From what I can tell, the Braves will have a few spots to fill in their lineup for next year:  1B, corner outfield, closer.  This post concerns some options for 1B, with some assumptions I'll outline below.  Appreciate everyone's thoughts and comments.

The main assumption I'm going to make is that Freddie Freeman is the Braves 1B of the future, and by future I mean 2012 at the earliest.  Freddie turns 20 this September, and while it appears that he's been shut down for the year with an injury, he is still showing a lot of promise.  Prospects flame out and appear out of nowhere, but he seems to have a good shot at success.  If he arrives to stay on the ML roster in 2012, he'll be 21 going on 22 -- that's pretty young.

So now the question I've been pondering is this -- what can the Braves do to best bridge the gap to Freddie, that both keeps the team competitive in the short term and yet doesn't block Freddie when he's ready (hopefully) just a few years from now.  The ideal solution would be a player who is signed for the next 2 years maybe with an option for a third.  I've taken a look at the starting 1B all across MLB and organized them into groups as detailed below.

1.  Untouchables:  These are players, in my opinion, who will not under any conceivable circumstance appear in a Braves uniform.  Reasons for this include:  already locked up in a long term contracts, very expensive (think $12M / yr or more), have no-trade clauses, or are young superstars pre-arbitration (i.e. their current owners would be foolish to trade them).  Players on this list are:

Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols, Derrick Lee, Lance Berkman, Joey Votto, Todd Helton, Mark Texiera, Miguel Cabrera, Justin Morneau, Kendry Morales

2.  Players not better than what we have now:  Currently, the Braves have two viable options (as I see it) for 1B, Martin Prado and Adam LaRoche.  I took a look at player WAR over the last few years, and the following players are in my judgment inferior to just playing Prado everyday, or resigning LaRoche to a market-value deal.

James Loney, the SF duo (Garko / Ishikawa), Lyle Overbay, Hank Blalock

3.  Players currently under contract who hit FA in 2011:  This group would basically be a 1yr rental, at which point the Braves would have to either re-sign (and potentially block Freeman) or repeat the process after the 2010 season.  In my opinion, Freeman probably will not be ready by 2011, so I don't think acquiring one of these players helps the Braves as much in the interim.  They are:

Jorge Cantu, Carlos Pena, Adam Dunn, Paul Konerko, Victor Martinez (who should probably be "untouchable")

With the players above eliminated from contention, we have two groups left of players I think could be a good fit for the near future.

4.  Free Agents after 2009:  The following is not an exhaustive list of FA, but rather the folks I felt are / were at some point good enough to be a ML starter. 

Adam LaRoche, Nick Johnson, Carlos Delgado, Russell Branyan, Aubrey Huff

5.  Players who might make sense to acquire:  These players are currently under contract, but for a long enough period of time to acquire without blocking Freeman.  Ideally they'd hit FA when he's ready, at which point we could let them walk and maybe nab some draft picks in the process:

Prince Fielder, Adrian Gonzalez, Conor Jackson

Now that I've binned all the players, who should we sign already?  Here's my take, player-by-player from lists 4 and 5.

Adam LaRoche - Best season is about 2.5 WAR, which means he's an average to slightly above 1B.  Has a history of starting slow and then pouring it on in the 2nd half, which has held true for us so far.  Good with the glove, which is a plus, and no injury history to speak of.  Probably would stay with the Braves if we don't low ball him.

Nick Johnson - He is the offensive yin to LaRoche's yang; whereas LaRoche has nice power and decent OBP, Nick gets on base at a tremendous clip -- .400+ lifetime average, but has limited power.  He is a prototypical 2 hitter, a spot the Braves don't particularly need.  Has a very checkered injuy past, has had about the same or slightly higher WAR as LaRoche.  All things equal I'd probably rather have LaRoche for durability.

Carlos Delgado - I think the main question with this guy is does he still del-got-it?  He'll turn 38 next year, and that's getting old for a Braves team that has gotten decidedly younger in the last two years.  That said, he did hit 38 HR's last year for folks who like counting stats.  All those bombs equated to 2.9 WAR, however, and his output was almost entirely in the second half, when he went nuts.  He's missed basically the entire year with the newly vogue hip impingement, so he's an injury risk as well.

Russell Branyan - a career journeyman who's never started until this year, where he has taken full advantage and been a winning lottery ticket for the Mariners.  He's 34 with basically this year as evidence of his potential.  Which Branyan is the real one?  Not sure I want to gamble for two years to find out.

Aubrey Huff - Huff seems to alternate between pretty darn good (4+ WAR) and pretty lousy (< 1 WAR seasons), and is awful this year.  I think he could play a little 3B in a pinch, which would give the Braves some flexibility, but we probably don't need that with Infante and Prado.  Another guy that's hard to call. 

Prince Fielder - Is this guy untouchable?  I don't necessarily think so.  Main reason is because the Brewers don't have the biggest budget in the world and they need pitching, something we have an excess of.  Prince is signed through 2010, and then has his 3rd year of arbitration in 2011.  If we could line up a deal for him, we'd be bringing in a premier slugger to fill out the middle of the lineup.  He would likely cost us big, however --  the Brewers would probably want Jurrjens as a start.  Finally, in the event Freeman doesn't work out, we could always just try and open the pocketbook and make Prince the franchise player, as Lowe and Chipper's salaries will be coming off the books when he hits FA or the year after.

Adrian Gonzalez - Personally, I think he's untouchable, but people love to dream about getting this guy.  I leave him here simply because the Padres are re-building and no one on that roster now may really be untouchable.  A king's ransom would be required to pry him loose, and I doubt if the Braves could come out ahead in such a deal.

Conor Jackson - Not sure what to make of Jackson -- he's missed almost the entire year with some kind of pneumonia, and he probably isn't that much better than LaRoche even when he's healthy.  Only reason to consider him is he has 2 years of arbritration left, so he'd be cheaper in dollars than the FA but would cost other prospects in return. 

So at the end of the day, what do I think we should do?  If I were Frank Wren, I'd inquire about what it might take to relieve the Brewer's of Fielder's salary, and see if a blockbuster deal could happen.  Otherwise, I think LaRoche is probably our best option.  He's not as good as he's been this summer, but he's at least league average with potential for more.  The other FA are either old, injury-prone, hit-or-miss, or really not that much of an upgrade, and could cost draft picks to sign for the same money.  Adam is not exactly elite talent -- a 2 year deal with a 3rd option + buyout could probably get him to stay.  If he wants huge money, we could start Prado at first, but that hurts the infield flexibility that has been so valuable to the Braves this year.