Optimism is the foundation of hot stove season, and the Los Angeles Angels are starting to generate some. They have a new manager, a savvy new pitching coach, and some semblance of a starting rotation.

Moreover, the bar isn’t high here. A .500 season would give the Angels a chance to pass both the Athletics and the Texas Rangers. The Athletics are the Athletics, of course, but it’s surprising to see the Rangers on named here as well.

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There’s a good reason for this. Rumors have the Rangers shedding payroll, and they have a new manager, Skip Schumacher, who may need a while to figure things out given the payroll issues.

Sadly, there’s another issue that may come into play for the Rangers. Their owner, Tom Hicks, passed at the age of 79 yesterday, and Hicks has long been a stabilizing influence for this franchise, having let the Rangers to three AL West titles and a World Series appearance. It’s far too soon to speculate about what this might mean for the franchise, and we extend our condolences to Hicks family and the Rangers and their fans as a whole.

For the Angels, however, getting back to the .500 mark should and will be the focus. They were close last year at the trade deadline, but when former manager Ron Washington had to step down due to ill health, the Halos fell apart under the “leadership” of interim manager Ray Montgomery.

The combination of new manager Kurt Suzuki, pitching coach Mike Maddux and primary hitting coach Brady Anderson does feel promising, however. It’s especially noteworthy that the Angels have added two pitchers in the last week or so, starters Grayson Rodriguez and Alek Manoah.

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Rodriguez is the larger acquisition, of course, and if he can stay healthy and stabilize the rotation, the Angels may have something going forward. They also traded Taylor Ward, who was an outstanding power hitter, but given that Ward is over 30 there was little chance he would figure in the team’s long-term plans.

This is still something of a “fingers crossed” situation given how star-crossed the Angels have been in recent years, and there’s always the chance that volatile owner Arte Moreno will step in and dictate a bad move. It wouldn’t take much to get the Angels out of the basement, though, especially if they make a couple more savvy moves as the winter meetings get underway this week.