College softball programs have a limited number of scholarships to offer promising high school seniors, so the programs invest a great deal of effort in evaluating these players. One measure of performance the programs commonly use to evaluate recruits is the batting average the proportion of at bats (excluding times when the player is walked or hit by a pitch) in which the player gets a hit. For example, a player who gets 50 hits in 150 at bats has a batting average of50 = 0.333150
A college softball program is considering two players, Fran Hayes and Millie Marshall, who have recently completed their senior years of high school. Their respective statistics for their junior and senior years are as shown in Table 2.8.
Managerial Report: The Athletic Director and Coach of the women's softball team at a large public university are trying to decide to which of these two players they will offer an athletic scholarship (i.e., an opportunity to attend the university for free in exchange for playing on the university's softball team). Take the following steps to determine which player had the better batting average over the two year period provided in the table, and use your results to advise the Athletic Director and Coach on their decision.
1. Calculate the batting average of each player for her junior year; then also calculate the batting average of each player for her senior year. Which player would this analysis lead you to choose?
2. Calculate the batting average of each player for her combined junior and senior years. Which player would this analysis lead you to choose?
3. After considering both of your analyses, which player would you choose? Why?
4. Prepare a report on your findings for the atheletic director and coach of the college program. Focus on clearly explaining the discrepency in your twoanalyses.
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