If you like what you’re reading then you will like my 2015 Fantasy Baseball Guide! Last year’s fantasy guide was more than 150,000 words and had 440 player profiles (of hitters and pitchers). My approach to player evaluation is to ask questions about what the player has done in the past and what he may do in the future. I certainly provide a narrative on how I feel a player will perform, but I also ask a lot of open ended questions that I hope will get you thinking about the information I’ve provided.

Marcus Semien comes over to the A’s via the Jeff Samardzija trade in December. Semien is penciled in as the starting shortstop for the A’s for 2015 and probably the next 2-3 years (I’ve seen Daniel Roberston play I wouldn’t be shocked if he moves to second base).

The scouting reports (here and here) suggest he’s not going to hit a lot of home runs, but he hit 23 in 2013 (15 came at Double-A) and 21 in 2014 (15 came at Triple-A). In 300 ABs in the majors he has a 9.6% HR/FB rate. During that time he has hit 83 fly balls. Suppose he got 500 Abs he would roughly hit 138-139 fly balls. If he maintains that rate he would hit 12 home runs. Obviously I’m not projecting 12 home runs because he’s moving from a great hitters park to one of the best pitcher’s park and of the eight home runs he hit in the majors, only two were hit on the road.

Since Semien doesn’t have any loud tools he’s going to have more real life value than fantasy value. He doesn’t hit for a lot of power and doesn’t have a lot of speed. If you’re in a deep mixed league he is usable in the MI slot as a warm body who will get at-bats every day. I’m projecting 500 ABs with 8 home runs, 8 stolen bases, 55 RBI, 60 runs with a .245 batting average.