Repeat after me: baseball teams don't repeat.

Not often, anyway. Not if they're not the New York Yankees. You have to go back a full decade to find someone other than the Yanks who've won back-to-back titles.

	Tim Salmon and the Angels will be gunning for a second straight World Series title in 2003.

The reasons are plentiful: free agency, injuries, three-rounds of play in the postseason, thin pitching, the complacency of the modern pro athlete.

In another month, when teams assemble in Florida and Arizona for the start of spring training, all eyes will be on the Anaheim Angels. Can a team which had never until last fall won a single postseason series transform itself into a dynasty of sorts with another championship?

Maybe they can.

Then again, maybe they can't.

Five reasons why the Angels will repeat
1. The bullpen
Not only do the Angels have a top-level closer in Troy Percival (40 saves, 1.92 ERA last season), but they have solid set-up men like wunderkind Francisco Rodriguez and independent league refugees Ben Weber and Brendan Donnelly.

Additionally, Scott Schoeneweis, shifted from the rotation to the bullpen in the middle of last season, provides a quality left-handed option for manager Mike Scioscia.

Depth and versatility are two critical components to bullpen success, and the Angels have both.

2. The manager
Scioscia is the perfect manager for this club. His background as a former catcher is invaluable in helping to develop young pitching and his even temperament is appreciated by the veterans.

"It starts at the top,'' said outfielder Darin Erstad. "It starts with Scioscia.''

Scioscia didn't panic when the Angels got off to their slowest start in franchise history last April. And he didn't panic when they fell behind the Yankees in the Division Series last October.

If it's true that players take their emotional cues from their manager, then the Angels are superbly directed.

3. Balance
The Angels aren't overly rich in any one area, but finished third in stolen bases, fourth in runs scored and fourth in on-base percentage.

In the pitching department, they were third in shutouts, second in ERA and second in batting average-against. Finally, they were second in the league in fielding percentage.

Such across-the-board strengths help mitigate against long losing streaks and foster consistency.

4. There are no great teams
The Yankees, handily dispatched by the Angels in the Division Series, are another year older, particularly in the starting rotation. The A's have yet to prove they can win a playoff series. The Twins are still learning. The Mariners make the Yankees look young.

In other words, the American League is wide open with no clear-cut favorites -- a perfect scenario for the Angels to win again.

5. Their soul is intact
Other contenders have lost key parts. The Yankees lost important bullpen help (Mike Stanton and Ramiro Mendoza), the Red Sox lost offense (Cliff Floyd), and the A's lost depth (David Justice, Ray Durham).

The Angels, however, suffered no significant lost parts. They return their entire rotation, and their regular lineup. Continuity is important -- as the Yankees of the late 1990s proved.

Five reasons why the Angels won't repeat
1. The AL West is too tough
In each of the last two seasons, the American League wild-card entry has come out of this division, evidence of just how strong the West is.

The unbalanced schedule means the Angels must play nearly one-quarter of their games against the Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners. Compare that to, say, the Red Sox and Yankees who can fatted up on pushovers like Baltimore and Tampa Bay and pad their win total.

2. They lack a dominant starting pitcher
Lefty Jarrod Washburn had a fine season (18-6, 3.15) but isn't yet in the class of some of the game's aces, the kind of pitcher who is all but guaranteed to make sure his team stays out of long losing streaks.

	Jarrod Washburn Starting pitcher Anaheim Angels Profile
	2002 SEASON STATISTICS GM IP W-L BB SO ERA 32 206.0 18-6 59 139 3.15

The rest of the Angels rotation (Kevin Appier, Aaron Sele, Ramon Ortiz) is dependable enough and the depth is strong. But Appier and Sele are veterans well into their careers and aren't going to improve. And unless Washburn, Ortiz or John Lackey take significant strides to the next level, the Angels' starting pitching will be merely good instead of great.

3. Power is in short supply
Troy Glaus led the Angels with 30 homers and Garret Anderson was close behind with 29. But Tim Salmon (22) was the only other player to hit more than 20 last year and the Angels team total (153) was 10th best in the American League.

The Angels get little or no home run production from shortstop, second base and catcher and not enough from center field (where Darin Erstad had just 10 home runs).

That spells trouble in the American League, where power reigns and games turn into slugfests.

4. Magic doesn't happen twice
The Angels won an astounding number of games in the late innings, with one improbable late-inning comeback after another. That's not to suggest the Angels were a fluke, because they proved themselves over six months, then a difficult postseason schedule.

But the simple fact of the matter is that it's unlikely the Angels will enjoy that kind of success again.

5. Nobody repeats anymore -- unless you're the Yankees
Not since 1993, when the Toronto Blue Jays won for the second straight time, has a team outside of the Bronx won back-to-back titles.

The season is too long, the postseason too demading. Injuries, off-years and other intangibles seem to get in the way.

Sean McAdam of the Providence Journal covers baseball for ESPN.com.