"As of Wednesday, the Angels were scheduled to appear on the Fox Network's national Saturday telecast five times in 2012.

On Thursday, after the Angels signed Albert Pujols to a 10-year, $254-million contract and pitcher C.J. Wilson to a five-year, $77.5-million deal, Fox put in a request to Major League Baseball to bump the Angels to nine national telecasts, the maximum for any team.

In 2010 and 2011, years in which they did not make the playoffs, the Angels appeared twice on ESPN's nationally televised Sunday night game of the week, three fewer than the maximum of five per team.

The network is still finalizing its 2012 schedule, but Mike Ryan, vice president of programming for ESPN, said he will be "looking to maximize our quota" of Angels games next season.

"They've been competitive, they're in a big market, and they have a number of well-known stars, but Albert takes them to an entirely new level," Ryan said. "It makes the Angels a lot more attractive to us."

Adding the most prolific slugger of the last decade and the top free-agent pitcher on the market to an 86-win team will not only help the Angels challenge the Dodgers as Southern California's premier baseball franchise. It will raise their national profile as well."