Atlanta Braves

With Billy Wagner keen on retiring after the 2010 season, Frank Wren knew he would find himself this off-season once again shopping for bullpen arms.

Even with stellar rookie seasons by Jonny Venters and Craig Kimbrel out of the bullpen, Atlanta will seek at least one veteran arm to help out in late innings, as well as mentor the talented yet young relief corp.

When the Atlanta Braves 2010 came to a close a couple weeks back at the hands of the eventual National League Champion San Francisco Giants, there was a lot of mourning at the Britt (that's me) household.

I was resigned to filling out college applications and (gasp) putting school over baseball for a couple of weeks as I bitterly refused to watch the LCS's for the thought of what might of been had Chipper Jones, Martin Prado, Billy Wagner and Kris Medlen been good-to-go for the first round of the playoffs.

What's that?

At the age of 40, Japanese right-handed reliever Takashi Saito gave the Atlanta Braves a very solid season in a year in which they desperately wanted to win it all, knowing that legendary manager Bobby Cox was going to retire after the season ended.

In his sixth Major League Baseball season, Saito posted the following stats:

Games played: 56

41 hits in 54 IP

69 Strikeouts

2.83 ERA

Granted, the Bobby Cox era has officially been closed with the Braves—but that doesn’t mean baseball has ended in Atlanta.

And the same Braves that made a splash once again in 2010 have a shot of reaching even higher expectations in 2011.

So, what moves do Atlanta need to consider when building upon this past MLB season’s success and looking towards Spring Training and beyond?

Now that the Braves' 2010 season has come to a close, it's time to take a look at what we should do this offseason.

First off, let's look at who's currently on the Braves and may or may not be back next year.

Retirees

Wagner: $6.5 million saved

Non-Tenured Players

Melky: $3.1 million saved

Diaz: $2.55 million saved

Free Agent Departures

Saito: $3.2 million saved

Glaus: $2.35 million saved

The Atlanta Braves had a good year this season by most means. Won the Wild Card, overcame a plethora of injuries, and could have easily beaten the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS if a few more things went their way.

Following Bobby Cox's retirement, the Braves organization has already made a good move in hiring former Marlins manager and Braves third base coach Fredi Gonzalez. Despite his 276-279 record with the Marlins the last 3 1/2 years, Gonzalez has garnered a good amount of respect in the league, and was Cox's No. 1 choice to take over the Braves.

2010 was a moderate success for the Atlanta Braves. However, with retirement, free agency and trades, there's always the question of who will or will not be back playing for Atlanta in 2011.

We'll take a look at free agents, potential retirees and trade bait.

We expect that core players like Tommy Hanson, Tim Hudson, Brian McCann, Jason Heyward and Chipper Jones will be back because there's no logical reason why they wouldn't be.

Look around the locker room of any club after their season is over, and you will see a common sight. Guys are cleaning out their lockers and saying goodbye to teammates, others are staring at the wall pondering what might have been and yet others are thinking to the future—looking off into the next season that awaits.

One of the MLB’s all-time greats is walking away from the game.

Poor Brooks Conrad.

The Atlanta Braves second baseman, whom the team was forced to place considerable faith in when they lost infielders Chipper Jones and Martin Prado to season-ending injuries, could not have had a harder time of it during Atlanta's four-game loss to the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS. He collected just one hit and committed four extraordinarily costly errors, including three in the team's Game 3 loss alone.