We're still only about a quarter of the way to seeing Howie's walk rate stabilize, but at 52 PA his Swing% is now reliable and is cause for optimism. While his overall Swing% is down just 2% from last year to 44.0%--a little better than league average--his O-Swing% has dropped precipitously from 31.2% to 24.1%, almost 10% below his career average. While this huge drop may regress a bit, I think it's safe to say that Howie is finally learning to lay off the breaking ball in the dirt. It seems to reason that swinging at fewer pitches out of the zone will cause an increase in walk rate, but we'll just have to wait and see.