It's June 4! (At least it was when I started writing this post.) Which means it's the anniversary of Randy Johnson achieving his milestone 300th career win, a day that I've been celebrating as Randy Johnson's 300th Win Day! For the past few years I've used this day to take stock of the changes in my life, the life of the man behind the milestone, and in baseball as a whole, particularly in the realm of the obsolete statistic of the pitcher win.
This year there's a pretty massive change in the game of baseball, with the introduction of the Automated Balls and Strikes challenge. This year pitchers, catchers, and hitters gained the ability to challenge balls and strikes calls based on a well defined strike zone. Each team has two incorrect challenges that they can use for a nine inning game, with additional incorrect challenges becoming available with every extra inning. This system has been put in place in minor league ball for a few years, and it's allowed home plate umpires to keep some of their autonomy while rectifying some of the more egregious calls. I do like the system, even if it could have completely changed the outcome of Randy Johnson's 300th win had it been available in 2009.
