Call your friends in Cincinnati, Braves fans. Ask someone in Kansas City or Pittsburgh how it feels.

After years of assuming the schedule would extend to October, the Atlanta Braves are now no different than the Reds or Royals or Pirates. They will start the 2009 season with almost no hope of making the playoffs.

Barring multiple substantial free-agent signings (a philosophy rarely employed by the Braves) or trades (other teams can offer better prospects), the immediate future for the Braves appears bleak. General manager Frank Wren has even conceded that, as currently constructed, the Braves are pretty average.

And that’s being optimistic. Here’s reality: The Braves are 235-251 the last three years. Their 72-90 record in the just-completed season was the worst since 1990.

Mark Teixeira is gone. Their best player turns 37 next season. Baseball Prospectus ranked the top 50 players to build a team around, and catcher Brian McCann was the only Atlanta player on the list at No. 11.

In your search for hope, try not to look at the outfield. The Braves outfielders hit an MLB-low 27 home runs this season, a figure so minuscule most teams would think it’s a misprint. Jeff Francoeur, Matt Diaz, Gregor Blanco and Omar Infante don’t exactly evoke memories of the 1927 Yankees. In August, without Teixeira, Atlanta’s entire team hit just 14 home runs.

Fans are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Jordan Schafer, but he struck out 88 times in 84 minor league games. Josh Anderson seems like a nice player, but he hit only four home runs in 494 minor-league at-bats last season.

The free-agent pool (Adam Dunn? Milton Bradley?) is brutal. Ask any baseball executive, and he will tell you that, due to more steroid testing, hitters in their 30s are actually playing like their age. No longer able to defy nature, they have declining numbers. And the free-agent list for outfielders is full of those types of players.

Right now, Atlanta’s 2009 opening-day starting pitcher would be Jair Jurrjens. He had a 5.73 ERA in August and a 4.30 ERA in four September starts. The starting pitching situation is so grim that the Braves actually hope free agent Mike Hampton will remain with the team.

The Braves’ philosophy of signing old veterans — Tom Glavine and John Smoltz — did not work. Well, the free-agent pool is mostly aging veterans. The Braves are not going to sign CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets, Jon Garland or Oliver Perez. Derek Lowe, who is just a year younger than Chipper, is a more likely option.

By emphasizing the need to sign a free agent or make a trade, the Braves are admitting they are unable to develop talent in the farm system like they did during John Schuerholz’s tenure as general manager. In Baseball America’s top 100 prospects released at the start of the 2008 season, the Braves had zero in the top 20. Zero.

The Braves are a fourth-place team that finished 20 games out and is only going to decline. There are some positives — the infield is nice and the bullpen, if Peter Moylan and Rafael Soriano are healthy, will be much improved — but it’s hard to look at the roster, look at the Mets and Phillies, and think playoffs in 2009.

Does the comparison to Kansas City and Cincinnati seem offensive? It shouldn’t. The Royals and Reds each won more games than the Braves this season.

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