The most boring time of the year...

...at least, for baseball, is upon us. All the free agents that matter have new homes. Even Octavio Dotel finally signed. Catchers and pitchers haven't reported yet, spring training games are still over a month away, and the Super Bowl seems boring yet again. Dammit.

-Marky ol' boy did his little mailbag shindig. Teix...probably not a likely member of the Braves even in Bowman's POV. That's pretty telling. Other than that, the whole article provided little knowledge. But then...that's the official Braves site for you.

-Some chap named Buck Belue for the Savannah Morning News said the Braves should at least reach the 90 win plateau. The obvious needs to be said. Buck Belue is not a real name. The guy's "paragraphs" are a sentence or two at best. Journalism school must have been optional for this rag.

The boys of summer are heading south soon, and this dude won't be far behind. Major League Baseball's spring training is one of my favorite times of the year, despite the uneasiness of wearing shorts and showing off the pasty white legs. Hey, you've got to start somewhere, right?

Dude? If Buck Belue is your real name, you're probably a drag queen. But then, a penis is a penis, I guess.

Tom Glavine's back in a Braves uniform and is penciled in as the third starter behind John Smoltz and Tim Hudson. The goal: give the Braves 200 innings. Tom reached that magic number last year as a 41-year-old. The Braves are betting he'll do it at 42.

The bullpen would love that.

The bullpen may also love long walks on the beach. The simple fact is that 200 innings is nice, but the Braves need QUALITY, not quantity, because essentially - Glav is about it. If he puts up a 4.50 ERA over 200 innings, the Braves don't win 90 games.

The days of Andruw Jones roaming centerfield for the Braves have ended. Why? Well, the Braves didn't feel like over-paying for his services.

So, Wren swung a great deal to bring in veteran Mark Kotsay from the A's. It makes sense. Kotsay is a pro's pro. He plays a solid outfield, can hit and is a team guy.

What makes this deal so wonderful is this: Wren got the A's to pick up close to $5 million of his $7 million salary.

"Wren swung a great deal?" Are you applying for Mark Bowman's job? Are you Mark Bowman? What the hell? Anyway, know how Wren got the A's to pick up that much salary? By sacrificing two of my top ten prospects for the system. Screw that.

Kotsay can hit high in the lineup or down at the bottom. No problem. Just glad to be here playing for Bobby Cox. Here's a guy who knows what it takes to be successful at the plate.

He told me recently that if Cox hits him 1 or 2, the focus is to get on base. If Bobby has him hitting 7 or 8, the goal is to drive in runs.

Keep your fingers crossed that his back holds up. If so, you won't miss Andruw so much.

Yeah, because he's going to be a super get on base guy with his .330ish OBP or a great run producer with his .390ish SLG. Jesus, this kind of crap really kills me.

The bullpen looks pretty settled heading the camp. Rafael Soriano, Peter Moylan and Tyler Yates get the ball late. Wren went out and got three lefthanders: Royce Ring, Will Ohman and Jeff Ridgway. Look for two to stick with the big league club leaving spring training.

Yay...Tyler Yates. And Wren didn't get Ring. Schuerholz did. You may have missed it while you were pressing enter after needlessly beginning yet another paragraph/sentence.

Jeff Bennett is this year's long-relief guy. Manny Acosta, Jair Jurrjens and Blaine Boyer battle it out for a spot. And Mike Gonzalez is hoping to be back in the summer to provide a big boost down the stretch.

Bennett is this year's long reliever, but Manny Acosta has to battle for a spot? My brain is leaking.

The batting lineup is something that Bobby Cox likes to keep under wraps, but here is my best guess of what the card will look like come opening day: 1-Yunel Escobar, 2-Kotsay, 3-Chipper Jones, 4-Mark Teixeira, 5-Jeff Francoeur, 6-Brian McCann, 7-Matt Diaz, 8-Kelly Johnson.

You're best guess is probably right. Why does that make me sick?

-Elsewhere, Raffy Soriano agreed to a contract to avoid arbitration. The Braves also bought a year of free agency by getting a two year pact. Terms are $2.4M this year, $6.1 next, $500K signing bonus. The huge drop in salary is a bit worrisome, but not a bad deal in this market.

-Baseball Musings did a projection of the Braves offense this year.

* Best: 5.37 runs per game
* Given: 5.18 runs per game
* Worst: 4.77 runs per game

Braves will be fortunate to improve on the 5.00 average from last year, but it's possible, especially if KJ is used in the upper part of the lineup.

-Finally, another rag says Julio Franco is still a Braves player. Why do you hurt me so, Braves?

-I am a lot more bothered after writing this than I was before I started...