I have listened to numbers guys in baseball for several years and I guess some of it goes back to Money Ball, but I have a problem with the "out is an out" philosophy in baseball and softball. Was listening to a former college softball coach on a podcast say that you don't shorten up with 2 strikes to "put the ball in play". His comment was a weak fly ball to left is an out just like a strikeout. I think that is a poor analogy. Those outs may be the same, but with a runner on second and no outs, 2 ground balls to the second baseman is 2 outs, but a run has scored. That is vastly different from 2 strikeouts. Why is it that everyone is afraid of "productive" outs just so they can try for the homerun? I'm not a longstanding or even a good coach, but I have tried to get my girls to understand that they are free to take BIG Hacks on the first 2 strikes (those are her strikes), but that 3rd strike is the TEAM's. I don't hate sabermetrics, but I just don't know how coaches don't promote the productive out. Sorry for the rant, but do want to know what the folks on here think.