LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Jimmy Rollins proved prophetic when the Phillies won last year's National League East title and Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran has already proclaimed that he and his teammates will ride Johan Santana's left arm to this year's division title.

After completing their first full-squad workout at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex on Wednesday afternoon, none of the Braves were ready to imitate Rollins or Beltran by providing a preseason guarantee.

But after getting his first look at his team as a whole, Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur was pretty confident that he's part of a bunch that has every right to believe it can kill the division-title hopes held by both the Phillies and the Mets.

"I'm not going to sit here and make predictions, but I feel like our team is just as good as the other two teams in our division," Francoeur said. "When I ran today, I was looking at all the names on the back [of the jerseys] and I was like, 'We've got a pretty good team.'"

While signing Tom Glavine, acquiring Mark Kotsay and filling some other needs over the course of the past few months, Braves general manager Frank Wren has gained a sense that he could have a strong team. Now that he's had his first opportunity to see it in a tangible form, he's looking forward to seeing if it can evolve into the championship caliber that he's envisioned.

"It's exciting, because all winter long you're looking at a roster board or you're looking at rosters and it's all on paper," Wren said. "This is always fun, when they get out there on the field."

With manager Bobby Cox attending his mother-in-law's funeral in Georgia, the Braves held their first workout before getting the opportunity to hear Cox's annual preseason speech. He'll deliver it before Thursday's workout and Francoeur is looking forward to the motivation that it always provides.

"It's not that he raises his voice," Francoeur said. "He just gets you fired up when he starts talking. That's what makes me realize, when I'm down here talking to Bobby, that there's no way this is his last year. He looks forward to this stuff way too much."

Cox, who is entering his 27th season as a big league manager, has at least left open the possibility that he could retire at the end of the season. But his long-term future isn't even on his current radar. Instead, the only baseball-related decisions worrying him right now focus more on who will be part of his roster for the March 30 season opener in Washington, D.C.

Mike Hampton threw well again on Wednesday and is giving more reason to believe that he might begin the season in the starting rotation. In fact, right now, there might be more doubt surrounding Chuck James, who is slowly battling back from the torn left rotator cuff that an MRI revealed in October.

If Hampton is healthy, James, Jo-Jo Reyes, Jair Jurrjens and Jeff Bennett will battle for the rotation's final spot. In addition, the bullpen might have two available spots.

"We feel like we have 21 legitimate candidates for our 12-man pitching staff," Wren said. "We feel like we have 21 guys that we could break with any of the 21 and see quality pitching. ... We haven't been there in recent years."

While Javy Lopez might be the favorite to win the backup catcher position, he'll find himself in a battle with Clint Sammons, Corky Miller and Brayan Pena, who is out of options and might be attractive to other teams via a trade.

Cox will also spend the next few weeks determining how many backup outfielders he'll carry and how he'll handle the left-field position. He could play Matt Diaz there every day, or platoon him with Brandon Jones or possibly Josh Anderson.

Wren is looking forward to seeing these position battles take shape and he understands that one decision could affect how they handle the battle at another position. Also playing a factor in the decisions will be the health of Omar Infante, the super-utility player who is out until late March with a broken left hand.

"There's a lot of potential moving parts," Wren said. "The good thing is, we're talking about talented guys."

Wren confirmed that is a bit unique for the Braves to come to camp with so many potential position battles. But because he feels confident with the quality of players that will be battling, he's not currently worried about the outcomes.

"Generally, you come into camp with 23 or 24 names and you're looking for one or two [players to fill a 25-man roster]," Wren said. "We probably have 20 or 21 [players on the roster] and we're looking for four [players] to win battles in certain areas. So I think it makes it much more interesting for what we're down here for."