Chicago Cubs: Assembling our very own all-time “Hall of Very Good” team

The mythical “Hall of Very Good” exists as an informal honor to players who had very good careers, but are just not quite Hall of Fame worthy. These are guys who had nice careers and are still remembered long after they retire, even though they do not have their face on a plaque in Cooperstown.

Some of these guys are right on the fringe of Hall of Fame, where arguments exist for them to be in it. Others had Hall of Fame trajectories early in their careers, but due to either injuries, personal life or just falling off performance-wise, they finish their careers short of Cooperstown-worthy numbers. Then you simply have the guys that were just very good, with no real shot at the Hall of Fame but still played at an All Star level fairly consistently throughout their career.

Yes, there are the steroid or banned players who clearly put up Hall of Fame numbers, but that is a topic for another day.

There are plenty of Cubs legends who did not have Hall of Fame careers but still left their mark on the franchise and the game, as a whole. I’m going to attempt to find a starting lineup, five-man starting rotation and five relievers made up of “Hall of Very Good” Chicago Cubs. While building an all-time lineup is fairly easy, building this is a bit more difficult.

There are plenty of worthy guys to be on this list, thus there are a lot of different directions this lineup can go. One of the goals of this list was to pull a diverse set of players from different eras. This can spark plenty of conversations and debates. Without further ado, here is my “Hall of Very Good” Cubs team.