What if you were tasked with winning one — and only one — baseball game and you were responsible for putting together the lineup to get you that W?

Here’s the thing: You can only form the lineup from guys who have suited up for the Cubs, even if it was for only one game or part of one season. This isn’t a list of the greatest Cubs players. It’s the Ultimate Cubs Lineup to win one big game.

That means you can select Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown (who pitched for the Cubs from 1904-1912 and again in 1916) or Anthony Rizzo (who led the Cubs to end the 108-year World Series drought).

You can choose Hall of Famers, All-Stars, role players, whoever. You can prioritize power, contact, defense, intangibles or whatever you think is necessary to win this one imaginary game. You can even hit the pitcher 8th or anywhere you see fit in the lineup.

Since the Cubs are a National League team, we are forming the roster with no designated hitter. To add another wrinkle of strategy, you can select one reliever to come in after the starting pitcher and one player off the bench who could come into the game at any point.

So which 11 current or former Cubs would you choose to go to battle with in a must-win game?

Marquee Sports Network’s Lance Brozdowski provides his take:

1. Rogers Hornsby – 2B
2. Ron Santo – 3B
3. Ernie Banks – SS
4. Sammy Sosa – LF
5. Ralph Kiner – RF
6. Rafael Palmiero – 1B
7. Jim Edmonds – CF
8. Jason Kendall – C
9. Jon Lester – SP

Reliever: Craig Kimbrel

Bench: Matt Stairs

Rationale

My lineup is an intentional blend of multiple Cubs greats and players who wore a Cubs uniform for as few as 57 games. It’s very right-handed heavy at the top, with my two left-handed bats stuffed in the middle, but I’m frontloading this lineup with guys who get on base. I want the best players at the plate most often in a given game — similar to the rationale David Ross had this spring to bat Kris Bryant leadoff.

I’ll start by recognizing two players who played only a handful of games with the Cubs: Jason Kendall and Jim Edmonds.

Kendall caught over 17,000 innings in his 15-year career. He posted positive value on the defensive side of things in all but two of those seasons — his first and last. On top of that, he batted .288 in his career with a .366 OBP. His career WAR totals are right around two modern catching greats in Yadier Molina and Buster Posey. Sure, he only played 57 games for the Cubs and Gabby Hartnett is a great option, but Kendall is a forgotten catcher who stands formidably among the greats.

Edmonds fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in 2016, his first year in consideration. He has more career WAR than Vladimir Guerrero Sr. and Kirby Puckett and remains one of the best all-around center fielders of all time. He doesn’t have the defensive prowess of Andruw Jones or the bat of Ken Griffey Jr., but his career .376 OBP is the highest in my lineup apart from Ralph Kiner and Rogers Hornsby. Whatever chance I have to bring Edmonds into a baseball conversation, I’m going to take advantage of.

Moving onto the rest of my lineup, Hornsby is the only second baseman who has a strong case over the great Ryne Sandberg, despite playing the majority of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals. He posted an insane 7% strikeout rate in his career and had six 10-plus WAR seasons on his resume. For comparison, possibly the greatest player of all time, Willie Mays, had only four 10-plus WAR seasons. He’s putting the ball in play and there’s a strong chance he’s getting on base at least once in this game.

In 1967, Ron Santo had one of the greatest seasons by a Cubs position player of all time, eclipsed only by the clean-up hitter in this lineup. He played superb defense, winning his fourth-consecutive Gold Glove that season, and he got on base nearly 40% of the time. Kris Bryant is a viable option here, but Santo’s five-year peak between 1963 to 1967, where he hit 149 home runs and won multiple pieces of hardware, is something Bryant would need a late-career surge to match.

Ernie Banks is Mr. Cub. There’s no more rationale needed here. I was thinking about slotting number 14 in at first base and putting somebody like Javier Báez or Nomar Garciaparra at shortstop, but I wanted Banks at the most important infield position on the diamond. I hope he’d be comfortable with the modern shifting tactics.

Two of the three highest RBI totals ever reached in a season between 1960 and 2019 belong to Sammy Sosa. He is ninth all time in home runs and a two-year stretch with 129 home runs. Although I’ve had an affinity for players who walk more than they strike out, Sosa adds some much-needed thump to my lineup.

Kiner is one of the greatest Pittsburgh Pirates of all time, but just like Hornsby, he’s too good for me to pass up. In his 10-year career (one season with the Cubs) he hit an incredible 369 home runs and drove in over 1,000 runs. His career walk rate is 4% higher than his career strikeout rate. In 1951 he walked an incredible 20% of the time and struck out only 9% of the time.

Palmiero has a nice place inside the Top 15 on the all-time home run list. That’s all I need to slot him in my lineup. Sosa and Palmiero is the only combination of Cubs players that net a lineup with a pair of Top 20 all-time home run leaders. His lefty stroke is much needed in my right-handed heavy lineup. And while there may be some questionable ethics between these two home run leaders, the home run totals are too great to ignore.

Greg Maddux is extremely hard to pick against as a starting pitcher, but looking solely at playoff performances, where everything is on the line, Lester holds a candle to the original Professor. Lester has more postseason strikeouts on a rate basis and a comparable walk rate. Even late in his career, as his velocity and skills have started to progressively decline, he’s still stepping up in big ways, like in 2018’s Wild Card game against the Colorado Rockies. Whoever is managing this team is going to have a hard time taking the ball from Lester.

Kimbrel may leave a sour taste in fans’ mouths after a rocky 2019, but he could go down as one of the top three to four closers of all time with a few more excellent seasons. He’s currently the active saves leader in baseball, with 73 more saves than Aroldis Chapman. His career 41% strikeout rate was enough to convince me he’s the man for one or more innings behind Lester.

All you need to know about Matt Stairs is that he has the most pinch-hit home runs of all time with 23. Coming into a game cold is not something I think a lot of everyday players can do with great success. Stairs gives me a great chance at a late-game homer.

I’m confident this team puts up six or more runs against nearly any pitcher. That’s all Lester will need to shut things down with Kimbrel behind him.

Be sure to check out all of our Ultimate Cubs Lineups!