It is true that Washington Mudskippers shortstop Jason hit three home

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

This question hinges on the idea of generalization. There's a huge gap when the fact pattern leaps from discussing Jason to reaching a conclusion about the entire Mudskippers baseball team. The total lack of information about whether other Mudskippers players might be deserving is a problem that will have to be remedied in order to strengthen the argument.

Answer A makes a valiant attempt in this regard; if most of the Mudskippers players are terrible, and we're given that only great players are deserving, then certainly most of the Mudskippers players are undeserving. However, the conclusion is that none of the players are deserving, and it's quite plausible that some Mudskippers could be deserving even if most are not.

Answer B plays on mental inertia; students may speculate that players embroiled in cheating scandals should not be named All-Stars, but nothing in the argument ever specifies this fact. Without support in the argument, we cannot conclude that this information would render the Mudskippers players undeserving.

Answer C recognizes that a comparison could be used to connect Jason with the rest of the Mudskippers team. However, this answer choice subtly misses the conclusion of the argument. The question isn't whether the players will be selected for the team -- it's whether any of the players deserve to be selected. Thus, answer C doesn't really address the gap in the argument at all.

Answer D is the correct answer. If Jason is the best player on his baseball team, then every other Mudskippers player is worse than Jason himself. But we already know that Jason, because of his excessive strikeout rate, is not a truly great baseball player. Thus, none of Jason's inferior teammates are truly great players either. And only great players deserve to be chosen. So D does, in fact, strengthen the conclusion that none of the Mudskippers deserve to be All-Stars.

Answer E again misses the conclusion. Whether the Mudskippers will play has nothing to do with whether any of them are deserving of selection for the All-Star team.

D is correct.