Cubs all time 25 man roster

[Sockeye]

C: Gabby Hartnett, Johnny Kling
1B: Cap Anson, Frank Chance
2B: Ryne Sandberg, Billy Herman
3B: Ron Santo, Stan Hack
SS: Ernie Banks, Joe Tinker
LF: Billy Williams
CF: Hack Wilson, Jimmy Ryan
RF: Sammy Sosa, Bill Nicholson
SP: Fergie Jenkins, Rick Reuschel, Mordecai Brown, Clark Griffith, Pete Alexander
RP: Lee Smith, Bruce Sutter, Carlos Marmol, Don Elston, Dutch Leonard

[Iowanic]

Not a single player from the 2016 roster? Seriously?

[Windy City Fan]

Most of the 2016 roster is either so young or has spent so little time with the team, it would be hard to include them. Is Kris Bryant's 3 years worth more than Stan Hack's career? Even Rizzo's 7 years, can it really top Frank Chance's 15 years with the club? You probably could make an argument at this particular slot, but that is about it. I think Bryant, Rizzo, and Contreras are pretty good bets to earn a spot on this team eventually, but right now, it would probably be premature.

And I assume this is based on what they did solely in a Cubs uniform. Otherwise, this needs some heavy revision.

[3rdGenCub]

Why is Carlos Marmol on this list? Two good (not great) years on the Cubs shouldn't qualify him. I would just leave the list with the other 4 RP.

[Windy City Fan]

Cub closers are pretty meh beyond Sutter and Smith. I thought the same thing when I saw Marmol, but when I looked at some of the other options that came to mind, none really were better in a Cub uniform than Marmol - Williams, Myers, Beck. Dempster maybe has a case based on both his starting and closing, but he never really excelled in either role.

[3rdGenCub]

I understand your above post re Marmol. However, I believe there needs to be a "cut off" in being on the 25-man roster based on overall MLB performance rather than overall Cubs performance (i.e., the best of the bad). Thus, I believe some positions, such as RP, should not have very many entries whereas other positions might have more than 2 names. This shouldn't be too surprising for RP as the position only became "prestigious" in the late 1970s. Before then, RP were viewed as washed up starters brought in to mop up starters being chased from games. With all of that said, I would leave RP as just Sutter and Smith. I would add Mark Grace to 1B, Phil Cavaretta and Andre Dawson to the OF, and Greg Maddux to SP. I know Maddux's best years were with the Braves, but he still won the Cy Young in 1992. I'm not familiar with Nicholson and Ryan. What are their stats? Also, I only know that Clark Griffith owned the Senators. What are his stats? I thought Eston and Leonard were just ok. If they are on there, what about starters like Beckert, Warneke and Root?

[3rdGenCub]

My apologies. For some reason I misunderstood your list to be the best 25 Cubs players not 25-man roster. For a 25-man roster, I can't object to Marmol or Dempsey in the bullpen as they are the best of the rest. For your bench players, I would need to know more as to why you think Nicholson and Ryan are superior to any of the following: Dawson, Cavaretta, Grace and Pafko. For the starting rotation, wouldn't Maddux, Sutcliffe or Beckert be superior to Griffith? I briefly reviewed Griffith's career with the Cubs/Colts and didn't see anything that indicated he was better than any of the pitchers that I just mentioned, especially considering how much more difficult it is to be a pitcher in the modern era than the 1890s and early 1900s.

[Happy Chimp]

I have to say you did a magnificent job on this historical roster. It's rare to meet someone who does not overemphasize the present at the expense of the past, in terms of historical baseball perspective. It's so easy for today's fans to think whoever is playing now must be better than whoever they didn't see, so I thank you for not falling into that trap, and also for appreciating the importance of fielding.

[Hammerin Hank]

So...you just did a copy/paste of your post from a year ago?

https://www.baseball-fever.com/forum...-25-man-roster