As you know, there are a ton of sites out there that offer daily fantasy games.  Of course, not all of them offer a suitable caliber of game, are reliable when it comes to paying out, etc.  We here at DFSEdge are dedicated to finding the best available games and then providing you insight on how to succeed at those games.  The most recent site to get the DFSEdge seal of approval is Fantasy Aces.  If you aren’t playing yet, you may want to consider doing so.

I’m still new to Fantasy Aces myself, but there is one quirk in their player salary system that came to my attention recently -- and it may offer some serious value propositions for those who know about it.  I alluded to this in two recent articles, but it really deserves a full article’s worth of attention.

Head on over to Fantasy Aces for a minute and enter a game.  Select Asdrubal Cabrera as your starting shortstop.  Wait, you don’t see him?  That’s weird.  Umm… scroll down the list.  Yeah, keep going.  All the way to the bottom.  You see him now?  There he is -- $3900 for a guy who is priced as a top five or six shortstop on most other sites! You know who else you can get for $3900 at shortstop?  Eduardo Escobar or John McDonald.  If you want to find someone else who’s actually at Droobs’ talent level, you can scroll all the way back to the top and pick Ian Desmond for $5150 or Jimmy Rollins for $5100, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

You see, Fantasy Aces, for whatever reason, drops player salaries down to the minimum or near minimum when they are placed on the DL, are demoted, or are released.  When they return to an active MLB roster, their prices begin to creep back up.  But in the interim, there is massive value to be had.

Take a look at Jose Reyes and Matt Kemp.  Both returned earlier this week, and while they’re no longer priced at the minimum, they do still only cost $4750 and $4650, respectively (Reyes started a bit above the minimum at $4500).  Chris Heisey remains at $3900 following his return on Tuesday.

Recent demotees-turned-call-ups Dustin Ackley and Lonnie Chisenhall are both priced at $3900.  Actual prospects who get called up for the first time (or even the second, third, fourth time…) like Zack Wheeler and Kyle Gibson also come in at the minimum (which, for pitchers, seems to be $5750 with a few exceptions).

On Tuesday, you could seriously have filled 4/9 of your hitting with these players and had $5633 to spend per player on the remaining spots.  That’s roughly the cost of Robinson Cano or Joey Votto.  Insanity.  How excited would you be if you went to your site of choice and saw that you could draft Ryan Braun for less than the price of Mark Kotsay?  That’s going to be a reality within a few weeks.

You will see some strangeness if you look closely, though, which I guess shouldn’t be totally unexpected given the overall strangeness of this.  For example, David Price and A.J. Burnett are both on the DL, but Price is at $6000 and Burnett at $7000, the latter being hardly a bargain at all.

It may take a small amount of work, but it’s definitely worth keeping in mind as players begin to come off the DL in the coming weeks.  Even if you’re not a regular Fantasy Aces player, it’s definitely worth playing on days when players are returning from injury.  Fortunately for you the DFSEdge lineup tool tracks FantasyAces salaries and you can easily spot the bargains. Here is a list of some players who are currently on the DL that you should keep track of (all are priced at $3900 unless otherwise noted):

Ryan Braun
Troy Tulowitzki (4500)
Everth Cabrera
Bryce Harper
Corey Hart
Evan Gattis
Carl Crawford
Adam Eaton (4000)
Jedd Gyorko
Ryan Ludwick
Cameron Maybin
Danny Espinosa
Alex Rodriguez
Ruben Tejada

David Price (6000)
Wandy Rodriguez (6300)
Brandon McCarthy (6450)
Ian Kennedy (6350)
Dan Haren (5850)
Brandon Beachy (6000)
Josh Beckett (6000)
Brandon Morrow (6350)
Danny Duffy (5750)