LOS ANGELES – There’s this old joke about two dudes camping in the woods when an angry bear bursts into the site and one guy gets up to run while the other starts lacing up his sneakers.

Tim Lincecum (AP Photo) More

“What are you doing?” the first guy shouts. “You’ll never outrun that bear!”

“I don’t have to outrun the bear,” the second guy says. “I have to outrun you.”

The bear in this story is 4 ½ months of baseball.

The first guy is the Los Angeles Angels’ rotation.

The man double-knotting his sneakers, assuming the final details of the contract come together, is Tim Lincecum.

He doesn’t have to be the decorated ace of his early years with the San Francisco Giants, when he was striking out the world and winning Cy Youngs. He has to be better than a few of the other options in a rotation running thin and, too often, hittable.

Thirty-seven games in, Angels’ starters are averaging about 5 1/3 innings. For comparison purposes, Blue Jays starters go about four outs deeper. The result is 33 more innings for Angels’ relievers, and we’re not yet a quarter through the season, and the bullpen has been without closer Huston Street since April 24.

Lincecum alone is not going to solve a struggling rotation, a middling bullpen and a below average offense. In fact, he may not help any of those.

But the Angels awoke Monday morning 37 games into this and, in spite of the weekend sweep of the Seattle Mariners, were 16-21 and hanging a lot closer to the bottom of the AL West than the top. If someone were going to take a gamble on Lincecum post hip surgery and rolling out of four mediocre seasons, it should’ve been the Angels. Their offseason budget did not allow for a top-end starter, or a left fielder, or anything really that would have lent Mike Trout a hand.

So it’s the middle of May. Garrett Richards is choosing between a needle or a knife. Andrew Heaney and C.J. Wilson are on the disabled list. Tyler Skaggs hasn’t returned from Tommy John surgery. Jered Weaver could have all the want-to in the world and his ERA is still over 6. Matt Shoemaker’s is over 9. Their best young pitchers are in Atlanta, traded for Andrelton Simmons, who had thumb surgery. Of the top 12 (and ties) in the AL in relief appearances, four — Joe Smith, Jose Alvarez, Mike Morin, Fernando Salas — are Angels.

This is how mediocre teams that need a few breaks to be competitive teams become horrendous teams.

It was time to take a chance at something. The contract was not official as of Monday night. It was believed to be close, however. And if Lincecum believes he has something left, the Angels have nothing to lose in believing in that. They’ll know more when he pitches, and so will he. Either way, it will be worth a few dollars to find out.

The Angels don’t need a miracle. They need a fourth or fifth starter. They would take the miracle, though. ‘Cause that bear is gaining fast.