ATLANTA - Glancing across Turner Field into the home team's dugout Wednesday night, the Colorado Rockies could see what they would like to be, what just about every other team in baseball would like to be.
The Atlanta Braves are the envy of baseball.
They are consistently among the elite. The Braves are seeking to extend their record of eight consecutive postseasons appearances. And though they have only one world championship to show for all their October endeavors, the Braves at least go into each season knowing the sport's ultimate goal is within reach.
''When they say they have a chance to win in the spring,'' Rockies general manager Dan O'Dowd said, ''they believe it.''
What's more, the Braves have maintained their elite status for a decade now even though things always are changing in the clubhouse.
Tom Glavine was around when the Braves made their initial turnaround in 1991, but no other player on the roster then is on it now.
The Braves are not fearful of tinkering with a successful formula.
''They do a great job of balancing their payroll through scouting and player development,'' O'Dowd said.
Sure, the Braves have money to spend, but so do the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers. And look where it has gotten them.
''It's being able to use those resources wisely and not being afraid to make changes to a successful nucleus,'' Houston GM Gerry Hunsicker said. ''A mistake a lot of teams make is when they have found a successful nucleus, they let it grow old and then look up and wonder what happened.''
That's what happened to the Detroit Tigers of the '80s, a team that faded into oblivion in the '90s.
Not the Braves, though.
''Every year they don't just bring up a player, but they bring up a potential impact player,'' O'Dowd said.
This season, the Braves brought up a double dose Rafael Furcal, a 19-year-old shortstop, and Luis Rivera, a 21-year-old pitcher, both of whom are making the jump from Class A.
Last season, the Braves brought up pitcher Kevin McGlinchy, a potential closer; the year before that, they brought up lefty reliever John Rocker.
In 1997, it was Kevin Millwood, who now follows Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux in the rotation, and evolving center fielder superstar Andruw Jones.
Chipper Jones broke in at third base in 1996, a year after catcher Javier Lopez and outfielder Ryan Klesko showed up in Atlanta. Klesko, it should be noted, is one of the rare homegrown regulars the Braves have actually traded.
The Braves' philosophy has given them steady turnover but no massive demand to rebuild.
It's a vision the Rockies like to believe can become a reality for them.
But it doesn't happen overnight, even if it seemed like it did for the Braves as they went from worst-to-first in claiming the National League pennant in 1991.
That season John Schuerholz's first as GM in Atlanta after a career in Kansas City the Braves vaulted into celebrity status after signing free agents Rafael Belliard, Terry Pendleton and Sid Bream.
But the Braves' success in 1991 was more from the residuals of five years of patient building at the lower levels of the minor league system, orchestrated by current manager Bobby Cox, then the Braves GM, and inherited by Schuerholz.
''No matter what happens you can't lose sight of your foundation, and that's scouting and player development,'' Cox said.
It's how the Braves have done it.
It's how the Rockies would like to do it, too.
Contact Tracy Ringolsby of the Denver Rocky Mountain News at http://www.denver-rmn.com.