so long as they have played the same number of games as some other year in the franchise's history. So at 42-25, they have played 67 games.  The ten winningest in Angels history:

+------+------+------+
| year | w    | l    |
+------+------+------+
| 1979 |   40 |   27 |
| 1982 |   40 |   27 |
| 1970 |   39 |   28 |
| 2002 |   39 |   28 |
| 1989 |   39 |   28 |
| 2005 |   39 |   28 |
| 1998 |   39 |   28 |
| 1985 |   38 |   29 |
| 1995 |   38 |   29 |
| 1991 |   37 |   30 |
+------+------+------+

If they still say 'best start' after that you have permission to run up the black flag, spit in your hands and start slitting throats.  You can even carry a spear, go in screaming like a banshee and say, 'Where's the son of a bitch!?!'

At any point with a hundred games to play, you can still call it relatively "early."  At the All-Star break, you're officially at the point of the season where every game and every series will and can still matter for basically every team.  You still have just over half a season left, so there's still plenty of time for a couple of injuries or a few slumps to be strung together to differentiate a team with a half of a great season from a team who had a great season.  

The point of no return then I think is as the trade deadline aproaches at the end of July July- you're starting to think about if you have the guys to get the job don ein the fall, and after that if you're still a contender through August, you can officially say you had a quality or even a good season even if they couldn't get it done in September.

Last year the Halos were plain lousy in the first half.  Any way you stack it, until Juan started hitting big and they made the steady limb back to contention around late July, you can look bak and say that they wound up salvaging a pretty decent run, despite being eliminated from contention with, what, 5 games to play?

Like the tides, the standings picture changes with a steady ebb and flow.  I'm totally stoked that the Angels are so hot right now, but I'm not lighting any victory cigars with how decent the M's and A's might prove to be.