Brave new world

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Leo Mazzone had stopped rocking and sat up straight to make his point, so clearly he was serious.

"Well, there's a little more stress going on," the Atlanta pitching coach said. "We're not used to this."

That was a few days ago, when the Braves' staff found itself in unfamiliar territory -- dead last on the NL ERA chart.

Strong outings by freshly signed Shane Reynolds and rookie Horacio Ramirez helped move them up a bit, but the reality is sinking in: Minus Tom Glavine, Kevin Millwood and Damian Moss, this rebuilt rotation is starting over.

On and off the field, in fact.

John Smoltz can feel it. His eyes looked away and his voice trailed off as he talked about Glavine.

"Miss him? Yeah, a lot," the Atlanta closer said. "For 15 years, we were doing the same thing. I mean, I'd wake up and not have to wonder where I was playing golf or who I was playing with. Now, I'm doing a lot more organizing than I used to."

"It's going to take a while," he said.

That same day, with the Braves in Puerto Rico to play Montreal, Smoltz spoke by phone with Glavine before his start for the New York Mets at Pittsburgh.

"It's been one of the biggest adjustments for me, too. John Smoltz is one of my best friends, and not being around him still is a little bit strange," said Glavine, who left Atlanta as a free agent.

"The baseball is the same ... baseball is baseball, and the adjustments you have to make from the baseball side of it are not that difficult. But those are the things that come a little bit harder, those on the personal side. You miss being around some people."

The other member of the Braves' big three for all those years, Greg Maddux, echoed the same sentiment. During Atlanta's ongoing run of 11 straight division titles, it seemed as if the three Cy Young Award winners were always together in the dugout.

Now, Glavine is gone and Smoltz is in the bullpen.

"It's different," Maddux said. "It think it was really different in spring training. Time takes care of a lot of things, they say."

Signs of improvement

The Braves went into the weekend with a 5.39 ERA, far from impressive but a lot better than their 6.29 mark after the first 12 games of the season.

General manager John Schuerholz is convinced they'll keep improving, even after trading away Millwood and Moss -- they combined for 63 starts last season -- and seeing Glavine leave.

To replace them, the Braves acquired three top starters in Mike Hampton, Russ Ortiz and Paul Byrd. They'd totaled only one win through the first 2 1/2 weeks, but that's mostly because Hampton was out until this weekend with a strained right calf and Byrd was sidelined until around July with a bad right elbow.

"Before the injuries, a lot of people thought we were going to be stronger than last year, and I was one of them," Schuerholz said. "The way we started off didn't provide the proper validation for that feeling, but I believe it's true."

"It takes a while for a new rotation to jell, and that's when everyone is healthy. Our rotation has been patched together, and we didn't expect to be in that role."

Unlike Smoltz and Maddux, Schuerholz hasn't spent much time looking around the clubhouse, thinking about the guys who are gone.

"For the job I'm in, we don't have the luxury of dealing with those feelings," he said. "I like Tommy Glavine and Kevin Millwood. But we can't be concerned about the sentimental or emotional or feeling factor."

Good thing for him that he's not pining away for his former players, because there aren't a lot of them left. Certainly not among the pitchers.

Along with overhauling the starters, Schuerholz brought in an almost entirely new bullpen. Chris Hammond, Mike Remlinger, Kerry Ligtenberg, Tim Spooneybarger and Albie Lopez, all of whom pitched in at least 30 games, are now elsewhere.

New faces are stepping in to fill the vacated spots. Jung Keun Bong, who pitched in only one game last year, is already 2-0 in relief.