Dan Uggla

Although baseball's dark days of syringes and suspicious trainers seem to be behind us, the long ball is still alive and well. There are plenty of guys who make their living going yard and spend their afternoons trotting. 

But if we had to build a team of the league's best sluggers, what would it look like? We wouldn't look solely at a player who's a feast-or-famine hitter, would we? 

You want a guy who can take it deep but isn't always looking for the long ball, even at the expense of his own team. 

The Phillies come into this year as preseason favorites to reach their third World Series in the last four years, and with good reason.

The Atlanta Braves finished the 2010 regular season with a 91-71 record, which was good enough to claim the National League Wild Card. They lost in the divisional round of the playoffs to the eventual World Series Champion San Francisco Giants in four games with every game being a one-run affair.

New manager Fredi Gonzalez replaces the legendary Bobby Cox and has a roster that should be in the playoff mix again.

Let's take a look at player-by-player projections for the 2011 Braves based on the probable Opening Day lineup.

The purpose of Value Picks is to point out some names that have not been getting the attention they deserve on draft day. The focus of this article will be finding value at a thin position, second base.

1. Dan Uggla—Currently ranked No. 34 by Yahoo Fantasy Baseball

Last Season’s Statistics:

The purpose of Value Picks is to point out some names that have not been getting the attention they deserve on draft day.

The focus of this article will be finding value at a thin position, second base.

1. Dan Uggla (Atlanta Braves), currently ranked No. 34 by Yahoo Fantasy Baseball

Last Season's Statistics:

Ah, the time has come.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we now stand just weeks away from what looks to be another memorable opening day for Major League Baseball.

After a confounding postseason in which we crowned the San Fransisco Giants world champions once more, many teams find themselves in a promising situation heading into the regular season.

However, let's not get ahead of ourselves.  This is just spring training, as we all know.

So as preparation for the regular season begins to heat up, let's take a look at each team's status.

Our 2011 fantasy baseball projections will be released one-by-one until the top 100 players have been revealed. These rankings consider past achievements, current performance and expected future results based on standard 5×5 H2H settings.

Since his major-league debut in 2006, Dan Uggla has made a living hitting home runs.

The Atlanta Braves organization has always been one to either stand out from the crowd and wait for someone to knock their crown off; or it's been one to fly under the radar and not really be recognized as a playoff contender.

The Braves are going into 2011 with some great off-season moves (Dan Uggla in particular), but they're also going into this new season with some unproven rookies.

In The Fantasy Fix's newest series, 2011 Fantasy Baseball Great Debate, our writers discuss two positional players and try to convince you which player to pick first on draft day. In this article we compare the two second basemen, Dustin Pedroia and Dan Uggla.

Why to go with Uggla: