Well, I thought we'd finished up the Who To Target series last week with Fantasy Feud, but we have a late entrant into the field.  DFSEdge has recently begun endorsing an up-and-coming daily site called StatClash, so let's see how they compare to the rest of the sites out there.  Hint: They're pretty vanilla and an easy daily fantasy starter site.

StatClash is a relatively new site, and while it seems like they're pushing other sports more than baseball, they do have an MLB game, so let's see how they stack up.

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
StatClash	4.8%
DraftStreet	3.6%
FantasyAces	3.4%
DraftKings	3.1%
StarStreet	3.0%
Fantasy Feud	2.6%
FanDuel	2.6%
Fan Throwdown	2.2%
DraftDay	1.9%

StatClash, rather surprisingly given their lackluster numbers in pretty much every other category, comes out at the very top in terms of Hitting Uniqueness.  On the pitching side, though, they're right near the bottom in a cluster that makes up the second-to-last tier.





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	StatClash	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	25%	20%
K	-6%	-5%
GIDP	Not Used	-4%
SAC	Not Used	2%
Out	-6%	-3%

Despite a high Hitting Uniqueness score, StatClash places dead last in terms of Hitting Quirkiness.  There really isn't much to note here.  They make use of most of the common categories and toe the line pretty closely in terms of the value of each.

The value of RBI and Runs Scored are depressed a little bit, making back-of-the-order hitters more valuable than they are elsewhere, which explains a lot of the Uniqueness discrepancy.

StatClash also doubles up on strikeouts and generic outs, making big-whiff guys like Adam Dunn and Chris Carter much less valuable than they are on other sites.



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	StatClash	Average
W	100%	100%
Outs	8%	13%
K	31%	30%
ER	-25%	-31%
H	-6%	-8%
BB	-6%	-8%
HBP	-6%	-7%
SV	Not Used	38%
BS	Not Used	-10%
CG	Not Used	26%
SH	Not Used	14%
L	Not Used	-15%
No No	Not Used	22%
PG	Not Used	6%

StatClash pretty much toes the line when it comes to pitching as well, which explains how it achieved the second-lowest Pitching Quirkiness score among all nine sites.

Every category except strikeouts is slightly depressed, making Wins more important than they are elsewhere.  As we've discussed before, the simplest way to chase wins is to take a talented pitcher on a team with a strong support offense.

Since earned runs are lower than the nine-site average, pitcher skills aren't quite as important as they are elsewhere, but you'll want to place a small emphasis on high-K, high-BB pitchers as opposed to the reverse.



Roster Quirkiness Roster Quirkiness is a measure of how the roster structure of a given site differs from the average daily site.

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

StatClash boasts the least quirky roster structure of any site that we've looked at.  They have a completely average roster aside from the slightly abnormal choice of using just one pitcher.  In terms of hitting, they use the average number at each position.  Nothing else to see here.













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
StarStreet	76%
FantasyAces	75%
FanDuel	71%
DraftKings	62%
StatClash	58%
DraftDay	49%
Fan Throwdown	47%
DraftStreet	34%
Fantasy Feud	25%

Finally we find another category where StatClash isn't at the bottom of the list, although because of the scale that it's on, that doesn't actually mean very much.  They're smack dab in the middle of Pitching Premium, which is to say that they're average in terms of pitching premium.  Pitchers are worth more than hitters on StatClash, but not much more or less so than for any other site.

All told, however, StatClash is a very vanilla site that should be relatively easy to start out on, move onto, or play on to supplement your play on other sites.









Methodology for Creating Each Metric

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 nine 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 nine sites. We examine how far each site’s score is from the nine-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 nine-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 nine-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 nine sites. I then compare how much more valuable pitchers are than hitters using data from a recent six-year stretch of games.