These Royals are unlucky AND awful

As has been noted multiple times by multiple people over the past week, the Royals have played exactly one team under .500 so far this season. That was the lone series they managed to win, defeating the San Francisco Giants two games to one. There has also been all kinds of talk about how several Royals batters have some of the largest gaps between the WOBA and XWOBAs in the league. They’re hitting the ball hard but they’re not reaching base. etc. etc.

Unfortunately, bad luck can’t explain everything. The Royals may have four of the unluckiest hitters in MLB’s top 30 with at least 25 balls in play, but here are the XWOBAs they have - a.k.a. the WOBA they’d have if they were less unlucky:

Jacki…