James Shields

Just a handful of games remain in the 2014 MLB season, and nearly every team knows its fate at this point. A few franchises are still holding out hope to make a late charge into the postseason, but the bubble has popped for others.

Strong starts for the Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves weren't sustained, as both are on the outside looking in. Then there are the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics, who are still in a dogfight for a wild-card spot.

The last time the Kansas City Royals made the playoffs, Back to the Future was the No. 1 movie in America.

Looking back, KC fans probably wish they'd shoved Marty McFly aside, hopped in Doc Brown's DeLorean and set the coordinates for 2014.

Because only now, 29 excruciating years later, are the Royals finally poised for a return trip to the postseason.

As one of the most consistent pitchers in the game, it is no wonder that teams will be trying to figure out ways to acquire James Shields before the trade deadline. 

Losers of two straight games, the Kansas City Royals turn to staff ace James Shields to get back on the winning track against his former team, the Tampa Bay Rays, Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

The Kansas City Royals finally got their ace, acquiring right-handed pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays for prospects Wil Myers, Mike Montgomery, Jake

Numerous reports have indicated the willingness of the Kansas City Royals to trade top prospect Wil Myers this offseason for pitching help. The Kansas City Star’s Bob Dutton wrote that Kansas City is willing to hold off on a trade until it feels it has found the right fit.

Remember in high school, the senior class would vote to see who would be the "Most Likely to Succeed," or the "Most Likely to Marry a Millionaire," and so on?

Just before the All-Star break is an appropriate time to present a list of the “Most Likely To...”

It is all for fun and giggles, no pressure, not hard to force the gray matter into coming up with earth shattering news.

Until the recent wave of new-age statistics were introduced to baseball fans around the globe, the only way fans could decide what type of season a pitcher had was by looking at wins, ERA and WHIP.

Over the last decade, however, stats such as batting average on balls in play (BABIP) and home run-to-fly ball ratio (HR/FB) have allowed fans to get a better glimpse into which pitchers were plain bad and which were just having some bad luck.

So which five pitchers are the best bets to bounce back in 2011? Let's examine the numbers.

Wow. Tampa Bay's window for winning AL East pennants and World Series championships lasted about as long as it takes a David Price fastball to reach home plate.

The longest-ever tenured Ray, Carl Crawford, bolted for the New Evil Empire in Boston. Other clubhouse stalwarts like Carlos Pena, Matt Garza, and Rafael Soriano left for more money, a better team, or a combination of both.

We all know that luck has a lot to do with the success or failure of some pitchers.  Let’s take a look at the five pitchers who qualified for the ERA title in 2010 who posted the worst BABIP and analyze their chances of a rebound in 2011:

James Shields, Tampa Bay Rays: .341 BABIP