Dodgers lead Angels in battle of off-season signings -- so far

After all these years of the Angels transforming themselves in the Dodgers’ image, look here: The Dodgers are taking page one out of the Angels’ playbook.

And, after all these years of the Angels fielding the superior team in town, look here too: On the eve of the winter meetings, the Dodgers are the better team.

We’ll check back, of course, after the Angels have done their winter shopping. The Dodgers have finished most of theirs, with a focus on the foundation that has made the Angels so successful for a decade: Put a legitimate starting pitcher on the mound, every day.

The Dodgers play in a pitchers’ park, in a pitchers’ division, most recently won by a team that can roll out Barry Zito as an innings-munching fifth starter. The Dodgers are not so blessed offensively that they can come to camp and wish for a fifth starter to emerge from a cast of castoffs and kids.

“When the season ended, in my mind, we had two bona fide starters coming back,” General Manager Ned Colletti said.

By the day after Thanksgiving, the Dodgers had five. In a market for starting pitchers in which Cliff Lee stands alone on the first tier, Colletti ignited a rush on a limited second tier by spending $50 million to sign Ted Lilly, Hiroki Kuroda and Jon Garland.

Kuroda will be 36 next season, Lilly 35. But with none of the Dodgers’ minor leaguers deemed ready for a rotation spot, Colletti could not wait to see if the asking prices would fall.

“We couldn’t afford to be passive with it,” Colletti said. “The free-agent market was not tremendously deep. We had to be aggressive.”

With Rod Barajas signed at catcher and Juan Uribe at second base, the Dodgers are just about done. Colletti said he still would like to add a relief pitcher or two, and a left fielder. He said he remains in touch with free agent Scott Podsednik, who finished last season in left field.

Colletti also said he has no plans to trade first baseman James Loney or pitcher Chad Billingsley. If another general manager dangles a power hitter (Prince Fielder?) before Colletti and says the Dodgers can afford to trade Billingsley because they have four other starters, Colletti vows to just say no.

The Dodgers have not had four pitchers start 30 games since 1993. In Billingsley, Lilly, Kuroda, Garland and ace Clayton Kershaw, Colletti hopes to have five.

The teams that led the National League in innings pitched by starters, the San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies, were the teams in the league championship series.

“If they can pitch six, seven, eight innings — with an occasional nine — you’ll have a better chance of having a good season, and a good postseason if you get there,” Colletti said.

The Dodgers’ starting five pitched 985 innings last season with an earned-run average of 3.39; the Angels’ starting five — Jered Weaver, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana, Joel Pineiro and Scott Kazmir — pitched 984 innings with an ERA of 4.00. Take out Kazmir, whose 5.94 ERA was the highest of any major leaguer with at least 150 innings, and the Angels’ other starters had a 3.66 ERA.

Neither team has a lights-out closer, or catcher. The Angels have a huge edge at first base if Kendry Morales comes back strong from his broken leg.

At second base, we’ll take Uribe’s home-run pop and defense over Howie Kendrick’s doubles power. It’s Rafael Furcal over Erick Aybar at shortstop, Casey Blake and Alberto Callaspo as placeholders at third base, a dual vacancy in left field, and Matt Kemp over Peter Bourjos in center, with Andre Ethier and Torii Hunter a push in right.

The Angels’ work has just begun, but so much of it starts and ends with Carl Crawford, who is as suited for the Mike Scioscia system as any player the Angels’ farm system could ever produce.

By building around fly-ball pitchers in Weaver and Haren, the Angels must deploy a superior defensive outfield. They can no longer run Bobby Abreu or Juan Rivera out there. If they fail to sign Crawford, they can find a good glove for left field, but probably not with a good enough bat to enable the Angels to keep Bourjos in the lineup. He’s an elite defensive player with a novice bat.

Free agent options include outfielder Jayson Werth, third baseman Adrian Beltre and closer Rafael Soriano, all represented by agent Scott Boras. Owner Arte Moreno cooled toward Boras after the Mark Teixeira negotiations two years ago, and Moreno declared he had no interest in Boras client Matt Holliday at last fall’s owners’ meetings.

Moreno said nothing at this fall’s owners’ meetings, and Boras has developed working relationships with General Manager Tony Reagins and club President John Carpino. Still, as one Angels insider put it, the front office is thankful that Boras does not represent Crawford.

The Dodgers look good, particularly given that their unsettled ownership situation has prevented them from competing for elite players such as Crawford and Lee. The Angels could look better, and they could offer Crawford twice as much money as the total the Dodgers committed to Lilly, Kuroda and Garland.

We’ll see how big a swing the Angels take, for losing out on Crawford would be a mighty swing and a miss.

bill.shaikin@latimes.com