Wino,
You overlooked a major point before posting your reply, my man. 7000 pilots in 7 years = 1000/yr or 83/mo. This seems like an awful lot, I know, and you mention that 7000 additional pilots would double the size of flight crew members at Delta. All that is correct. However, you overlook the fact that a sh##load of them good ole boys are retiring in the next few years (baby boom effect), which means that the pilot population at the company will NOT double i the next 7 years. Not even close. In fact, 83 new hires a month seems reasonable to me to make up for this and still keep up with growth in the industry in general.
One more thing, American IS hiring ~50/month for as long a they can foresee, TW aquisition considered and all. This is directly from a source recently hired. So there you go.
AO