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.

At this point in his career Ben Zobrist is a medium/high floor player with little upside. He provides position flexibility, which increases his value in daily lineup leagues because you can move him around if your team suffers an injury during the week.

In terms of his statistical value his power and stolen base totals have decreased steadily since 2012 and I cannot find any statistical evidence to show improvement is coming. The stolen base success rate was the second lowest of his career.

If you play in OBP leagues his value jumps up a tick because you can bank on at least a .340-plus OBP. From 2009-2013 he is a career .288 hitter with runners in scoring position, but last year he only hit .225 so a positive regression in his RBI totals should occur.

In early January the Athletics acquired Zobrist (along with Yunel Escobar). Zobrist will likely begin the year in left field and bat in the two spot when Coco Crisp is in the lineup and when Crisp is not in the lineup Zobrist will likely bat leadoff. It looks like the Zobrist and Escobar trade is the last trade the A’s are going to make this offseason. If the lineup can stay healthy the A’s should have pretty good lineup, which means Zobrist should be able to score at least 85 runs with room for 95-plus.

My 2015 fantasy projection for Zobrist is 570 ABs, .272 AVG, 9 HRs, 72 RBI, 94 runs and 9 SBs.