Is the number of games won by a major league baseball team in a season related to the team's batting average?

The information in the table, extracted from Sports Illustrated and Sporting News, shows the number of games won and the batting average for the 14 teams in the American League for the 1998 season.

Team Games Won Batting Ave.

New York 114 .288 Toronto 88 .266 Baltimore 79 .273 Bmton 92 .280 Tampa Bay 63 .261 Cleveland 89 .272 Detroit 65 .264 Chicago 80 .271 Kansas City 72 .263 Minnesota 70 .266 Anaheim 85 .272 Texas 88 .289 Seattle 76 .276 Oakland 74 .257 Sources Sports Illustrated and Sporting News, March 29,1999.

a. If you were to model the relationship between the mean (or expected) number of games won by a major league team and the team's batting average, x, using a straight line, would you expect the slope of the line to be positive or negative? Explain.

b. Construct a scattergram of the data. Does the pattern revealed by the scattergram agree with your-answer in part a?

c. An SPSS printout of the simple linear regression is provided below. Find the estimates of the>% on the printout and write the equation of the least squares line.

d. Graph the least squares line on the scattergram.

Does the least squares line seem to fit the poi& on the scattergram?

e. Does the mean (or expected) number of games won appear to be strongly related to a team's batting average? Explain.

f. Interpret the values of p, and El in the words of the problem.