Sunday's 11-0 slaughter of the Royals by the Angels featured a 2 run HR by Designated Hitter Paul McAnulty, his first hit as an Angel in his 3rd AB of the game (he stuck out in his first two trips to the plate). McAnulty's role with the team is not likely something that will be prominent, barring injury to a bigger name Angel. The role that McAnulty will fulfill this season is pretty much what could be imagined would be filled by Angels prospect Mark Trumbo, currently slugging .538 for Salt Lake with 20 HRs. Trumbo was expected to be called up at some point this year if needed as a stopgap bench hitter with a slim likelihood that he would get a bigger role in 2011. Currently 24, Trumbo's prime time with the Angels appeared to be 2012 at the earliest.
McAnulty's package is just like Trumbo's with the exception of being a few years older and having had a cup of coffee in the majors before. He brings low BA - high SLG with not much defense... Trumbo's job application as well. The reason McAnulty may be up instead of Trumbo is that, witht eh trade deadline less than a month away, two or three weeks of failure at the big league level would likely dampen the return that Trumbo would bring in a trade. And so the McAnulty callup makes it easy to think that the Angels may be considering a trade, may be shopping Trumbo as a desirable prospect (despite rghan rating him as only the organization's #24 best prospect).
The conclusion would be in figuring out which major league team could use Trumbo's services enough to bet on him. Would a package of Trumbo and Hank Conger bring Cliff Lee to Anaheim from the Seattle Mariners - a team that loves Russel Branyan enough to sign him, trade him and trade back for him? Trumbo is cut from the Branyan mold and Conger would fill Seattle's catching vacuum. Two months of Cliff Lee, a deep playoff run and two high draft picks for the Angels in June of 2011 may be the result of a 2-Run HR hit by a journeyman on national television on the 4th of July.