http://www.israelhighway.org/highway-images/football-player.jpg

Idonije was born in Lagos, Nigeria and has been killing people ever since. Need I say more?

9. Cubs Rookies

http://www.aolcdn.com/aolnews_photos/0f/02/20080428015509990013

http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2006/writers/em_swift/11/21/cubs.tribune/t1_aramis_si.jpg

This Dominican third basemen picks up the necessary base runners everyday. He is an RBI machine and has played a solid third base the last couple years.

7. Carlos Marmol

http://z.about.com/d/baseball/1/7/v/4/-/-/cubs20.jpg

This Dominican is 100% lights out. When Marmol steps into the game, it is pretty much over. He has the ability to K anybody in the league. Oh and he has a 1.69 ERA and 46 K’s in 32 innings.

6. Patrick Sharp

http://www.nancarrow-webdesk.com/warehouse/storage2/2007-w46/img.75523_t.jpg

Oh Canada, thanks for our future. Unfortunately for the Hawks once Rose comes to Chitown hockey will become obsolete again.

5. Alfonso Sorianohttp://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper736/stills/v351z49o.jpg

I had no idea where to put him on this list because of his streakiness, but this Dominican can literally become the scariest offensive force in the big leagues so being in the middle seems to fit his two sided offensive attack.

4. Jonathan Toewshttp://www.fanatique.ca/images/_profils/image/90_jonathantoews3.jpg

As a rookie he led all rookies in goals…the sky is the limit with this Canadian and next year will be a big year for the Toews and the Hawks as they look to move from a young team to a consistent playoff team.


3. Luol Denghttp://www.jamati.com/online/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/deng.jpg

A member of the Dinka tribe of Sudan, he was raised in Great Britain and learned basketball from Manute Bol in Egypt…interesting, right? Anyway, until this year the Bulls have put their franchise hopes on his back and it will be interesting to see if he can turn into something special.


2. Javier Vazquezhttp://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44080000/jpg/_44080971_javier_getty.jpg

I was shocked to see the lack of players from other countries on the Sox. Sure there are players like Cabrera, but he has not played up to his capabilities so Vazquez seemed like the only viable candidate. His 3.52 ERA and 5-3 record prove the he is the man. To add to that he has strucken out 67 and only walked 15 in 71.2 innings.


1. Carlos Zambranohttp://mydobber.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/CarlosZambrano.jpg

7-1 with a 2.47 ERA. Pretty good, right? Now that Brandon Webb has lost his second game in a row, Zambrano might have taken the lead in the NL Cy Young voting. The Venezuelan has dropped his K numbers but he is attacking the strike zone and limiting his walks, leading to a low ERA and high win percentage. And don't forget "Big Z" also drops bombs...he's just good.

No Shame: Check out my two part interview with Pat Listach, the Manager of the Iowa Cubs, on triple-A life and Micah Hoffpauir at Vine Line's Cubs Club Blog.