Interesting story from the Washington Post.

VIERA, FLA. -- In 1998, his rookie season, Chicago Cubs phenom Kerry Wood started 26 games, throwing 2,840 pitches and striking out 233 batters. Nine times he threw more than 120 pitches in a game. For perspective, the Washington Nationals had one game last season in which their starter threw more than 120 pitches.

Jim Riggleman, now the manager in Washington, happened to manage the Cubs in 1998. On Sunday, he compared his latest phenom, Stephen Strasburg, to Wood, acknowledging that "there are a lot of similarities. Very similar talents."

But Riggleman also admitted regret about his handling of Wood, who started his rookie season as a 20-year-old. True, the Cubs were in a pennant race, and regard league-wide for pitch limits didn't match the current adherence. But Riggleman offered no excuses.

"I think if anything that I learned from it, having to do it over I probably would have pitched Kerry less," Riggleman said. "At the time that we had Kerry, my recollection of any criticism I had was 'Why did you take him out of the game?' After the fact it's 'Well, you pitched him too much.'