Autry: O.C. a Medium Market

As Arte Moreno, the Angels’ new owner, pledges to add free agents to help maintain the competitiveness and popularity of a team that won the World Series last year and attracted a record 3 million fans this year, former co-owner Jackie Autry said Thursday Moreno might be misreading the Southern California media market and thus charting a course toward chronic financial losses.

Even as he projects losses of $12 million to $14 million next year, Moreno has authorized a record $90-million player payroll. He believes he can reverse financial course after 2004, as several large contracts expire and he pursues his goal of televising every game -- in English and Spanish -- in the second-largest media market in the country.

However, as long as Orange County lacks a major television or radio station, Autry says, she believes the Angels cannot generate enough broadcast revenue to finance a large-market payroll and break even as well. Autry and her late husband, Gene, sold the Angels to the Walt Disney Co. in 1996.

“We tried that approach. It didn’t work,” she said. “So did Disney. It only took them 2 1/2 years to figure it out.

“Orange County is wonderful. But Orange County is a medium market and always will be, unless you get a [network] affiliate down there, which will never happen because they couldn’t compete against an L.A. affiliate.”

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General Manager Bill Stoneman said he understood Scott Spiezio, who plans to test free agency, might not embrace a bench role after two years as the Angels’ first baseman. Spiezio figures to pursue a starting job elsewhere while the Angels pursue trades and other free agents and decide whether to move center fielder Darin Erstad to first.

“If Erstad is in the infield, he might be in Spiezio’s way,” Stoneman said. “We might not have all the answers in time for Spiezio.”