Game 127 Open Thread - Kansas City Royals (70-56) vs. Texas Rangers (49-77)

The Rangers have dropped 42 of their last 56, a truly Baird-era Royalesque accomplishment. The Royals will face the Rangers for the first time this year after splitting the six games last year, but these aren't your 2013 Rangers. Only a shell of that team remains.

Colby Lewis is one holdover, kind of. Lewis returned in 2014 after missing the last eighteen months due to various injuries to his elbow, flexor tendon, and right hip. Since returning Lewis has been a bit of a disaster (when not admonishing opposing players for going against the unwritten rules of baseball), with a 5.52 ERA in 22 starts, although his FIP is a respectable 4.17. Whatever good luck Danny Duffy has been accumulating from the BABIP fairy has been taken from Colby Lewis, as Lewis has allowed a crazy-high .373 batting average on balls in play, the highest in baseball. Lewis has more than doubled his outstanding walk rate from 2012, when he enjoyed his best season, but its not terrible at 2.87 per nine innings. Lewis still strikes out over seven hitters per nine innings, so he might be decent down the stretch for the Rangers, and a decent bounce-back bet for 2015.

Yordano Ventura throws fire for the Royals tonight, a sharp contrast to the finesse of Colby Lewis and his 88 m.p.h. fastball. Ventura has thrown a Quality Start in each of his last four outings, winning two of them.

Colby Lewis was a member of the Kansas City Royals from November 2, 2007 til he was released on December 5, 2007. How do you best remember the Colby Lewis era?