Trader Jack Ruminates about Pitch Counts

The Palm Beach Post ran an interesting story today featuring Jack McKeon ranting about pitch counts.  I'm starting to be concerned that Jack doesn't get the issue.  It's not so much the pitch counts that Marlins' starters have been accumulating.  Much of the concern that folks have is when the starters are accumulating those innings.  

For example, both of Dontrelle Willis' complete games have come in blowouts.  It probably wasn't necessary to have Dontrelle on the mound for all nine innings in both cases.  Those innings instead could have been used to help sort out roles in the bullpen.

Adding to my concern that Jack doesn't understand the issue and/or why most folks who are concerned are concerned is this quote:

Who wears a three-piece suit these days?  Mobsters in movies maybe, but that's about it.  The more modern shot at "these guys who have never put on a uniform" is to crack a joke about computers and how statistics can't tell you everything.

That aside, I hope Jack knows what he's doing here.  From the outside though it sure seems like the plan is for the pitchers to prove that they're tough guys (and God help the reliever who comes in - relatively unused - from the pen and shows signs of rust, I can't imagine that's going to fly with Trader Jack) and for the lineup to be tweaked after every loss - not to be changed again until the "luck" from the change wears off (i.e. a loss).

And to follow the PBP's lead, I'll end this entry with what could become the standard non-sequitur of the year (this quote was inserted into the Post's article, but it's not at all clear what Leiter meant - you could interpret it to mean a number of things):