Atlanta Braves Baseball: Bring on 2010!

With National Signing Day and the Super Bowl finally over with, we in the sports world embark upon a nearly month long journey of nothingsville.

I love college basketball as much as the next guy, but honestly it's pointless until we get to the conference tournaments in early March.

Thankfully, there is hope on the horizon.

Spring training baseball is just around the corner. Maybe that doesn't excite all of you, but to those of us whose first love is baseball it's makes us feel all squishy inside.

There's nothing like it. Hearing the first bat-crack of 2010; watching pitchers and catchers... well, um... pitch and catch; seeing prospects take the field with hopes of making the big league roster.

It's refreshing. Yes, that's exactly what it is—refreshing.

It's a new season, a new day.

The pain of Matt Diaz being picked off of third for the final out of competitive baseball in Atlanta in '09 is but a distant memory.

The trials and tribulations of Chipper Jones seem like they happened forever ago.

Derek Lowe's inability to keep the ball down is locked away in the recesses of our minds.

Now it's time to cheer on the Braves for yet another season.

This season promises to bring with it some fresh faces; Top-Prospect Jason Heyward, power-hitting re-tred Troy Glaus, former beloved Yankee Melky "the Melkman" Cabrera, and hard-baller Billy Wagner, just to name a few.

While I posted one of my ill-conceived rants a few short weeks ago, expressing my desire for Frank Wren to do more—much more, I now realize that this is not a bad team to go into battle with.

I hate to see Javier Vazquez go. I love seeing Greg Norton on that "Available Free Agents" list. I hate to see Nate McLouth still batting leadoff, but I love the fact that Johnny Damon could still fall into the Braves lap in the next couple of weeks.

All-in-all it's been a moderately successful off-season for the Braves.

Granted they didn't sign an aging outfielder with no knees to a contract guaranteeing him a ton of money as their division rival in New York did, but somehow I think the Braves will be better for it.

There was no flashy trade for the A.L.'s "arm of the decade" as Philadelphia pulled off.

Heck, the Braves did not even equal Washington's signing of Jason Marquis. (Seriously, quit laughing and look at his stats. He won 15 games in Colorado, of all places.)

However, this Braves team is much better constructed than the one that came up just short in the '09 Wild Card race. That will be especially true if Troy Glaus can stay healthy and prove that there is still plenty of pop in that 30-plus home run per year bat.

Expect the Braves to compete largely on the strength of yet another amazing starting staff.

Veterans Derek Lowe and Tim Hudson will lead youngsters Tommy Hanson, and Jair Jurrjens into battle every four days—while the crafty former Japanese league star Kenshin Kawakami will continue his deceptive pitching ways in 2010.

Yes, I will get much more in-depth over the coming days and weeks. I will publish a full preview of the Braves as spring training draws closer.

I also have a full MLB preview currently in the works. If you want opinions, believe me, you have come to the right place.

In the meantime, however, try to endure the remainder of college basketball season, and remember spring training will be here before you know it.