Joe Maddon On Cubs Players: 'Egoless'

(CBS) As he routinely juggles his lineup in an effort to win as many ballgames as possible while also continuing the development of some youngsters, Cubs manager Joe Maddon is quick to laud those who have made it easy on him.

Namely, the players.

"None of these guys ever complain about anything," Maddon said in an interview with Matt Spiegel and Barry Rozner on Tuesday.

Maddon spoke with left-hander Travis Wood's outing Monday as context. After starter Jason Hammel suffered a cramp before the start of the third inning, Wood came in on short notice and tossed four perfect innings. It was Wood's longest outing of a season in which he sometimes only gets called to face one batter in a one-run game while other nights he could be called upon to pitch in a blowout.

In Maddon's mind, he has a team full of players without an ego. Of course, it also helps when your team is an MLB-best 35-14.

"He has no ego when it comes to our group and where he fits in," Maddon said of Wood before mentioning others. "How about Ben Zobrist playing right field, Javy (Baez) was at second base yesterday. (Kris Bryant) plays everywhere. (Jorge) Soler plays sporadically.

"All of our guys are just ready to play, and that's the beauty of our group. They're so versatile and they've very egoless when it comes to the win at the end of the day.

"It's a whole bunch of guys like that."

Listen to Maddon's full interview below.