points for a HR), category values are listed in relative terms (all relative to the number of points awarded for a home run -- so if a single is worth 1 point and a home run is worth 4 points, the value of a single is said to be 25 percent.)

Category	FantasyAces	Average
1B	25%	26%
2B	50%	50%
3B	75%	76%
HR	100%	100%
RBI	25%	31%
R	25%	27%
BB	25%	22%
SB	50%	50%
CS	Not Used	-12%
HBP	13%	20%
K	-6%	-5%
GIDP	Not Used	-4%
SAC	Not Used	2%
Out	-6%	-3%

Despite a high Hitting Uniqueness score, FantasyAces actually turns in the lowest Hitting Quirkiness score among all sites studied.  As we've discussed before, while the two are correlated, it's far from a perfect correlation since all categories are weighted equally for Quirkiness (and categories are essentially weighted by importance for Uniqueness). FantasyAces pretty much toes the line when it comes to the categories they use and their valuation of said categories.  The biggest thing to note is their use of both strikeouts and generic outs.  Half the sites use each, but FantasyAces is the only to use both in combination.  This makes high-strikeout players less valuable and high-OBP hitters more valuable, although the effects of this aren't huge.  For the most part, you can play FantasyAces with your preconceptions about players and not have to make many adjustments due to the scoring system. Scoring System Quirkiness (Pitching) Scoring System Quirkiness is a measure of how much a given site's scoring system differs relative to the average daily site. Since sites award points on different scales (i.e. StarStreet gives 15 points for a win while DraftStreet gives just 1.5 points for a win), category values are listed in relative terms (all relative to the number of points awarded for a win).

Category	FantasyAces	Average
W	100%	100%
Outs	10%	13%
K	20%	30%
ER	-20%	-31%
H	-5%	-8%
BB	-5%	-8%
HBP	-5%	-7%
SV	Not Used	38%
BS	Not Used	-10%
CG	Not Used	26%
SH	Not Used	14%
L	-40%	-15%
No No	Not Used	22%
PG	Not Used	6%

FantasyAces' scoring system isn't much more quirky in terms of pitching than it is with hitting.  It's near the bottom with a few notable quirks.  You'll first notice that all of the non-Win/Loss categories are given less weight than the average site.  This increases the relative value of the Win, and Losses are weighted nearly three times more than the eight-site average.  This means that you'll want to make sure to target pitchers on teams that offer good offensive support.  A win can make your day and a loss can kill it for you. While good pitchers generally win more games, you can place a little more emphasis on the offensive support than on pitcher quality since you will be penalized less for earned runs than you will on other sites.  That means not being afraid (or at least not as afraid) to start guys like Jake Westbrook or Martin Perez if they have good matchups. You also see that strikeouts are worth less in FantasyAces games, although walks are too, which balances it out a bit.  You can give a small bonus toward low-strikeout, low-walk pitchers, but it's almost not worth worrying about. Roster Quirkiness Roster Quirkiness is a measure of how the roster structure of a given site differs from the average daily site.

Position	FantasyAces	Average
C	1	1
1B	0	0.4
1B/DH	0	0.5
3B	0	0.9
1B/3B	2	0.3
2B	0	0.9
SS	0	0.9
2B/SS	2	0.3
OF	3	3.0
U	1	0.8
SP	1	1.4
P	0	0.6
Total	10	10.8

Finally we reach somewhere that FantasyAces stands out from the pack.  Quirky roster construction. FantasyAces is far and away the quirkiest site when it comes to their roster structure.  While every other site has you pick one player at each of the infield positions, Fantasy Aces lumps the corners and middles together, asking you to select two from each group regardless of which position they actually play.  Like two first basemen and no third basemen today?  No problem.  This raises the relative value of first and second basemen (the least scarce positions of each group) and lowers the relative value of third basemen and shortstops. Fantasy Aces is also unique in that it's one of just two sites to use just one pitcher.  This makes getting the right pitcher absolutely essential and further accentuates the importance of Wins and Losses.  If you're pitcher gets the loss, he doesn't have a compadre to bail you out.  This also makes it important to get your hitting right, since they account for more of your score in FantasyAces games. Pitching Premium Pitching Premium is a measure of how valuable each pitcher spot is relative to each hitter spot based on each site’s scoring system. So on Fan Throwdown, for example, the average pitcher is 47 percent more valuable than the average hitter.

Site	Pitching Premium
	76%
FantasyAces	75%
FanDuel	71%
DraftKings	62%
DraftDay	49%
Fan Throwdown	47%
	34%
	25%

Like FanDuel last week (the only other site to use just one pitcher), FantasyAces makes up for it by pumping up the value of their pitcher with a high Pitching Premium. Still, hitters outnumber pitchers 9-to-1, which is the most extreme hitter-to-pitcher ratio among all sites (FanDuel was 8-to-1), so if you hope to win on FantasyAces, your offense needs to be top notch.  Picking the right pitcher is important, but with some many players on the offensive side of the ledger, it's definitely possible to pick a pitching dud and still win out in competitions with few competitors.   Methodology for Creating Each Stat If you’re like me and want to know what goes into the sausage, here is how I arrived at each stat that I created. If you don’t care, then you’ve reached the end of the article. You are now free to leave. Uniqueness is calculated by first looking at how every player scores in each of the eight systems. They are then re-calculated on an index scale, comparing each player to the site’s average player so that all sites are using the same scale. Then a new average is created for each player of his score on each of the eight sites. We examine how far each site’s score is from the eight-site average as an absolute value. When we average these out for all players for all sites, we get an estimate of each site’s “uniqueness.” I used full-season data for all hitters with at least 300 PA, all pitchers with at least 10 Games Started in 2012. Scoring System Quirkiness is calculated by first putting all stats on the same scale (relative to Home Runs for hitters and relative to Wins for pitchers). I find the eight-site average value of each stat, compare how each stat’s scoring varies from that average, then average out all the categories for each site (with each category weighted the same). Roster Quirkiness is calculated by finding the eight-site average of how many players are required at each roster position, then comparing how each site’s roster structure varies from that average, and average out all the roster spots for each site. Pitching Premium is calculated by first scoring out the average daily line for all hitters with at least 3 PA in game (a proxy for starting the game) and all starting pitchers for each of the eight sites. I then compare how much more valuable pitchers are than hitters using data from a recent six-year stretch of games.