The Cubs Franchise Deep Six

Time for another one! Today we have the lovable North Siders who can't seem to win a World Series, the Cubs!

	P	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	LF	CF	RF
1st	Fergie Jenkins	Gabby Hartnett	Cap Anson	Ryne Sandberg	Ron Santo	Ernie Banks	Billy Williams	Hack Wilson	Sammy Sosa
2nd	Clark Griffith	Johnny Kling	Frank Chance	Billy Herman	Stan Hack	Bill Dahlen	Riggs Stephenson	George Gore	King Kelly
3rd	Mordecai Brown	Jody Davis	Mark Grace	Johnny Evers	Ned Williamson	Joe Tinker	Abner Dalrymple	Bill Lange	Bill Nicholson
4th	Pete Alexander	Randy Hundley	Derrek Lee	Rogers Hornsby	Heinie Zimmerman	Charlie Hollocher	Jimmy Sheckard	Andy Pafko	Kiki Cuyler
5th	Hippo Vaughn	Rick Wilkins	Vic Saier	Fred Pfeffer	Harry Steinfeldt	Billy Jurges	Hank Sauer	Jimmy Ryan	Andre Dawson
6th	John Clarkson	Bob O'Farrell	Phil Cavarretta	Glenn Beckert	Aramis Ramirez	Tom Burns	Augie Galan	Adolfo Phillips	Frank Schulte

These things are always tough to make. Ideally, I'm trying to rank these players based on how much they epitomize the position for the franchise. That's why I try to weigh both longevity and peak value. Sometimes though, you end up with forgotten players outranking fan favorites. Phil Cavarretta, for instance, was something of a Cub legend, while most fans today probably don't know anything about Vic Saier. Based on the numbers though, I had to give Saier the edge, because Cavarretta didn't spend enough time specifically as a first baseman, and his greatest season came during wartime, when the talent pool was weaker. Anthony Rizzo is actually surprisingly close behind Cavarretta already. It'll be a shame to see such a beloved Cub end up in the Conigliaro Zone.

Right field was another weird one. Kelly, Nicholson and Cuyler all have noise in the data that makes them hard to evaluate. Either they spent a lot of time at other positions in addition to right field, or World War II distorted their value. I ultimately went with Kelly on the 2nd Team because he was the greatest player of the bunch, but honestly, you could probably put those three in any order and have a valid defense for it.

I hated putting Rogers Hornsby on the 4th Team, since he played only 250 games at second base for the Cubs. However, he did spend three seasons in Chicago with that as his primary position, abbreviated though some of them might have been, and was a monster. Pfeffer and Beckert were good players who spent a lot more time with the Cubs, but they never approached Hornsby's peak value. It didn't feel right to put such a dominant player on the 6th Team behind those two.

It's interesting that the most recent player from the center field column is Adolfo Phillips on the 6th Team. The Cubs have had several fine center fielders, but they all played at least half a century ago. It's about time they found another star at that position, wouldn't you say?

Tinker, Evers and Chance almost all ended up on the same team, but I decided Chance was just a bit better than Mark Grace. Tinker to Evers to Grace is hardly anything to be disappointed with, though.