San Juan, Puerto Rico ? Leo Mazzone stopped rocking and sat up straight to make his point, so clearly he was serious.

“Well, there’s a little more stress going on,” Atlanta’s pitching coach said. “We’re not used to this.”

That was a few days ago, when the Braves’ staff found itself in unfamiliar territory — dead last on the National League ERA chart.

Strong outings by freshly signed Shane Reynolds and rookie Horacio Ramirez helped move them up a bit, but the reality is sinking in: Minus Tom Glavine, Kevin Millwood and Damian Moss, this rebuilt rotation is starting over.

On and off the field, in fact.

John Smoltz can feel it. His eyes looked away and his voice trailed off as he talked about Glavine.

“Miss him? Yeah, a lot,” the closer said. “For 15 years, we were doing the same thing. I mean, I’d wake up and not have to wonder where I was playing golf or who I was playing with. Now, I’m doing a lot more organizing than I used to. It’s going to take a while.”

That same day, with the Braves in Puerto Rico to play Montreal, Smoltz spoke by phone with Glavine before his start for the New York Mets at Pittsburgh.

“It’s been one of the biggest adjustments for me, too. John Smoltz is one of my best friends, and not being around him still is a little bit strange,” said Glavine, who left Atlanta as a free agent.

“The baseball is the same. … Baseball is baseball, and the adjustments you have to make from the baseball side of it are not that difficult. But those are the things that come a little bit harder, those on the personal side. You miss being around some people.”

The other member of the Braves’ big three for all those years, Greg Maddux, echoed the same sentiment. During Atlanta’s ongoing run of 11 straight division titles, it seemed as if the three Cy Young Award winners were always together in the dugout.

Atlanta Braves pitchers Greg Maddux, left, and Shane Reynolds chat during a warmup session at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday. Strong outings by Reynolds and rookie Horacio Ramirez have helped the Braves' renovated pitching staff.

These days, Glavine is gone, and Smoltz is in the bullpen.

“It’s different,” Maddux said. “It think it was really different in spring training. Time takes care of a lot of things, they say.”

The Braves went into the weekend with a 5.39 ERA, far from impressive but a lot better than their 6.29 mark after 12 games.

General manager John Schuerholz is convinced they’ll keep improving, even after trading away Millwood and Moss — they combined for 63 starts last season — and seeing Glavine leave.

To replace them, the Braves acquired three top starters in Mike Hampton, Russ Ortiz and Paul Byrd. They totaled only one win through the first 21¼2 weeks, but that’s mostly because Hampton was out until this weekend because of a strained right calf and Byrd is sidelined because of a bad right elbow.

“Before the injuries, a lot of people thought we were going to be stronger than last year, and I was one of them,” Schuerholz said. “The way we started off didn’t provide the proper validation for that feeling, but I believe it’s true.”

If anything, the turnover has given Smoltz a chance to get to know his new teammates better.

Jung Keun Bong, who pitched in only one game last year, already is 2-0 in relief.

Bong earned his first major-league victory against the Expos this week, and Smoltz earned the save. But Smoltz, unaware that it was Bong’s first win, tossed the game ball into the stands. Bong didn’t seem to mind. And Smoltz, who runs the Braves’ Kangaroo Court, kiddingly said he shouldn’t be punished.

“Everybody else should be fined,” he said, “because nobody told me.”