Very few supposed baseball experts have yet realized that the A's now have a:

1. great defensive team;
2. and a very good offensive team;
3. and a deep and effective bullpen;

So in order to justify their original prediction of the Angels winning the division, made an absolute certainty by the A's early problems, they have to fall back on defense, bullpen and hitting, since they know the A's have the better starting pitching.

The irony is that when healthy the rotation might actually be the Angels' strongest virtue. They're very mediocre in every other way.

It's hard to have a quality team without having at least average defense. It's not three errors a game terrible, but it's not "web-gem" a-night spectacular either.

Molina and Erstad have always been quality, but has Finley been that bad of a CF? I always thought he was a decent outfielder, but 20/21 would beg to differ.

Erstad is a great first basemen, but that's because he's a GG-caliber center fielder who is playing the weakest defensive position on the field.  

Kennedy has been above-average (Win Shares and UZR had him pegged as one of the best-fielding 2B in the game), but his 2004 numbers (PMR and Win Shares) show that he can be considered only slightly above-average at best these days (and is probably slightly below-average in actuality).  

Depending upon the metric you're using, Cabrera can be anywhere from slightly below average to slightly above average.  

Finley is somehwhat the same - either below average or slightly below average.

Garrett Anderson = bad.

Vladimir Guerrero = average to below average.

There's nothing solid available on Figgins, because he never played one set position on the field last season.  It's hard to say how good he is with the glove, since I don't watch him on the field enough to know.

As a whole, the Angels are a team on the decline.  Erstad, Finley, Anderson, Kennedy, the Molina Bros., etc.  Even Guerrero is solidly in his peak (meaning you can't expect him to get better - only to either maintain his production or start getting worse).  Their defense as a whole can only be considered average at best (and is probably worse).

The thing with their defense is that it could actually be improved with the roster they already have.  If they stopped being stupid about Erstad and let him play in center field, they'd have at least an average CF again.  Anderson should be at 1B/DH and only occasionally at corner OF, since it's pretty obvious he has become a defensive liability.  That one switch would help their fielding tremendously, because center field is one of the most important fielding positions in the game, and left field, while not stupendously important, is far more important than first baes (Finley would be an upgrade in LF over Anderson).

But hey, if they want to keep doing what they're doing, you'll hear no complaints from me.  The more they hurt themselves, the better it is for us. =)