Entering September always makes me sad. There's excitement to be had, for sure, especially in traditional fantasy leagues, but knowing that there's just a few more weeks of meaningful baseball games (playoffs don't count, junior) is like a storm cloud hanging overhead.  We're also approaching the end of our series on the various daily sites, their quirks, and which players are the most over- or under-valued on each.  There's just one more left after this one, which clearly brings out the importance of pitching. Previous Profiles: DraftStreet | FantasyAces | FanDuel | DraftKings | Draft Day | Fan Throwdown

StarStreet Profile

Uniqueness: 5th (Hitting), 3rd (Pitching) Scoring System Quirkiness: 3rd (Hitting), 7th (Pitching) Roster Quirkiness: 3rd Pitching Premium: 1st StarStreet has really made a name for itself this year, in no small part because of its all-too-enticing Playboy Mansion prize.  Looking at the metrics from a macro point of view doesn't show much distinctiveness in terms of their overall game, but let's dig in and see if we can find anything that can help us be more successful on StarStreet. 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%
DraftStreet	3.6%
FantasyAces	2.9%
	2.7%
StarStreet	2.6%
Fan Throwdown	2.5%
FanDuel	2.2%
DraftDay	1.7%

StarStreet is middle of the road when it comes to Hitting Uniqueness.  Players are valued a little differently here than they are elsewhere, but not nearly as much as we've seen with some of the previous sites like DraftKings and DraftStreet. StarStreet scores higher on the uniqueness scale for pitching, settling into third, well ahead of the fourth-place site. 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	StarStreet	Average
1B	25%	26%
2B	50%	50%
3B	75%	76%
HR	100%	100%
RBI	19%	31%
R	19%	27%
BB	25%	22%
SB	50%	50%
CS	Not Used	-12%
HBP	25%	20%
K	Not Used	-5%
GIDP	Not Used	-4%
SAC	Not Used	2%
Out	-6%	-3%

StarStreet finds itself at the top of the middle cluster in terms of Hitting Quirkiness.  That they finish in third oversells how quirky they are, but there are still some things that a savvy owner can exploit here. The most noticeable difference between StarStreet's scoring and that of the other seven sites is how they deal with RBI and Runs Scored.  In fact, StarStreet places less emphasis on RBI and Runs than any other site does (the closest being DraftKings, which scores them at 20 percent apiece). I know there was a little confusion when I told you to "target" players in sub-optimal lineup spots (spots 6 through 9), which is the same strategy I'd advocate here, so let me clarify a bit: What we know for certain is that players in sub-optimal lineup spots are worth more on StarStreet than they are on any of the other sites we target.  After that we move into guesswork to some extent.  It's my contention that the majority of StarStreet players don't fully realize that these players are undervalued.  And since value is all relative, targeting these types of players gives you an edge over opponents.  I'm certainly not advocating only selecting these players or leaving money on the table to go after these kinds of guys, but they do offer more relative profit potential than other players do.  Especially against opponents who play on multiple sites or are coming in from the roto wilderness, these low RBI/R players have a lower perceived value than they're actually worth. The other (small) quirk of StarStreet is that they penalize for Outs, which only half of the sites do.  This is a secondary consideration to lineup spot for me, but if you manage to find a guy batting seventh with a good On-Base Percentage, he'll definitely have some extra value. Look at guys like Daniel Nava, Chris Iannetta, Jon Jay, Ryan Hanigan, and A.J. Ellis that fit this mold. 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	StarStreet	Average
W	100%	100%
Outs	13%	13%
K	27%	30%
ER	-27%	-31%
H	-7%	-8%
BB	-7%	-8%
HBP	Not Used	-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%

Despite the third-highest Pitching Uniqueness score, StarStreet has the second-lowest Pitching Quirkiness score. This is because StarStreet eschews using most of the categories, driving up their relative uniqueness but not actually adding much quirk.  Of the categories they do use, they pretty much toe the line in terms of how they're valued.  They don't stray more than four percentage points anywhere, making it relatively straightforward to value pitchers on StarStreet.  Pitcher skills are paramount.  Good (or even better, under-appreciated) pitchers are king here, regardless of whether they derive their value from power or finesse, strikeouts or control.  Just make sure that their skills are good and the run-prevention will follow.  It's obviously smart to focus on the external factors that affect wins, like quality of supporting offense, but these are no more important on StarStreet than they are elsewhere. Roster Quirkiness Roster Quirkiness is a measure of how the roster structure of a given site differs from the average daily site.

Position	StarStreet	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	2	1.4
P	0	0.6
Total	11	10.8

StarStreet shares its exact roster structure with FanThrowdown and DraftKings, both of which we've already looked at.  They have the most standard roster possible with one player at every position, a utility player, and two pitchers.  They are as average as it gets when it comes to daily fantasy baseball rosters.           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%
DraftDay	49%
Fan Throwdown	47%
DraftStreet	34%
	25%

Pitching Premium is where StarStreet stands out the most.  They place such a high value premium on pitchers that they even surpass the two sites that only use one pitcher slot, FantasyAces and FanDuel, despite using two pitchers itself.  This makes selecting the right pitchers for your team absolutely crucial on StarStreet; the importance of pitching cannot be overstated.  Not only is a single pitcher worth more than a hitter on StarStreet than on any other site, but you have to draft two of them!  That makes it seriously important to get them right, because an implosion from even one of your pitchers will all but end any hope you have of placing in a tournament and perhaps even prevent you from winning a heads-up game.  Bad games from both of your pitchers earn you a one-week stay in the StarStreet dungeon; it's that bad.     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 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.