2025 Fantasy Baseball: Marcus Semien Profile, Preview, Predictions
In this story:
Volume of at-bats has been the friend of Marcus Semien over the past seven seasons. At age 34, does he have one more winning season in his bat?
Go-ahead Simmy SMASH! #StraightUpTX pic.twitter.com/b2cDa4kt6c
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) July 6, 2024
2B – Marcus Semien, TEX (ADP – 95.2)
Semien filled his plate appearance (718) and at-bats (650) boxes again last year, giving him an elite playing time opportunity over the past six 162-game seasons. He reached the 100-run mark for the fourth consecutive year, but his outcomes in home runs (23), RBIs (74), and steals (8) fell short of his past success. Semien had a sharp decline in his contact batting average (.283 – .330 in 2023), along with a pullback in his average hit rate (1.649).
After a reasonable start in runs (40), home runs (9), and RBIs (34) over his first 237 at-bats last season, he failed to drive in more than 10 runs in any of the final four months while delivering 14 more home runs. Texas scored 98 fewer runs than in 2023 (881 – 3rd).
His exit velocity (87.4 mph) has had an up-and-down swing over the past six years, with 2024 failing in the down range. Semien’s hard-hit rate (35.2) has been in a weak area in every season except in 2021 (41.3%). He had a spike in his groundball rate (39.6 – 33.8 in 2023) at the expense of his fly-ball rate (42.5 – 46.5 in 2023) and HR/FB rate (9.9 – 11.0 in 2023). Semien finished with about the same approach (strikeout rate – 14.6 and walk rate – 8.9).
Fantasy Outlook: He ranked 58th in FPGscore (0.81) for hitters. At age 34, a drafter will look past his body of work for a young, developing option. Semien gets extra credit for the health card, and the Rangers should be much better offensively in 2025. Volume is his friend. Even with some regression, he would still be a value selection with a 90/20/70/15 season.
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Bobby Witt Profile, Preview, Predictions
With 20+ years of experience in the high-stakes fantasy market, I aim to research and compete at the highest level in baseball and football each season. I've contributed as a writer/analyst for Sports Draft Daily, ScoutPro, Scout Fantasy, Fulltime Fantasy, FFToolbox, and Sports Illustrated Fantasy. I'm honored to be in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship Hall of Fame. My drafting philosophy is risk-averse yet open to betting on potential game-changers. I approach player selection with a neutral perspective, acknowledging that fantasy sports are inherently unpredictable due to injuries, performance dips, and managerial decisions. My work focuses on these main areas: - Season-long fantasy baseball and football - BestBall Baseball and Football Events - Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS): DraftKings, FanDuel, and Underdog - Long Shot Player Prop Parlays for NFL I participate in various leagues and contests, including NFBC, NFFC, RTSports, FFPC, DraftKings, Underdog Fantasy, FanDuel, and FFWC, with the goal of leveraging my extensive experience and research for success in each game format. A fantasy follower can expect in-depth profiles of NFL and MLB players, along with season-long and weekly projections for each fantasy football season. In addition, I have many strategy articles to help develop fantasy players' learning curves.
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