Martin Prado

We all knew coming into this season that the Braves' pitching was going to be solid. But we also felt like that the offense was going to improve. With this combination, the Braves were thought to be one of the best teams in the NL. Well, at the moment, only one of those beliefs has come true.

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.

Question: Who leads second basemen in batting average since 2008?

Chase Utley? Robinson Cano? Dustin Pedroia?

Wrong times three.

Martin Prado was as valuable as anyone in baseball to his team in the first half of the season in 2010 playing second base.

His MVP-caliber season was derailed in the second half as injuries kept him out of the lineup for a stretch in August, as well as the playoffs, as the Atlanta Braves were knocked out in the first round by the eventual World Series champions, the San Francisco Giants.

When the Atlanta Braves 2010 came to a close a couple weeks back at the hands of the eventual National League Champion San Francisco Giants, there was a lot of mourning at the Britt (that's me) household.

I was resigned to filling out college applications and (gasp) putting school over baseball for a couple of weeks as I bitterly refused to watch the LCS's for the thought of what might of been had Chipper Jones, Martin Prado, Billy Wagner and Kris Medlen been good-to-go for the first round of the playoffs.

What's that?

For a guy that was signed as a Minor League Free Agent prior to the 2009 season, Brooks Conrad sure has accomplished a lot for the Braves in 130 games.

In addition to accumulating a ton of nicknames ("Raw Dog" and "Dirt" being the most notable), the Magic Man from Monte Vista (that one is mine) has been involved in some of the more memorable moments in recent Braves history.

The Atlanta Braves are limping towards the finish line and on Tuesday they got some news that’s really not helping their cause.

According to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, via Twitter, Braves 2B/3B Martin Prado will be done for the season with a hip pointer and torn oblique muscle.

It's one of the most amazing stories of the 2010 baseball season. Omar Infante, a career utility player, has stepped in a starting role with the Atlanta Braves and is threatening to become one of the most unlikely batting title winners in baseball history.

On July 30th, the Braves All-Star second baseman, Martin Prado, broke his finger sliding into home plate.   Prado landed on the 15-day DL and Infante was inserted into the starting lineup at second base.

The Atlanta Braves should think twice before they make a move that will weaken their chances at winning a second World Series title.

While nothing has happened yet, the stars are certainly aligned for Mr. May, Troy Glaus, to replace All-Star Omar Infante in the lineup at third base, which would bump Martin Prado back to second base.

During Monday night's St. Louis Cardinals loss to the last-place (and worst record in baseball) Pittsburgh Pirates, Albert Pujols was 3-for-5 with a double, raising his batting average to .322.

I know this stat is not important to saber heads (please bear with us), but for this argument it is imperative.

The Atlanta Braves are once again looking like a championship-caliber team. The Braves have held first place in the National League East for nearly three months and show no signs of slowing down. In fact, they are showing signs of improvement. (see: Derrek Lee)

Atlanta's success has undoubtedly been a 25-man effort, but that does not mean that the incredible individual performances should go unnoticed. Here are the handful of Braves that are amongst the top candidates to win some of Major League Baseball's most coveted awards.