The Kansas City Royals are on a pretty good run with their first round draft picks, dating back to 2002 and the selection of Zack Greinke. Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Alex Gordon, Luke Hochevar and Aaron Crow are all former first rounders who make up the core of the team’s rebuilding effort.

A study of first round selections by other big league teams reveals that no one has a crystal ball when it comes to the draft. But the Royals have avoided any major gaffes since their disastrous draft of 2001.

The team still hasn’t exactly achieved the success on the big league field that Dayton Moore envisions, but he’s done a good job following up the last few decent drafts of the Allard Baird era.

The Royals hope the selection of Kyle Zimmer and development of Bubba Starling and Christian Colon continue the run of success.

When you look back at the history of the Royals draft, however, the team has been anything but clutch. In fact it’s hard to look back at the top five selections of each year of their history and even find recognizable names. (See the history courtesy of the Baseball Cube here.

Forget Colt Griffin and Roscoe Crosby, who’s Juan LeBron? Who was Ben Grzybek? How did the Royals blow the number nine pick in 1973 on someone named Lew Olson?

Now Jarrod Dyson will tell you that decent players aren’t only found in the top five rounds. But just for fun, let’s construct an all-time team of picks from rounds 1-5 from Royals history. (Starter and backup are listed with round and year drafted):

Catcher: Mike MacFarlane (4^th round, 1985) gets the nod over Brent Mayne (1^st, 1989).

First Base: Because Eric Hosmer (1^st 2008) has got barely a year under his belt, I’m going to go with the great Ken Harvey (5^th, 1999) as the Royals’ starter. He was an all-star, after all, and his 27 career homers still lead Hosmer’s 26 (as of June 8).

Second Base: Uh oh. No real good choices here. Give it to Terry Shumpert (2^nd, 1987) because he played parts of five seasons in KC. Too early to go with Johnny Giavotella (2^nd, 2008).

Shortstop: Double uh oh. How can Buddy Biancalana (1^st, 1978) be the best shortstop any team ever drafted? David Letterman is still waiting for Biancalana to top Pete Rose’s hit total. But he did start 311 games, including the World Series in 1985. Jamie Quirk (1^st, 1972) was drafted as a shortstop, but he only played 22 big league games at the position.

Third base: Finally a position where KC actually hit it big. George Brett (2^nd, 1971) was actually taken as a shortstop, but gets this spot. Mike Moustakas (1^st, 2007) will be a good one, but will have trouble making the first team on this list.

Outfield: Lots of good choices here, so I’ll just name a 1-6 order.

1)    Willie Wilson (1^st, 1974) One of only a few KC first-rounders to actually become superstars.

2)    Carlos Beltran (2^nd, 1995) Would probably be the second greatest Royal of all time, had he stayed with the team.

3)    Johnny Damon (1^st, 1992) Similar story to Beltran.

4)    Bo Jackson (4^th, 1986) Aside from what he did on the field, he brought the attention of the world to KC.

5)    (tie) I can’t pick between Brian McRae (1^st, 1985) and David DeJesus (4^th, 2000), but they each get the nod over Alex Gordon, who may eventually rank much higher on this list.

Designated Hitter: Billy Butler (1^st, 2004) is the epitome of a DH. I’ll go with Tom Poquette as a backup, even though he only DH’d seven times. He showed some promise his first couple of seasons, and he made it into Terry Cashman’s Royals version of “Talkin’ Baseball” (if only because his name rhymes with Brett.)

Starting Pitcher (1-6):

1)    Dennis Leonard (2^nd, 1972) A career Royal and three-time 20 game winner.

2)    Mark Gubicza (2^nd, 1981) A two-time all star who pitched on the 1985 World Series team at just 23 years of age.

3)    Kevin Appier (1^st, 1987) Perhaps the best of all, but played for bad teams.

4)    Zach Greinke (1^st, 2002) Had just one great season in KC, but might be the best pitcher the Royals ever drafted.

5)    Dave Cone (3^rd, 1981) Same story as Greinke – just one great season in KC.

6)    Rich Gale (5^th, 1975) A winning record over four seasons gets him the nod over Luke Hochevar (1^st, 2006).

Relief Pitcher: Mike MacDougal (1^st, 1999) was actually a closer, so he edges out Aaron Crow (1^st, 2009), who hopefully will have a much longer and more successful career in KC than MacDougal.

This was one Felipe Lopez home run away from being a very different looking column. Four days after an eight game winning streak came to an end, the Cardinals seemed poised to let the Cubs sweep a three-game set at Wrigley Field in front of a boisterous ESPN Sunday Night Baseball crowd, which would have extended their run of losses to four.

The first game, a 5-0 loss that Albert Pujols admitted was a “flat” performance by the team, marked the ninth shutout of the year, just one fewer than occurred over the entire 2009 campaign. It was also the first time in Tony La Russa’s tenure as manager in Saint Louis that his team had been shutout in consecutive days. The day before the offense had been stifled by lefty Cole Hamels of the Phillies, wasting a quality start by Adam Wainwright.

The adjective used by TLR to describe Game 2 was “frustrating”. The offense was awakened by the brisk, Friendly Confines’ winds, but missed out on several key opportunities to pile on runs. They lost the contest 6-5.

On Sunday, the energy on Chicago’s north side more closely resembled that of baseball in October than it did a game in the middle of July. A noisy contingent of fans clad in red battled the Cubbie faithful for dominion of every chant. In a year thus far constructed largely of disappointments, and on the day Cub’s great Andre Dawson would be entered into the Hall of Fame, you can bet that the entire Cubs organization wanted this win.

The Cardinals would survive a number of gaffes to earn the win in extra innings, but more than the surrendering of bragging rights, the final game of this series held, in my opinion, far more serious ramifications had they lost.

Allow me to shed the façade of alpha-male sports columnist momentarily in order to offer a relevant philosophical point. In sports and in life there are only two underlying motivations…fear and love. Think about that for a moment. At times it may be a blend of both, but at the very root of every single act there are only these two motivating forces. There are no others.

For much of the first half of the season, the Cardinals have looked like a team operating from a position of trepidation and self-doubt. The seed of lofty expectations that was planted in early spring was at first bearing fruit, blossoming into an April record of 15 and 8. However, shortly after, another driving force began to grow in its place. Untimely strikeouts and an inability to plate runners in scoring position, especially in clutch scenarios, seemed to be eroding a foundation that had not yet rooted itself deeply enough for the 162-game grind. A team that initiated the 2010 season enthusiastically and with fervor suddenly appeared tentative and afraid of failure. If at any point you have competed seriously for sport, or played a musical instrument, you have known this phenomenon and the unsavory results it will normally produce. It is because of this that the “underdog” often has upper hand…i.e. the Cincinnati Reds.

Not only would a sweep at the hands of lowly Cubs have erased the intangible gains of winning eight in row, but it would have put in jeopardy the new swagger that the home team had exhibited since its return from the All-Star break. The Cardinals, for the first time in months, looked like a team playing from the same place that it began the year.

Indeed, had the Cardinals been swept in such demoralizing fashion and by such an unworthy opponent, whatever precious confidence had been achieved would have taken a damaging blow. On a team with such temperamental psyches as players such as Brendan Ryan, Colby Rasmus, and Skip “Nobody Feels Worse” Schumaker, a legitimate concern would have to be that correcting the confidence level of the ball club a second time could prove too difficult, if possible at all.

And if you think Walt Jocketty’s legion of spurned formal Cardinals isn’t playing with a purpose that transcends the fear of falling short, you are fooling yourself.

Justin Adams is a freelance writer and staff writer for i70baseball, as well as Cardinals columnist every Thursday for InsideSTL.com. Follow him on Twitter @Intangiball