And by the way, Mark Redman’s 2007 DL stint was due to a toe injury. Are you intimating that throwing a lot of pitches caused his toe to land him on the DL? I don’t know where you’re coming from on your statement that he “got worked over, and missed the next year.” Look at his injury history. He had a breakout season for Minnesota in 2000, throwing 151 innings, going over 120 pitches only once. He made nine starts the next year (never topping 110 pitches) before having a triceps strain that kept him out for most of the remainder of the season. But that’s the only arm-related issue he ever had. He went on to start anywhere from 29-32 games for the next five seasons without injury issues….and he had some “abusive” pitch count numbers in those years. Look at his 2002 season. Or what about 2003, when he threw 136 pitches in a game, and then three starts later…threw 140 pitches!!!! yet never got hurt for arm issues. Look at those pitches in 2003 He was in between 111 and 126 pitches the entire month of August. He was between 105 and 140 for every start during a stretch earlier that year in June/July.

Also, Jeff Suppan appears on this list. What’s happened to his injuries? Here’s a quote from former Royals’ pitching coach Brent Strom regarding Suppan (per ranyontheroyals.com):

We exchanged some emails shortly after he was fired, and I’ll never forget something he wrote about Jeff Suppan. Commenting on how difficult it was to fix the mechanics of some of the team’s young pitchers, he held up Suppan as a model for pitching mechanics and wrote, "If Suppan ever hurts his arm, I’ll turn gay." In the seven seasons since, Suppan has made at least 31 starts every year. I think we can let Strom off the hook now, which should be a relief to his wife. (Not to mention gay men everywhere.)

Now, Suppan was on the DL last year for an elbow injury, but it was an injury that happened while batting. To my knowledge he has never been on the DL for a pitching related issue. In fact, last year’s DL stint may have been the first of his career.

You also mention Byrd as “getting worked over.” I assume you were implying that he missed all of 2003 because the Royals over-worked him in 2002? What about the fact that he had already been on the DL in 2001 for elbow injuries? Think that had anything to do with it? Byrd first went on the DL in September of 2001 for Kansas City…..care to know what his “abusive” pitch counts were before that 60-day DL stint? Here ya go: 76, 92, 87, 100, 73, 87. In fact, he NEVER went above 120 in that season, yet still got hurt. Tracing back to the beginning of his career, Byrd went above 120 pitches a mere four times in his first seven years in the league, which represents about 550 innings.

Meche is at the top of the league in most starts/innings thrown since coming to KC, and has been extremely successful on the mound while doing it. He’s not just eating up innings like Redman and Suppan are famous for.

And for Rosado, there are examples going the other way too. Tom Glavine had thrown over 120 pitches in a start 11 times already by the time he was finished with his age-25 season, with at least four 118 or 119 pitch efforts as well by that time. This doesn’t even count all of his career starts up until this point as well since pitch count data isn’t available for all of his early career. He would throw over 120 pitches a whopping 40 more times in the following seven seasons. Was he abused? Why didn’t he ever get hurt? Is he a “freak,” or did he have better trainers, workout regimens, mechanics, etc? It’s something we are not privy to.

I’m more in line with these folks:
http://baseballmusings.com/?p=35925
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/what-pitch-counts-hath-wrought/
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/dusty-baker-and-pitch-counts/