SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have their problems, especially in the starting pitching department.

John Lackey has elbow tightness that will shut him down for Opening Day, Ervin Santana will probably miss the first month of the season because of his elbow problems and Kelvim Escobar is still on the road back from shoulder surgery. That's 60 percent of their starting rotation.

"Yeah, and that's not keeping them from winning ballgames, is it?" Rangers manager Ron Washington said.

No it is not. The Angels were 21-5 going into Saturday's games, far and away the best record anywhere in Spring Training.

"Right now their pitching may be struggling, but their offense is not," Washington said. "They're banging the heck out of the ball."

That's the kind of respect the Angels carry in the Rangers camp. Their pitching may be hurting, but the Rangers still see them as the team to beat in the American League. After all, they did win the division by 21 games over the second-place Rangers last season. There is no Phillies-Mets or Red Sox-Yankees sniping in this division.

"They've been there before," outfielder Marlon Byrd said. "They didn't have Lackey at the beginning of last season. I'm sure they'll have somebody step up. This doesn't change anything. They are still the team to beat."

Pitching was the great separator between the Angels and Rangers last season. The Angels were third in the league with a 3.99 ERA while the Rangers were last with a 5.37 ERA. The Angels got 73 victories from their starting rotation while the Rangers starters won 52 games.

That's a 21-game difference right there, but right now, the Angels are looking at a starting rotation of Joe Saunders, Jered Weaver, Dustin Moseley, Nick Adenhart and Shane Loux. Saunders and Weaver are established, but the other three have a combined 30 Major League starts among them.

The Rangers' rotation of Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Brandon McCarthy, Matt Harrison and Scott Feldman has enjoyed a healthy spring. Right now, that's one advantage over the Angels that the Rangers might exploit early.

"The injuries definitely weaken their pitching staff, no doubt about that," second baseman Ian Kinsler said. "But they still have guys that can throw strikes. We still have to play good baseball to beat them."

The Angels are dealing with one major change in the bullpen. They are without All-Star closer Francisco Rodriguez, who set a Major League record with 62 saves before leaving as a free agent and signing with the Mets. He has been replaced by former Rockies closer Brian Fuentes, who has a 9.64 ERA this spring.

"Rodriguez was a very good closer and they went and got an established guy to take his place," third baseman Michael Young said. "But what made the Angels bullpen so good was not just their closer. The depth they have is very good and the rest of those guys haven't gone anywhere."

The Rangers were 7-12 against the Angels last season and they are 28-48 against them over the past four seasons. The Angels had the best record in baseball last year and have won the division in four of the past five seasons.

"I'm sure they're still going to be good," Young said. "The Angels always find a way to be good because of the depth they have in their organization. They always have good pitching, they play good defense ... they're always going to be good."

The Rangers' bigger concern is avoiding another bad start. That weighs more than anything that's going on in the Angels camp. The Rangers were 10-15 in April of 2007 and 10-17 for the month last season.

"The last thing we want to do is worry about our start and thinking that our season begins and ends in April," Young said. "At the same time, we'd like to establish some momentum early and not have to be clawing back from the beginning. If we have to make adjustments, do it right away instead of the middle of May."

The Rangers started off 7-16 in 2008 and spent the rest of the summer trying to get back into contention. They reached six games over .500 in the first week of August and then just ran out of gas. In '07, the Rangers were 10 games under .500 in the middle of May and 23-42 on June 13. Their season was effectively over.

"Frustrating," Kinsler said. "Very frustrating. The last two seasons we thought we had quality teams and April definitely put a damper on the beginning of our season. We understand how important the first month is. Last year, all year long we were talking about what would have happened if we could have gotten off to a better start. Everybody understands it."