* Bartolo Colon, the 2005 AL Cy Young Award winner, makes a strong recovery from a rotator-cuff tear and upgrades the rotation from very good to one of baseball's best. A healthy Garret Anderson returns to his form of 2000-2003, when he averaged 30 homers and 120 RBIs, and teams with Vladimir Guerrero to give the Angels a formidable one-two punch. Second baseman Howie Kendrick, a .361 hitter in four minor league seasons, develops into the high-average doubles machine the Angels envision, providing a boost to the lower third of the lineup, and Casey Kotchman recovers fully from mononucleosis, solidifying first base offensively and defensively.
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What Could Go Right
WHAT MIGHT GO WRONG
* Center fielder Gary Matthews Jr., pressured to live up to the expectations of his five-year, $50-million contract and distracted by allegations he received a shipment of human growth hormone in 2004, falls well short of his 2006 season (.313, 19 homers, 79 RBIs, 102 runs) with the Rangers. Colon and Weaver, slowed by a case of biceps tendinitis, suffer relapses, forcing the Angels to go extended periods with Joe Saunders, Dustin Moseley or Hector Carrasco in the rotation. The Angels, who made a league-high 122 errors and gave up 80 unearned runs in 2006, make little or no defensive improvements.
-- MIKE DIGIOVANNA
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