The dead horse has been flogged

More on pitch counts: John Kruk -- who Langstaff describes as Mark Madden without the intellect in one of his recent posts -- dropped the hammer on pitch counts in this Page 2 commentary. Kruk won my heart over as a sharp Letterman guest during his tenure as a player, though his everyman analysis seems better suited for commenting on monster truck racing and professional wrestling. Kruk seems to enjoy playing the role of the provacateur, spewing verbal diahrrea with the intent of creating controversy -- and while he's totally right in saying that pitch location and guile matters much more than speed (ever seen Jamie Moyer in action?), his thought on pitch counts don't quite hold.

Kruk: "The other day everyone was talking about Mike Stanton pitching in his 900th game -- same as Cy Young. One small difference: Mike has about 800 innings under his belt while Cy had 7,500."

Translation: "Mike Stanton is a pussy."

And maybe Stanton is a pussy, though you can't fault him for his specialized, albeit limited, role. I do (and anyone who thinks Grady Little made the right choice in keeping Pedro on the mound in that champion ship series will) appreciate Kruk's reactionary stance on pitch counts, though, especially when he says that "you can't respect a manager for taking out a guy just because some computer printout says after a certain pitch count he's a sitting duck."

More on the Phillies: I started this blog by calling for manager Larry Bowa's dismissal after a 3-6 start. The Phillies have since cruised to a 20-11 record on the hot bats of Chase Utley and Bobby Abreu and the return of David Bell. The record now stands at a not-so-shabby 23-17, though it's early enough in the season that the Dodgers losing 6 straight has been cause to sound the alarm. The Phils' middle relief has been really great (even in the absence of Billy Wagner), a welcome *ahem* relief from the make-it-to-the-sixth-and-pray-for-rain mode of last year. I should've also pointed out that the Phillies have been notorious slow-starters for the past few years, so a more thoughtful analysis should've waited until May. The 1-2 part of the order scares me, though: Marlon Byrd has yet to find his form and Jimmy Rollins has been dreadful. I'll stand by my pre-season analysis that this is a good team that needs one more big bat. Lou Pinella yielded Randy Winn in trade a couple of years ago; I wonder what might come of dangling Bowa on the waiver wire.