Other teams receiving high grades for pitching depth were the Giants, Mets, Rays, Angels, Twins, and Marlins.
"Listen, how often do you have the same five starters all year?" said the GM. "The team which can best replace the injuries will often win."
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When the Angels begin arriving in Tempe for spring training this year, there will be very little time wasted on introductions. The team has made only one significant addition since last season -- closer Brian Fuentes.
But there have been a number of significant subtractions.
The Angels were unable to re-sign first baseman Mark Teixeira and made no attempts to re-sign right-handers Francisco Rodriguez and Jon Garland or left fielder Garret Anderson.
The result is a team that seems truly unbalanced -- heavily reliant on a strong pitching staff but searching for enough offense to support those arms.
General manager Tony Reagins and manager Mike Scioscia have been insistent that the answers lie within the organization and do not need to be sought on the free agent market -- even when the number of established players on that market remained unusually high as spring training neared.
Three players, in particular, will have to succeed in 2009 to prove Reagins and Scioscia right.
The Angels touted first baseman Kendry Morales as their fall-back position should Teixeira leave via free agency. Now Morales will have those big shoes to fill.
A .329 hitter in parts of four minor league seasons since he fled Cuba and signed with the Angels, Morales prepared for his big opportunity with an outstanding winter ball season in the Dominican Republic.
Morales had a .404 batting average and .778 slugging percentage in 26 regular-season games for Gigantes del Cibao.
