Tony DeMarco

Since winning the 2002 World Series, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have been stuck in a pattern of falling short and not doing much about it.

Even while possessing one of the game’s best talent pipelines, they have preferred to hang onto their young players, rather than package them to fill a need — which mostly has been in the middle of their lineup.

So now they’ve made one major trade in hopes of pulling off an even-bigger one? And spent $90 million to sign Torii Hunter? Wow, things are changing around The Big A.

The signal for change came with the recent resignation of longtime general manager Bill Stoneman, whose roster building/budget watching ways were just to the right of Rush Limbaugh, and the elevation of Tony Reagins from within the front office.

And sure enough, we got last week’s big deal — Gold Glove-winning shortstop Orlando Cabrera to the Chicago White Sox for right-hander Jon Garland. And right on its heels came the surprise signing of Hunter, who thought he was heading to Texas or Chicago until the Angels jumped in and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

The Cabrera-for-Garland trade is a gamble on a couple of fronts, but one the Angels seem confident will work. And you have to applaud them for trying it, and for what else they have in mind — spinning their current surplus of starting pitching and young talent to land Miguel Cabrera. Moving from one Cabrera to another, better Cabrera — as well as adding Hunter — would be a profitable off-season, indeed.

But first things first. The loss of Orlando Cabrera can’t be understated — even though it probably will be. How this guy remains somewhat underrated is a mystery. He was the shortstop on the 2004 World Series-champion Red Sox, has won two Gold Gloves, his 192 hits in 2007 were the most ever by an Angels shortstop, and his .301 average and 86 RBI were third-most among American League shortstops.

And even on a team with Vlad Guerrero, you can make the case that O.C. (Cabrera) was the most-popular player in the O.C. (that would be Orange County) — not to mention the Angels’ clubhouse.

The in-house replacement options are ultra-talented Erick Aybar and valuable Macier Izturis. The former could be Aybar’s equal in the near future, but has only 234 big-league at-bats, so it’s going to take some time. The latter risks overexposure as an every-day player, but is the perfect bench cog in Scioscia’s speed-based attack.

Meanwhile, Garland went only 10-13 with a 4.23 ERA on a bad White Sox team, and struck out only 98 in 208.1 innings. But most everything went wrong in Chicago last season, and Garland will pitch at 28 next season, and should be entering his peak seasons.

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Remember, this is a guy who went 36-17 in 2005-2006, the former year with a 3.50 ERA, and has pitched 191 or more innings in each of the last five seasons. And now he will get the benefit of moving from hitter-friendly U.S. Cellular Field to pitcher-friendly Angel Stadium for approximately half his starts.

Garland can be a free agent after next season, but this deal has brought him back to his hometown area, and he already has said he’s open to staying put. With him, the Angels have six quality big-league starters, as well as highly coveted prospect Nick Adenhart.

The question that remains is how much of their young talent – Ervin Santana, Joe Saunders, Adenhart, Howie Kendrick, Reggie Willits, Jeff Mathis and infielder Brandon Wood all have been mentioned as possibilities – will it take to land the slugging 24-year-old Cabrera?

The Marlins reportedly are asking for four players in return, and need a starting pitcher, a catcher, a third baseman and an outfielder. That makes a package of Mathis, Kendrick, Willits and one of the pitchers an attractive one. From the Angels’ point of view, that is a lot to give up, but Cabrera will be 25 next season, and his combination of youth and production make it hard to name a better available hitter in the game. And picture this possible Angels’ lineup 1 through 7 — Chone Figgins, Gary Matthews, Guerrero, Cabrera, Garret Anderson, Hunter and Casey Kotchman.

It’s hard to argue with the Angels’ recent track record of regular-season success — three division titles in the last four years, four playoff appearances in the last six. But since their World Series championship, they have advanced past the first round of the playoffs only once, when they were trounced by the White Sox in the 2005 ALCS. And they clearly were no match for the Red Sox in their division series match-up last month.

That makes it time for a calculate roll of the dice in Anaheim. And signing Hunter and giving up some quality-but-expendable young talent for an emerging mega-bat in Cabrera is a better way to go than trying to meet Alex Rodriguez’s enormous demands.

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