Atlanta Braves
 

The Braves managed to fend off both the Mets and the Phillies in the waning days of the season last year to win their 7th straight division title.  However, their lack of offense undid them again in the playoffs, losing to the eventual World Champion D-backs.  This winter, GM John Schuerholz made considerable progress in addressing that weakness

Hitting

The Braves' hitting attack was 4th worst in the NL, largely due to poor production from first base, left field, and shortstop.  The shortstop problem was taken care of with the healthy return of Rafael Furcal to lead-off.  Furcal missed most of last season with a shoulder problem that caused it to dislocate easily.  Offseason surgery reportedly fixed the problem so the 23-year old speedster should once again provide headaches for the opposition battery with his career .365 on base and average of 31 steals a season.

The left field problem was addressed by moving 3B Chipper Jones to left and signing free agent 3B Vinny Castilla.  Jones is far more valuable as a third baseman, at least offensively.  But the signing of Castilla gives them a relatively productive alternative while upgrading the defense at third considerably.  One has to wonder, however, whether the Braves would have been better off simply trying to get a better left fielder, as finding an outfielder as productive as Castilla should not have been that difficult.

That said, Castilla will provide some occasional pop, but probably won't help deepen the line-up any as his career on base is a somewhat pedestrian .331.  But, he's certainly a more imposing figure in the line-up than the procession of negligible first basemen the Braves trotted out last year.

Last year's primary left fielder, BJ Surhoff will move to first and platoon with the most successful of last year's weak first base group, ageless Julio Franco.  The key to this platoon will be spelling Franco enough so that he doesn't get tired or injured.  While there will be an improvement in production from first, the Braves still might be the only team in the league that should bat it's first baseman 8th.

The Braves also acquired a legitimate bat: outfielder Gary Sheffield.  In Sheffield, the Braves acquired one of the top 5 hitters in the NL - he draws lots of walks, rarely strikes out for someone with his power and has such a quick bat that he can hit anybody's best pitch.  With Sheffield and Chipper, the Braves now boast the toughest 3-4 hitters in the NL, because both can create runs with their power, average, on base and speed.  Jones is simply a runs creating machine in the midst of a Hall of Fame career, doing just about everything one could ask to help his team win except pitch.

Centerfielder Andruw Jones completes what is now the best outfield in the NL.  It's amazing that Jones has been in the majors now for 6 years, yet he's still not 25 years old - he turns 25 in late April.  Already a consistent 30-homer threat, he's still got plenty of untapped potential.  How soon he realizes it may depend on how soon the Braves find a hitting coach they can stick with for more than a year.  This year's nominee is former Brave Terry Pendleton.  How much Pendleton can teach Jones will probably depend on how much he can ignore his own career, as his on base was a paltry .318.

Catcher Javy Lopez hasn't been the same hitter since his knee operation in 1999, but is still an above average bat for a catcher.  He too could use the advise of a good on base coach, but as it is, will provide a nice long ball threat deep in the line-up.

Marcus Giles now takes over the full-time second base duties.  His glove is average at best, but he's probably the best offensive infielder they've had since Davey Johnson.  Giles has a very good eye for balls and strikes, decent speed, makes contact and 20-homer power that could develop into more down the line.

The Braves offense is vastly improved from last season, and barring injury that will expose it's utter lack of depth, should be among the better scoring teams in the NL.
Rating: 60
 

Pitching

The strength of Atlanta's title run has been it's pitching but this year, that may be it's weakness.  not only because the offense is much improved, but because the number of quality innings they'll be getting in Atlanta has been dramatically thinned.  Staff ace Greg Maddux has been suffering from a lower back strain which could limit both the number of innings he pitches this year and his effectiveness.  He doesn't overpower batters and if he can't hit his spots perfectly, could be in for a rough year.

Last year's "new strikezone" severely messed with Tom Glavine's ability to coax the outside strike.  MLB is once again putting forth an effort to reign in the strikezone, so Glavine could be further pinched.  However, Glavine, if anything, is very smart and has added a new weapon with which to throw strikes: a curveball, taught to him by none other than Sandy Koufax this spring.  With a new pitch that changes the eye angle of the batters, Glavine might very well look like the Glavine of old.

Kevin Millwood and Albie Lopez will try to recover some of their lost magic.  How well they pitch will determine how well the Braves can cope with an injured Maddux.  Jason Marquis will also be in the rotation mix.  He has an overpowering fastball but very little command of anything else.  He'll need to change speeds and throw something with break for strikes to keep batters from sitting on his fastball.

John Smoltz has been moved out of the rotation and into the closer's role, presumably to reduce the wear and tear on his oft-operated-on arm.  There's no question he can pitch in the role.  The only real question is does pitching 70-75 innings a year one inning at a time with numerous other times warming up for naught actually wear less on an arm than pitching 200 innings in 35 outings a year?

The rest of the bullpen is rather shaky.  Kerry Ligtenberg returns to the set-up role, but he's hardly dominating.  Darren Holmes and Chris Hammond are attempting to revive their careers, but can be very hittable.  Mike Remlinger is a very good lefty and easily the best reliever in the bullpen outside of Smoltz.  Young Tim Spooneybarger and Aaron Small round out the pen.  Spooneybarger was a very successful minor league closer and might ultimately succeed Smoltz.

For the first time in 12 years, the Atlanta pitching has questions about depth and quality.  If the questions are answered positively, then the Braves should have no trouble adding another division crown to their already impressive run.  However, if Maddux injury plagues him and none of the bottom of the rotation step up, the Braves lack of depth in the pen will be exposed and the division will be up for grabs.
Rating: 60 (although it could range from 50-70)
 

Defense

The Braves have a solid defensive team with Andruw Jones in center and Furcal at short.  Both are among the best in the league in range.  Andruw's ability to cover vast spaces will be seriously tested this year as both Chipper and Sheffield have poor range.  Castilla is actually a pretty handy gloveman; the left side of the infield could be a very tough place to get a hit.   Giles is, at best average with the glove.  Surhoff is decent.  Lopez is about average behind the plate.  The Braves added Henry Blanco in trade this spring, who'll provide excellent defense behind the plate, but poor production with the bat.
Rating: 55 (Andruw can cover only so much ground)
 

Management

It's hard to argue with the success the Braves have had in the regular season.  However, given the number of times they've been to the postseason, if talent has anything to do with who emerged as the winner of a short series, then the Braves should have won several more championships.  The fact is that Bobby Cox, for as good an evaluator of unpolished talent as he is, is a terrible game manager.  And if it weren't for a spectacularly good farm system that was built largely by the efforts of three men - Cox, Bill Clark and Paul Snyder - that John Schuerholz would best be remembered for breaking the Royals' bank to sign Mark Davis.  His record at signing free agents is spotty (Maddux - good, Brogna - bad), and for every really good trade he's made (Sheffield), there's an equally bad one that set the Braves back (Ryan Klesko and Bret Boone for Reggie Sanders and Quilvio Veras).  The fact is that the Braves regular season success can largely be attributed to having a superior farm system stocked players better than replacement level whenever someone goes down and their failures in the postseason can be attributed to poor game management and the inability to understand that having a quality pinch hitter is far more valuable than having a third catcher who couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat.
Rating: 50