Steve Blass and Tom Seaver

Now on KDKA (yeah I'm working Gameday audio), Tom Seaver and Steve Blass are talking about pitch counts. Some of it is harmful macho bullshit, and some of it wily veteran wisdom. You decide which is which.

Seaver says a pitcher only has velocity, movement, and location, and that he must maintain at least two of those three weapons to be effective.

Seaver says that if these radar guns are accurate and today's kids are throwing 95, then he was throwing 105, 110 and Nolan Ryan threw 120.

Seaver says that it is a "huge mistake" to develop pitchers "that go five or six innings."

Seaver says he used to go 12 innings, and Spahn used to go 14 innings.

Seaver says his pitch count was 135. He knew his pitch count when he left the dugout to pitch the seventh inning and wouldn't use eight pitches on a number eight hitter. 135 is where he ran out of gas so he worked hard to stay under that number.

Seaver says that every pitcher should have a different pitch count.

Someone ask Seaver what adjustments he used to make when he was pitching to a lineup full of home-run hitters on a windy day with the wind blowing out. Did he nibble more, or did he smoke it down the middle the same way he did against teams of utility infielders playing in huge parks?

Someone should also ask Seaver if he thinks the lack of foul territory in today's ballparks means that today's pitchers have to throw more pitches to get through an inning.

The Bucs pay Steve Blass to coach the fans on KDKA. It's obvious that he has tremendous respect for Tom Seaver, but someone should sit down with Blass and let him know that it would be OK to disagree with - or at least temper - some of the dramatic exaggerations that drop from Seaver's mouth. I shudder to think that some ten-year-old in the back of a minivan thinks that Oliver Perez is a wuss because he only throws 100 pitches and leaves after five innings.