Interesting because I've also seen that pitchers are throwing less strikes and getting more swings out of the zone than every before. In fact, and don't quote me on this, I thought I saw that Patrick Corbin is having a career season in spite of throwing only something along the lines of 30% of his pitches in the strike zone. Yeah I don't know if anyone has come out and said "I'm swinging earlier in the count because...". It's just a theory as to why some guys are swinging earlier in the count. I'd be curious what Corbins 1st pitch K% is vs the other pitches in the count.