Angels facing jinx possibilities?

There are some givens with regard to California baseball:

* For the tenth year in a row (supposedly), the Padres claim to have it "right" this time.

* The Giants are likely to open another AARP chapter at AT&T Park this season.

* The Dodgers are focused on pitching quality again this season.

* And if you believe the "1,000 ways to..." brand of thinking, the Athletics are close to that number in terms of sheer roster redeployment.

This brings us to the Angels, who are hoping to dethrone those Athletics and win their first divisional title since 2003. Two key players, though, concern me: centerfielder Gary Matthews Jr., and SP Jered Weaver.

Both Matthews & Weaver were attention-grabbers last year, and you couldn't help but root for them as they found major league success; in Matthews' case, it was really heartwarming, as he finally showed what he could do given more than 200 at-bats.

But you always have to glance at Matthews' career before his breakout campaign of 2006, and you wonder why he was only a 200-at-bat guy before then. I would hope to see more of the same in 2007, and truly define '06 as a "breakout year" versus a "career year".

For if he slips back to the 2005 style of play, for instance, the Angels outfield looks like trouble. Garrett Anderson is getting no younger, and we may see platooning in his future. Vladimir Guerrero, meanwhile, is still scary with the stick, but his legs are going on him, and we could witness an eventual turn to DH for him to protect that bat speed.

The Angels don't suffer from the same age infection that last year's Giants squad did, but a look at outfield depth for the Angels is depressing: Juan Rivera as the backup, and his career looked much the same as Matthews', pre-2006.

Weaver, meanwhile, came in with a bang and looked more dominating than his older brother, Jeff, ever looked. He is a four-pitch pitcher who mixed his different pitches well in going 11-2 last year. Wisely, perhaps, he is billed as the #5 starter still, behind Colon, Escobar, Lackey and Ervin Santana. This may take some of the pressure off him to produce instant results, but the club is still leaning heavily on him nonetheless.

Colon, for one, is recovering from a bad rotator cuff. Escobar is not a true starter, as he has bounced around in his career. This is what makes a repeat of 2006 a near-must for Weaver. If it doesn't come through, the Angels will need that bullpen more than they might like to.

When two of a team's top names have the potential to place "2006 - career year" on top of a 2007 resume, hearts of Angels fans will need to cross those fingers and hope they mean "breakout" year... anything short of that might be a breakdown in the team's efforts to become the AL's dominant west-coast team.