Angels Should Sit Tight

It’s beginning to look like the best course of action for the Angels this off-season is to do as little as possible. Unless the Florida Marlins are on the phone.

The Angels would be better off doing nothing than making some of the head-shaking moves other teams made this week.

I still would like to see them make a strong run at Houston free-agent pitcher Darryl Kile, but Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi said Thursday you can pretty much rule that out.

So if they’re not going to pursue the best the market has to offer, that leaves trades. Which brings us to Jim Edmonds.

Most of the Edmonds trade rumors (to the Dodgers, to Cincinnati, to Arizona, to infinity andbeyond . . .) are either untrue, unlikely or undesirable. He’s a spectacular center fielder who can produce a .300 average, 30 home runs and 100 RBIs. But what makes Edmonds so valuable in this day and age is that he can do all of those things at a reasonable price.

He will make an average of $3 million the next two seasons and there’s an option for a third season at about $4 million. Try to find a bargain like that anywhere else. New York’s Bernie Williams wants more than that $10-million total for next year alone.

Edmonds has that combination of desirability and availability. He’s good, but not as untouchable as Tim Salmon and Darin Erstad, who comes at an even cheaper price than Edmonds. So although Bavasi said about a half dozen other players have been discussed as much as Edmonds, they don’t make for equally good trade talk.

The advice to the Angels is the same I’d give to a 9-year-old who just found $20: just because you can use it doesn’t mean you have to.

Of course, this is all subject to change if Bavasi hears the magic words: “Mr. Bavasi, Dave Dombrowski on Line 1.”

The Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers are offering shares of stock in the team. The Marlins are doing them one better: For the right package of prospects, you can actually own one of the World Series champs.

Moises Alou, Devon White, Robb Nen are already gone, with Dombrowski, the Marlins’ general manager, saying “we expect to make more trades.”

Maybe Bavasi could have offered a couple of rows of old Anaheim Stadium seats for the Marlins to use if they ever get their new stadium.

If Dombrowski wants to take Edmonds for Kevin Brown, then Bavasi should consider it, even though Brown has only one year left on his contract.

The Angels don’t want to get stuck in the same position as the Boston Red Sox, who sent pitching prospect Carl Pavano and a player to be named to Montreal for Pedro Martinez, even though Martinez said he does not want to stay in Boston once his contract expires next year.

The Red Sox let Roger Clemens go a year before he won the Cy Young Award and will get Martinez the year after he won the Cy Young Award--and only for a year. This franchise isn’t cursed; it’s just dumb.

The Red Sox finished 20 games out last season, while the Angels can realistically set their sights on a pennant next year. When you’re within range, you can afford to lease a player temporarily while you make your run. You only get so many opportunities to win the division.

It doesn’t look as if the Angels will get the opportunity to trade for one of the Braves’ pitchers now that Atlanta signed Andres Galarraga. But they still can sign Atlanta’s Mark Lemke, a free agent who could fill the Angels’ needs at second base.

Things can’t be so bad that the Angels can’t afford to spend a little cash. I know the team is losing money, but everything’s going great back aboard the mother ship. Disney’s profits rose 18% in the fourth quarter and the stock hit its all-time high this week.

Of course, if every Disney enterprise had the same fallacies as baseball, Michael Eisner would be forced to sell pencils on the corner.

What a pathetic week for the sport. It’s bad enough that the Arizona Diamondbacks decided to make shortstop Jay Bell the highest-paid middle infielder ever ($34 million over five years.)

But all you need to know about the sorry, diluted, overpriced state of the sport can be gleaned by looking at the first two picks of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays: Tony Saunders from Florida and Quinton McCracken from Colorado. In other words, an expansion team used its top picks to take leftovers from the previous two expansion teams.

And how about this quote from Montreal General Manager Jim Beattie: “We do not intend to win next year.” Wow. With statements like that, the Expos apparently do not intend to sell tickets next year, either.

You won’t hear anything that dramatic from Bavasi. Earlier in the week, he told The Times’ Mike DiGiovanna that there was a blockbuster deal being discussed, “but if I had to bet, I’d say it won’t happen. There’s a lot of talk right now, but that’s all it is, talk.”

Thursday, he said, “Big, wholesale changes are unlikely.”

Why should they be? If the Seattle Mariners are unwilling to lock up Randy Johnson long-term and willing to entertain offers for him, the Angels don’t have to do a thing.

Their team competed last year and felt it could have won the division if everyone stayed healthy. Their pitching is decent enough, and maybe Allen Watson won’t give up so many home runs after the fences are moved back in the remodeled ballpark.

They can just sit back, relax, and let the stupidity of others deliver the American League West to Anaheim.