Chicago is a city with many superstar athletes playing for our professional sports. With the high profile names comes high expectations from a passionate fan base. Not only our the players under the microscope, but the general managers and front offices for each team face pressure.

Each month I will be ranking Chicago athletes and front offices from the four major American sports leagues. For players I will rank players by the following criteria:

Current performance- How the athlete has performed in the last month

Past performance- How the play has done in the past and achievements for the organization.

Potential- How the player might fare in the future. Age is a big factor here.

Appeal to buy apparel- Is this player’s jersey or shirsey a big seller and often seen at games or around the city?

Off field reputation- A combination of player’s personality, and role in advertisements and popular culture.

In the news- Are the mainstream Chicago media outlets and blogs writing and talking about this player?

The criteria is still a work in progress, but without too much math here is my player rankings for August 2012:

1. Derrick Rose

2. Jay Cutler

3. Brian Urlacher

4. Patrick Kane

5 Jonathan Toews

6. Matt Forte

7. Brandon Marshall

8. Joakim Noah

9. Paul Konerko

10. Anthony Rizzo

11. Patrick Sharp

12. Luol Deng

13. Lance Briggs

14. Duncan Keith

15. Julius Peppers

16. Marian Hossa

17. A.J. Pierzynski

18. Starlin Castro

19. Adam Dunn

20. Jake Peavy

Front Office Rankings: