First and foremost I have a disclaimer to make: I have been following the minor league career of Dodger right-hander Matt Magill closely for a little more than a year now – since spring training 2012 in fact*. And though Matt has experienced the normal struggles that minor leaguers experience on the road to the Big leagues, I knew early on that he had the right stuff to one day make it to the major league. My biggest fear was that it would be with another team due to those all-too-frequent Ned Colletti trades because of his affinity towards washed up veteran free agents.

Thankfully, Colletti (or perhaps more so Dejon Watson) had the sense to protect Magill from the Rule-5 draft this past winter, along with fellow Dodger hopeful Steven Ames.

Shrouded by pitching coach Rick Honeycutt and catcher A.J. Ellis, 23-year-old Matt Magill makes his way from the bullpen to make his major league debut.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

That said, you can imagine my excitement when I received the Dodgers media notification that Magill would be making his MLB debut on Saturday evening due to an unfortunate bout with bursitis suffered by fellow spot-starter Stephen Fife this past week. And even though the Dodgers remained mum on the emergency call-up of Magill, Dodger fans knew that something was up when Magill was suddenly removed in the 4th inning of his last start with the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes this past Monday evening, this in spite of the fact that he was having a very good outing.

“They said someone called (from Los Angeles) and I was done, so I don’t think it was up to the coaches here or me,” Magill said after be removed from the Isotopes game.

Speculation was that Magill was being prepped to possibly fill in for Ted Lilly, should Lilly struggle in his season debut while filling in for the ailing Chris Capuano,  but no one, absolutely no one saw this Stephen Fife thing coming. I will say, however, that I noticed that Fife had his shoulder wrapped in ice in the clubhouse after Friday night’s game, which was odd considering that he wasn’t due to pitch until the following day. I blew it off as nothing more than Fife icing his shoulder down after throwing a bullpen session. Little did I know that this was a red flag.

As everyone knows by now, Magill was absolutely stellar in his debut on Saturday evening before a near sell-out Dodger Stadium crowd of 50,244 – including a large contingency of Magill’s family and friends from nearby Simi Valley. Through 6.2 innings, Magill allowed only 2 runs on 4 hits while walking 4 and striking out 7. These are excellent numbers when you consider the butterflies that Matt undoubtedly had to deal with in his debut on the big stage.

Matt Magill has been dreaming of this day his entire life. And while many may have been surprised by how well Magill did, I certainly wasn’t. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Where things went awry was in the 6th inning after Magill got the first two batters out. For reasons that only he knows and will have to forever attempt to justify (in vain, mind you), Dodger manager Don Mattingly decided that the 103 pitches that Magill had thrown to that point was enough – this in spite of the fact that the 23-year-old Magill had just struck out Brewers pinch-hitter Jean Segura on three pitches, including a 92 MPH fastball for strike three.

In other words, Magill still had gas in the tank and was bringing it. But rather than allowing Magill to face leadoff hitter Norichika Aoki with two outs and nobody on, Mattingly made what I consider his first of three bad decisions when yanked Magill (who received a well-deserved standing ovation as he walked off the field), bringing in left-hander Paco Rodriguez to face the left-handed hitting Aoki. Aoki promptly laid down a perfect drag bunt after which Mattingly promptly removed Paco Rodriguez and brought in right-hander Matt Guerrier to face right-handed batter Carlos Gomez.

Removing Rodriguez was Mattingly’s second bad decision (in my opinion). Believe it or not, Paco is very capable of getting right-handers out and is far more than a situational LOOGY (left-handed one out guy). But there is even more to this part of the equation: even if Aoki had reached base off of Magill, Matt had struck out the next batter, Carlos Gomez, in the first inning. Granted, Gomez had singled in each of his next two at bats against Magill, but this is where you trust your catcher A.J. Ellis to work with Magill in his pitch selection to the dangerous Gomez (with Ryan Braun on-deck).

Matt Magill records his first MLB strikeout against Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez in the first inning of Saturday night’s game. Ironically, Gomez would later hit the game-winning home run off of reliever Matt Guerrier – the first of two two-run home runs allowed by Guerrier on the night. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Instead, Mattingly called upon history, albeit ancient history, and brought Matt Guerrier to face Gomez (the third bad decision) because, as Mattingly put it, “Matt (Guerrier) has good numbers with these guys, good numbers with Gomez. It didn’t work out tonight.”

Ya think?

Those “good numbers” that Guerrier had against Carlos Gomez occurred three years ago in 2011. Give me a break. Not only has Guerrier been basically ineffective since joining the Dodgers in 2011, he is nowhere near the pitcher that he was in 2011 – not even remotely close. Unfortunately, Mattingly forgot to look at the bad numbers for Guerrier. In two plus seasons with the Dodgers, Guerrier has blown five saves – and he isn’t even a closer.

What Mattingly chose to ignore is that in spite of an occasional rare good outing by Guerrier, he has been absolutely awful as a Dodger. He has a record of 5-6 in the 96 games that he has appeared in as a Dodger, has pitched 88.2 innings, has an ERA of 4.16, has walked 45 while striking out 61, and (get this) has allowed 9 home runs – including several game losers like last night’s. Keep in mind that Guerrier missed nearly all of the 2012 season due to right elbow inflammation and got shelled upon his return late last August. In other words, Guerrier’s bad numbers far outweighed his good numbers and the only person in the universe surprised with the two home runs that Guerrier coughed up on Saturday night was Don Mattingly.

Fortunately, Matt Magill is resilient and will quickly put Guerrier’s ineptitude behind him. In fact, I can assure you that Magill won’t even mention one word about it to anyone – not publicly, at least. He also knows that his days (or perhaps even hours) in the MLB are numbered, with Chris Capuano slated to return to the rotation later this week.

But one thing that you can absolutely bet the farm on – Matt Magill had a night that he will never forget for the rest of his life. You can also bet that Matt Magill will soon be a regular in the Dodger rotation – and probably sooner than later.

(* If you type ‘Matt Magill’ in the search box at the top of the ThinkBlueLA home page, you will find several articles written about him over the past year).