Arrieta is one of the few non knuckleballers that's demonstrated the ability to generate consistent weak contact. He's definitely the exception that proves the rule. I ain't backing down on Chris Sale. I think he lost a few miles per hour on his fastball and is grasping at straws. He can do what he wants but he's looking like a vastly diminished pitcher now (though still comfortably above average.) I'll give you that, when a guy starts performing worse and says it, that's a red flag to me. But, generally, every pitcher is pitching to contact some. Whether they are trying to get first-pitch strikes, or they just don't want to waste as many pitches so they can go deep in games. I don't but it as a philosophy, but I think it's impossible to not pitch to contact at times. except sale and his pitching coach said it before he started performing "worse" it's just a coincidence that he's striking out 8 something guys instead of 11 per nine this year? he just got worse, and it was happy serendipity that they said it was his goal to be more economical with pitches and go deeper in to games and the season this year before even spring training started?