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ANAHEIM -- Monday will ring in the event of the Hot Stove season, aka the Winter Meetings.

Held in Orlando this year, the Angels, like the other 29 Major League Baseball teams and nearly the entire industry, will spend four days trying to figure out a way to make their team better. The plus side is that everybody -- agents, general managers, managers and their respective supporting casts -- is there. The downside is, everybody is there.

If there is a prospective deal, it is likely to become a rumor first, and many rumors remain just that.

Like last year's meetings in Dallas, the Angels will enter these with a power bat still on their wish list. Next week begins, though, with some movement on the roster.

Three positions were identified this offseason for upgrades: first base, third base and center field, preferably with some punch attached. The Angels landed Gary Matthews Jr. to take over in center field, but he is slated more to the top of the batting order than the middle.

By investing $50 million over five years, the Angels have added a defensive whiz in center that brings speed and some power. But he's also 32 years old.

The move, which at first glance would seem to make Chone Figgins expendable, could instead adjust the super-utility player to ninth in the batting order, where he spent the last month of 2006, and back to third, a position at which he played 148 games from 2004-05.

But third base is by no means settled.


Bill Stoneman and the Angels don't plan on making any blockbuster moves in Orlando. (Matt York/AP)

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