Who are these guys, and why are they in first place while everyone waits for the other shoe to fall?

If you want stars, look elsewhere. If you want to see guys chasing records, stay home and watch “SportsCenter.”

The only thing going on at Edison Field these days is a first-place baseball team.

Back in spring training, it didn’t seem too far-fetched to imagine the Angels contending for the American League West title. But that forecast was contingent on everything working out exactly right. Well, so far the Angels have caught exactly zero breaks. Yet here they are atop the AL West with the season’s halfway point just around the corner.

So besides the usual speculation about what will go wrong this time, this edition of the Angels begs an additional question: What are they doing in first place?

Their best hitter has a foot that aches so badly he looks as if he would have trouble scoring from third on a triple. Three-fifths of their starting rotation is on the disabled list. The catcher who was supposed to be a miniature version of Mike Piazza is out for the year. So is the second baseman they had been waiting on for almost two years.

“We knew coming in at spring training that we had good depth,” right fielder Tim Salmon said. “We just didn’t know we were going to have to use it so much.”

For all that has gone wrong, even more has gone right. The supposedly tapped-out minor leagues produced pitcher Jarrod Washburn and second baseman Justin Baughman.

And everyone who could help in any way has.

Salmon, bad foot and all, is still driving in runs as the designated hitter. Darin Erstad, Jim Edmonds and Garret Anderson have played to their abilities. And when Gary DiSarcina accounts for as many runs with his bat as he saves with his glove, that’s bonus time.

Catchers Matt Walbeck and Phil Nevin, who were acquired from Detroit for minor-league pitcher Nick Skuse, have done more than expected while filling in for Todd Greene.

“Bill [Bavasi, the general manager] doesn’t get a lot of credit for this deal,” Collins said. “This deal saved us.”

Speaking of Bavasi, is it possible he can keep his bosses and the masses happy? While Cecil Fielder is 22 home runs behind the more expensive Mark McGwire in the Roger Maris hunt, the Angels have won seven more games than McGwire’s St. Louis Cardinals. The bottom line is met in more ways than one.

With their remodeled ballpark, the Angels have drawn about 300,000 more fans than they did at this point last year. But they aren’t constantly packing them in. Not even Ken Griffey Jr. and the onset of summer could bring more than 25,000 fans to two games against the Mariners, Tuesday and Wednesday. It could take a full season in first place to convince the public that the Angels are for real.

So far, every time the Angels have opportunities to look like frauds, they keep proving otherwise. Whenever someone goes out, the team takes off. In April, Salmon went on the disabled list with a strained left foot and the Angels won eight of their next nine.

Collins was suspended for eight games (apparently for his non-role in the brawl at Kansas City) and the team won six.

Sure, some might be tempted to make some wisecracks about what that says about Collins’ managerial skills. Stop it right now. The reason they won without him--the reason they got into that rumble in the first place--is because Collins has infused this team with fighting spirit.

When the run of injuries started--be it Greene, second baseman Randy Velarde or pitchers Ken Hill, Jack McDowell and Jason Dickson--Collins never let the rest of the players start feeling sorry for themselves.

Instead they realized that these games count just as much as the ones in September. When the messed-up schedule finally allowed them to play their division rivals this month, the Angels won eight of their first nine games against Texas and Seattle, including six of seven this week.

“It’s real easy for me to sit back and say, ‘It’s early in the season,’ ” Collins said. “It’s not early any more. We’re at the All-Star Game.”

That said, there’s more than half of the season to go, with a team that has already stretched itself just to get this far. There won’t be any help for the lineup, now that Greene is set for season-ending surgery on his shoulder. Salmon is one bad step from shredding the ligament in his foot. With the Angels’ luck, there could be a rockslide in center field and Edmonds will be crushed beneath a prefabricated boulder.

While Chuck Finley gives them a shot at winning whenever he pitches (only one of his five runs were earned Friday), they don’t have that one everyday player they can rely on to get them through nights when everyone else is off.

Texas’ Juan Gonzalez showed them what they’re missing on Friday night. With two out, two strikes and the bases loaded, the man who could very well have the best RBI season in baseball history drove in three runs with a triple to put the Rangers ahead by three.

At that moment, with the Angels’ lead in the AL West about to shrink to half a game, it became clear that while the Justin Baughmans and Phil Nevins of the world make for great stories, it helps to have someone who can put up great statistics.