Remember when Alex Gordon was the next George Brett?

It's getting harder and harder to recall when Alex Gordon last wore the next George Brett label, from ages 23-26 Gordon has hit a disappointing .244/.328/.404 with a 95 OPS+. The same ages Brett hit .319/.368/.507 with a 140 OPS+. So he's not the next Brett, but we already knew that. Gordon is now a 27 year old outfielder and any comparisons to Brett are now only made by the certifiably insane. The point here isn't to pile on Gordon, because after all I think he'll have a fine season, no the point is to bring up what Brett did when he was 27.  He nearly hit .400, yep 1980 a.k.a. the best offensive performance in franchise history.

Gordon is not alone this year as Ka'aihue, Getz, Francoeur, and Blanco will also be playing their age 27 seasons, that's four likely starters and a fourth/fifth outfielder. So in honor of half the frickin offense being the same age I present to you the top ten OPS+ performances by 27 year olds in the history of the Royals, best and worst. And because I needed some sort of arbitrary set point I decided on 400 as the minimum number of plate appearances to make either list.

First the best:

Rk	Player	OPS+	PA	Year	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG
1	George Brett	203	515	1980	33	9	24	118	58	22	15	.390	.454	.664
2	Bo Jackson	142	456	1990	16	1	28	78	44	128	15	.272	.342	.523
3	Darrell Porter	142	679	1979	23	10	20	112	121	65	3	.291	.421	.484
4	Mike Sweeney	132	632	2001	46	0	29	99	64	64	10	.304	.374	.542
5	Ed Kirkpatrick	128	423	1972	15	1	9	43	51	50	3	.275	.365	.396
6	Steve Balboni	123	488	1984	23	2	28	77	45	139	0	.244	.320	.498
7	Mike Aviles	121	441	2008	27	4	10	51	18	58	8	.325	.354	.480
8	Amos Otis	121	632	1974	31	9	12	73	58	67	18	.284	.348	.438
9	Willie Aikens	119	519	1982	29	1	17	74	45	70	0	.281	.345	.457
10	Bob Oliver	108	662	1970	24	6	27	99	42	126	3	.260	.309	.451

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

And now the worst:

Rk	Player	OPS+	PA	Year	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG
1	Freddie Patek	67	577	1972	25	4	0	32	47	64	33	.212	.280	.276
2	Tom Goodwin	70	587	1996	14	4	1	35	39	79	66	.282	.334	.330
3	John Buck	79	418	2008	23	1	9	48	38	96	0	.224	.304	.365
4	Willie Wilson	85	611	1983	22	8	2	33	33	75	59	.276	.316	.352
5	Craig Paquette	87	462	1996	15	1	22	67	23	101	5	.259	.296	.452
6	David DeJesus	91	703	2007	29	9	7	58	64	83	10	.260	.351	.372
7	Mark Quinn	91	473	2001	31	2	17	60	12	69	9	.269	.298	.459
8	Jermaine Dye	91	410	2001	14	0	13	47	30	68	7	.272	.333	.417
9	Pete LaCock	91	453	1979	25	4	3	56	37	26	2	.277	.334	.380
10	Lou Piniella	93	476	1971	21	5	3	51	21	43	5	.279	.311	.368

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Which list will the current crop of 27 year old Royals land on?