Atlanta of old or backsliding Braves? It hinges on Hudson

Eager to fix things, Hudson also began his throwing program in mid-December, at least two weeks earlier than normal. And to address those muscle-memory issues with his mechanics, he spent more time than Beyonce in front of a mirror over the winter, slowly repeating his correct windup, again and again.

"The mind is a powerful muscle, whether you're a baseball player, an eighth-grade school teacher, a general manager or an astronaut," Schuerholz says.

Hudson's effectiveness and confidence waned so much last summer that the scout's observation about his disappearing splitter was dead on.

During his dominant years -- he finished second in AL Cy Young voting in 2000 when he went 20-6 for Oakland -- Hudson says he would throw between 10 and 20 splitters out of every 100 pitches.

Last year?

"Maybe I'd throw five splitters out of 100 pitches if I was feeling good," he says. "And sometimes, I'd never throw it.

"I was pretty much a sinker/slider pitcher last year. A flat sinker. And it showed."

Another nearly inexplicable thing about Hudson's decline last season was this: After battling nagging oblique strains for much of his career, he had none in '06. Hudson's 35 starts equaled his career high.

So you would think that, pitching in a league without a designated hitter, and while avoiding the one injury that has plagued him throughout his career, Hudson, based on his résumé would be ... dominant. Or nearly so.

Or at the very least, that he can be again. And soon.

"The odds are in our favor," Schuerholz maintains confidently.

"Everything's good now, man," Hudson says. "It's early, but I feel really good about where I'm at right now."

Oddly -- and, perhaps, tellingly -- Jones says that as Hudson swooned last season, opponents weren't asking Chipper and the rest of the Braves what was up.

"No," Jones says. "I think the other teams feel kind of lucky that he hasn't been as dominant. Timmy's nasty. He's always going to be nasty. It's just the natural movement of his pitches.

"If you have that kind of stuff and you throw it over the middle part of the plate, it's going to get hit. In this league, it's going to be hit.

"If we can get him back to throwing to the corners and at the knees, he's going to be fine."