only thing I can say for certain is that he has a super HOTTIE for a wife.

truer words have never been said.  viewers at home, whom haven't seen her before, will certainly be happy when they do, and if there's one thing turner field cameramen love to do, is check out women on camera.  i sat in sec. 401 row 1-4 several times last season and caught the boys redhanded quite a few times.

However, in 2008 Kotsay is entering his age-32 season; moreover, his recent struggles have not been confined to staying on the field.  I'll even absolve Kotsay of his injury-abbreviated 2007 season, and compare the three seasons prior (ages 29-31) to his three year peak:

1860 PA
101 OPS+ / .343 OBP / .424 SLG

139 BB / 176 K / 7.47 BB% / 9.46 K%

.053 isoOBP / .134 isoSLG / .305 BAbip
717 TB / .386 bases-per-PA

As we can see, Kotsay saw his 2004-2006 production in an A's uniform depreciate: by .014 in terms of OBP, .022 in terms of SLG, by 13 points of OPS+; likewise, he walked 1.38% fewer times, and produced .014 fewer bases-per-PA (-.010 isoOBP, -.018 isoSLG, -.009 BAbip). As he's aged and declined, Kotsay has transitioned from an above-average offensive CF (~.800 OPS), complimented by plus-defense, to an offensively-average CF (~.750 OPS) whose defensive faculties are now ambiguous pending the results of his physical recovery.

Hence, at best, I see Kotsay as a .330/.420 player in 2008 - or, slightly below average without considering defensive position (<100 OPS+).  However, that is merely his ceiling: for instance, in 2006, Kotsay produced at a .718 OPS level (88 OPS+) through 558 PA, and 2007's numbers worsened to a .575 OPS (57 OPS+) through 226 PA.  

These are not unreasonable scenarios with respect to 2008 - in the disrepair of 2007, while Kotsay managed a decent 8.41 BB% (.065 isoOBP) and continued his recent trend of mitigating his strike-outs (11.49% 2000-2002, 9.46% 2004-2006, 8.85% 2007), he managed a meager .231 BAbip, a feeble .082 isoSLG, and a pitiful .270 bases-per-PA (for comparison, punchless-judy Juan Pierre only posted a .060 isoSLG, but still produced .324 bases-per-PA).  

It is not difficult to discern the pattern: despite the recent improvement in his walk-rate and suppression of his strikeout-rate, Kotsay's offensive production cannot be buoyed by those offensive dimensions alone.  Meanwhile, aging and accident have render his bat pusillanimous, as the significant and correspondent declines in BAbip, bases-per-PA, and OPS reflect: in 2006, he maintained a solid BAbip (.294) and was thus able to remain slightly productive through his batting-average (.275; .057 isoOBP), despite his mediocre .348 bases-per-PA (.111 isoSLG); in 2007, however, Kotsay was debilitated to such an extent that he could no longer even power singles, much less extra-base hits, and his .231 BAbip and .270 bases-per-PA buttress this observation.

Since I enter this endeavor with preconceived negativity and trepidation, I will attempt to account for this in my projection for 2008 -- I will split the difference between his 2004-2006 and 2007 production, which I believe is a reasonable theoretical premise:

420 PA / 385 AB
99 H / 34 BB / 1 HBP / 39 K

32 XBH / 146 TB / .268 BAbip
24 2B / 1 3B / 7 HR

.257 / .319 / .379

Although the .367 bases-per-PA I predict would represent a significant rebound for Kotsay vis-à-vis 2007's production (and a light improvement compared to 2006), these numbers still amount to an ~.700 OPS player -- even packaged with above-average center-field defense, which is a dubious assumption, this is still barely adequate.  For instance, by virtue of his superior on-base skills and walk-rate, the recently-maligned Andruw Jones still maintained a .724 OPS in 2007 despite only producing .358 bases-per-PA thanks to his .222 AVG/.242 BAbip; in addition, his superlative defense was a predictable and demonstrable fact.  

Personally, I think these prognostications are quite justifiable, based on the ambiguous conditions upon which Kotsay's 2008 production will be predicated; if, indeed, he posts a 92 OPS+ in 2008 - a tremendous rebound from 2007, and better than his 2006 season as well - I think the Atlanta offense can survive.  Of course, this will only be the case provided his PA arises from the eighth position, and not the first or second spot, where his sub-par rates are both distributed over a greater percentage of the team's total PA, and have the additional deleterious effect of reducing the team-PA percentage of superior options (Escobar and, especially, Johnson).  

However, overall, I think Kotsay is no better or worse an option than Gregor Blanco (or Josh Anderson, for that matter), and so in this sense his acquisition was redundant; depth is a nice commodity during the arduous 162-game major-league season, but fungible redundancy is only a highly superficial form of "depth."  In this case, all Kotsay does is necessitate a back-up plan, because of his injuries and injurious production: if the front-office had little to no faith in Blanco's ability to be meet or transcend replacement-level CF-production, Kotsay is a reasonable veteran alternative (though not worth Joey Devine's salary-controlled potential); conversely, Josh Anderson could be a reasonable alternative of comparable inexperience to Blanco; nonetheless, all three are left-handers with similar offensive profiles, and as such only two of them are necessary.  

Instead, Wren surrendered two relievers of potential value - one with untested potential; one with limited, but seasonally-consistent, value - to increase the chances that the Braves receive (at best) very mediocre offensive production out of their center-fielder in 2008.  And, even if Kotsay plays around 140 games and accrues around 600 PA - thus nullifying Blanco and Anderson, for the most part - I still cannot envision a realistic scenario in which Kotsay bests a .750 OPS, which means slightly below league-average production is the best outcome for which we should hope.