Cubs Talk @NBCSCubs 2h
Who's the first player you think of that wasn't necessarily the best, but was still one of you favorites because of the effort he gave?
Is Greg Maddux 2004-2006 an acceptable answer for this? He definitely wasn't the best anymore during his second stint with the Cubs and was pretty much throwing in the high 80's, but when all the young pitchers like Wood and Prior were getting hurt for the Cubs, he took the ball every fifth day, threw strikes, and pitched a lot of quality innings.
He's probably the first guy I thought about when pondering the question.
A few others just flipping through some old Baseball-Reference pages...
Shawon Dunston
Rey Sanchez
Doug Glanville
Rod Beck
Terry Mulholland
Jon Lieber
Eric Karros
Reed Johnson
Alfonso Soriano (later years)
Ben Zobrist