Touched by the top angel: Anaheim, thanks to its owner's willingness to pay big money to such talents as Vladimir Guerrero and Bartolo Colon, appears

A dozen cardboard boxes were piled up in a hallway outside the Angels' spring training clubhouse in Tempe, Ariz. They were serving as makeshift mailboxes for the team's better-known players. Spring training was barely a week old, but the boxes already were filling up--and no box contained more mail than the largest one, the one belonging to Vladimir Guerrero.

It seems the newest big-name Angel is fast becoming the most popular Angel. Judging from his 24/7 smile, Guerrero looks like the happiest Angel, too. Why not? After years of toiling for the Team That Bud Neglected, the right fielder has left Montreal and found work with a franchise ready to settle in with baseball's elite.

In 2002, the Angels went on a magical run to win their first World Series. After spending their first 41 seasons as mostly an afterthought on southern California's sports landscape, the team was on top of the baseball world. Seven months later, Anaheim got some really good news.

Arte Moreno, who made his fortune in the billboard business, bought the club from the tight-fisted Walt Disney Co. and quickly showed he does not plan to operate as most owners do. He cut ticket costs, lowered beer prices and wandered arou

To make good on his word, Moreno committed more than $145 million in the offseason to four free agents--including $70 million over five years for Guerrero. Now a club with a payroll of about $80 million last year will have one closer to $110 million in 2004. While the Yankees and the Red Sox hogged the hot-stove spotlight, it was the Angels who landed the best free-agent player in Guerrero and the top free-agent pitcher in power righthander Bartolo Colon. The signings of righthander Kelvim Escobar and outfielder Jose Guillen further strengthened the club.

"Those guys definitely provided the entertainment for the offseason," Angels outfielder Tim Salmon says of the high rollers in the American League East. "From our standpoint, even if we hadn't done anything this winter, we were thinking as long as we can get healthy, we'll take our chances. Then we go out and make some moves. We're thinking, hey, those are nice additions. Then ... all of a sudden, it's Guerrero. Now it's like we've been given more than we ever asked for, but we'll take it."

On paper, Salmon says, this is the most talented Angels club in his 13 seasons with the team, an opinion difficult to dispute considering what Anaheim added to a core that includes seven regulars and the heart of the pitching staff from the '02 championship team. "When you go up against the Yankees, sometimes they win because they have the most talent," Salmon says. "You can put this team in that category now. Guys like Garret (Anderson), Vladdy and Colon literally can put the team on their back and carry you to a win."

Of course, you must remember a favorite cliche of spring training: "The games aren't played on paper." On paper, most teams look like winners in March. But what's on paper means about as much as a fan letter. One example that the best team doesn't always win the biggest prize just happens to be those '02 Angels, who fielded no better than the fifth-best talent in the majors (after the Yankees, A's, Giants and Cardinals). But manager Mike Scioscia sold his players on his sum-is-greater-than-the-parts approach. By June, the club was making late-inning rallies a routine occurrence; before long, baseball fans across the land were going nuts for the rally monkey.

"We had to play that selfless style because we didn't have a guy or two who could carry us," says Salmon, the longtime right fielder who now is Anaheim's primary designated hitter. "We fed off each other. I watched the Marlins last year, and imagine that's what they had. Pressure is a lot less of a load when everyone is contributing."

Even though they'll have more players capable of picking up teammates, the Angels don't plan on changing their style. They won't ask Guerrero to curb his aggressiveness at the plate because they're confident that his run production will more than offset his disdain for walks. With the added power, the Angels might not need to move runners over as often, but Sioscia still drills his players on situational hitting. The Angels will continue to rely on defense and what has been the league's best bullpen over the past two seasons.