LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- There were great expectations when the Braves entered the 2008 season with four former 20-game winners in their starting rotation. But masked below the credentials of Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Mike Hampton were a set of uncertainties that ultimately factored heavily in the team's demise.

Coming off a season in which four of their projected starters each missed at least two months and three of them underwent season-ending surgical procedures, the Braves have attempted to rebuild their rotation with the greater certainty provided by the talented arms of Derek Lowe and Javier Vazquez.

While they might not possess the Hall of Fame-credentials of Smoltz and Glavine, Lowe and Vazquez have both consistently displayed the type of durability that should benefit a bullpen that was also rocked by injuries last year.

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"I think looking at the rotation now, compared to where it was a year ago, there has to be a lot more reason to believe the top four guys are going to log a lot more innings than the top four guys last year," Glavine said. "That will have a residual effect on everybody. It's going to make our team better."

While pitching was the backbone to the unprecedented run of 14 consecutive division titles the Braves captured, it too has been the Achilles heel during the past three seasons, when they were left out of the postseason picture.

The top four projected starters entering the 2008 season combined to make just 53 starts, 23 of which were made by Tim Hudson, who will be sidelined until at least August while recovering from Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery.

With Smoltz, Hampton and Glavine each dealing with physical ailments that sidelined them for differing portions of the season's first three months, the bullpen which essentially lost both of its top two pieces -- Peter Moylan and Rafael Soriano -- to elbow injuries during the season's first two weeks, became fatigued and undependable during the season's second half.

"Pitching is the key to everything," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "You can have the greatest team on the field ever and if you don't have pitching, you're not going to win."

With Lowe and Vazquez, the Braves now possess a sense of certainty that wasn't present last year, when their rotation included two 40-somethings (Smoltz and Glavine) and the fragile Hampton.

Since the start of the 2002 season, Vazquez ranks third among all Major League pitchers with 1,502 1/3 innings pitched and Lowe ranks ninth with 1,456 innings. They have consistently completed 200-inning seasons throughout their careers and Jair Jurrjens, who led the Braves with 188 innings during his rookie season last year, believes he's capable of reaching that mark this year.

"The innings that the front of our pitching staff can complete should take innings off the back half," Chipper Jones said. "If we can score runs, we could be in a lot of games. While I'd be hesitant to currently say we'll contend for a World Series -- we'd be stretching it there a little bit -- I think we'll be in contention to win a lot of ballgames this year."

Along with Lowe and Vazquez, the Braves have also attempted to upgrade their rotation with the addition of Kenshin Kawakami, who spent the past 13 years as one of the top pitchers in Japan's Central League. Kawakami won the league's equivalent of the Cy Young Award in 2004.

To round out their rotation, the Braves re-signed Glavine, who believes he's fully recovered from the elbow surgery that he underwent in August. The 43-year-old, 300-game winner believes that his arm might be stronger than it's been in the past six years.

"If our starters get us to the sixth inning and our bullpen stays healthy, I think we'll win a lot of games," Braves catcher Brian McCann said. "I think our bats are going to surprise a lot of people."

Concerns about the offense could certainly be minimized if the bullpen is fortified by the healthy arms of closer Mike Gonzalez and his top two setup men -- Soriano and Peter Moylan. Gonzalez believes he's regained the strength that he lacked when he returned from Tommy John elbow ligament surgery last year and it appears Moylan might actually be able to return from that same surgical procedure in time to be part of the Opening Day roster.

As for Soriano, it appears that he's rebounded from the ulnar nerve transposition surgery that he underwent in August.

"Moyan and Soriano are big keys," Cox said. "If they're healthy, that's going to really benefit our starting rotation, because you feel like you feel good about them covering the final three innings with Gonzalez. That would be a huge plus, because our rotation has a chance to be really good."