There's an old adage that says to only worry about things in your control.
That might be getting tougher by the day for Royals outfielder Franchy Cordero ... especially after his first eight plate appearances with the Royals.
Cordero, who was acquired before the season in a trade with San Diego, has had a quiet statistical start so far. He's had one hit in seven at-bats, with a lackluster .536 overall on-base-plus-slugging-percentage in that small sample.
Dive a little deeper, though, and it sure seems that Cordero has deserved better.
And probably even a lot better.
MLB's Statcast measures "expected batting average," which uses exit velocity and launch angle to calculate how likely it is for each batted ball to turn into a hit.
And based on that, Cordero has not only been unlucky _ he's been in territory all his own when it comes to major-league hitters.
Though Cordero's actual batting average is .143, his expected batting average _ based on his batted ball profile _ is .515. Among players with more than one batted ball this season, the difference of .372 between his expected average and actual production is the highest mark in baseball this season.
One can also break it down this way: Cordero's expected average on each of his seven batted balls has been .620, .570, .430, .530, .500, .750 and .210. That means in five of his seven plate appearances, Statcast would tell us he should have had at least a 50% chance of reaching on a hit, with only one of those results going his way.
So what has that looked like? Here's a quick view.
I've compiled three of Cordero's outs this season _ the ones with the top expected averages where he made an out _ and followed them with clips of similar exit velocities (EV), launch angles (LA) and spray directions by other players that resulted in hits. This gives us some context into what might've happened to Cordero's batted balls had they not been redirected right at fielders.
