Home Stand Marks a Crossroads for Angels, Brown Says : Baseball: Team president says price was too steep for acquiring extra bats before trading deadline.

Angel President Richard Brown called the home stand that begins tonight “the season,” and vowed to reassess the club’s situation if the Angels don’t justify his faith that they will win the AL West.

His postseason evaluation will include the performance of Manager Doug Rader, but Brown said Rader is not the problem. “The manager isn’t even an issue,” Brown said of Rader, whose contract runs through next season. “The manager can’t hit, run or field.”

The Angels’ offense remains their weakness, according to Brown. However, he said that weakness wasn’t glaring enough to relinquish top minor leaguers in deals discussed before Wednesday’s deadline for trading players without clearing waivers.

Brown acknowledged that the A’s, who were willing to deal minor leaguers, strengthened themselves with their recent acquisitions of infielder Brook Jacoby and pitcher Ron Darling.

The Angels were interested in Darling before the New York Mets traded him to the Expos--who in turn dealt Darling to Oakland--but the Mets wanted top prospects in return. The same was true of the Brewers, when the Angels inquired about pitcher Chris Bosio.

“I always thought this team is good enough to win. The reason trades weren’t made is one word in the vocabulary: future,” Brown said. “You’re not about to trade your future, especially if you’re seven out. If you’re one or two out, maybe you think about maybe giving up a prospect. . . .

“Obviously, Darling is going to help them. He’s also a free agent after the season. That diminished (the Angels’) interest. Obviously, Oakland has improved itself. Any time you give up minor leaguers for major leaguers, it’s going to help.

“I think everyone associated with the organization is disappointed with where we are. We’re not disappointed with the team or the effort. I said at the beginning of the year that we were good enough to win it, and I said at the All-Star break, when we were one or two out, we should have been on top. We’re eight games out this morning. Anybody who says they’re not (disappointed) isn’t the type of person I want in this organization.”

The Angels’ shortcoming, he said, “has been in hitting and run production. The pitching has been a strength, but one disappointment is that I thought we would produce more runs, specifically home runs.” Mike Marshall, signed to a minor league contract last week, was obtained “to give us punch. We had a power outage . . . (and) he was obtained very cheaply, and by that I mean for no players. He has a lot of potential, but then again, we said the same about Jack Howell.”

Howell was dealt to the Padres for Shawn Abner on Tuesday in the Angels’ only pre-deadline deal.

Although Brown said the Angels must “put it into high gear right now,” he declined to discuss what he would do if they don’t win the division title.

“I want to deal with positives, not negatives,” he said. “I’ll have the whole fall and winter to think about it. I’ll only go so far as to say this: If we don’t win it this year, we’ll reassess and try to strengthen where our weaknesses are. It’s as simple as that.”