http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/q-a-with-tom-seaver/?ref=baseball
Q. Ryan has campaigned against pitch counts. Do you agree?
A. There’s nothing wrong with pitch counts. But there’s an addendum to
that. I presume Nolan thinks the same way. But it isn’t a blanket pitch
count. People say, “I bet the pitch count drives you nuts.” Heck no. I had
a pitch count. My pitch count as a general rule was 135. And I knew how many
pitches I had when I went to the mound for the last three innings. And I wasn
’t going to spend eight pitches on the No. 8 hitter. On the second or third
pitch, he should be hitting a ground ball to shortstop. It might not work
like that all the time. But theoretically, you have an approach about how you
’re spending your bullets.
There’s nothing wrong with pitch counts. But not when it’s spit out by a
computer and the computer does not look at an individual’s mechanics. And
you can’t look at his genes. It should come from the individual and the
pitching coach and the manager.