Tony Fernandez was scouted and signed by the Toronto Blue Jays and made his Major League debut in 1983.  As the Jays improved in the mid-80s, the Dominican Shortstop was one of their stalwarts.  From 1985 to 1988, he would receive MVP votes, showing off firm contact, hitting, and defense.  In all of those four seasons, Fernandez was named a Gold Glove winner, and he would at least bat .280 with 160 Hits.

An All-Star for the Blue Jays three times, he was dealt to the San Diego Padres in a major trade after the 1990 season, and Fernandez was an All-Star for the fourth time in 1992.  The Shortstop again was a Blue Jay in 1993, where he was a member of their first World Series Title.

Following that ring collection, he was a Cincinnati Red, New York Yankee, and Cleveland Indian before going back north as a Blue Jay and going to his fifth and last All-Star Game.  Fernandez went to Milwaukee and returned to Toronto before retiring in 2001.

The Infielder compiled 1,583 Hits, 172 Stolen Bases, and a .297 Batting Average as a Blue Jay and would later be inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.  Fernandez is also a member of the Blue Jays Level of Excellence.

An Amateur Free Agent signee in 1988, Puerto Rico’s Carlos Delgado first made the Blue Jays roster in 1993, but it was not until 1996 that he was an everyday player at First.

Delgado began a ten-year streak of at least 30 Home Runs in 1997 (though the last two were with other teams), and three of those seasons saw the slugger exceed 100.  A bona fide run generator, Delgado drove in at least 100 runners six times with Toronto, including a league-leading 145 in 2003.  That was his best season in the Majors, where he was second in MVP voting, won The Sporting News Player of the Year Award, and won his third and final Silver Slugger.  

As good as Delgado was, he was unable to play in any playoff games with the Jays, who went into sharp decline after their second World Series win in 1993.  He was easily the Jays best batter from 1996 to 2004, after which he left for the Marlins as a Free Agent.

As of this writing, Delgado is the all-time franchise leader in Offensive bWAR (39.4), Plate Appearances (6,018), Runs Scored (889), Home Runs (336), and RBIs (1,058), and is a member of the Blue Jays Level of Excellence.  He was also named to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Jose Bautista's success in emerging as one of the game's top power hitters might be one of the biggest “Where the hell did this come from?” stories in Baseball.

Bautista was barely even a journeyman, playing briefly for Baltimore, Tampa Bay. and Kansas City before having a respectable season in 2007 as a Pittsburgh Pirate. The Blue Jays traded for him during the 2008 Season, and Bautista began 2009 as the fourth Outfielder. He worked all year with Toronto's hitting coach, Dwayne Murphy, who helped him work on his stance and leg kick. It yielded a coming out part in 2010 that blew everyone away.

After a previous high of 15 Home Runs, Bautista won the Home Run Title with 54. He also had 124 RBI, which would become his personal best. Bautista won the Silver Slugger that year and was fourth in MVP voting. Some in the baseball media thought he had to be a one-year wonder. He wasn't. Bautista won his second straight Home Run Title (43), and he led the AL in Walks (132), Slugging (.608), and OPS (1.056). He added a second Silver Slugger, and this year was third in MVP voting.

Bautista missed quite a few games due to injury in 2012 and 2013, though he still had at least 27 Home Runs in both seasons. Fully healthy in 2014, Bautista won his third Silver Slugger on a 35 HR/103 RBI campaign, blasted 40 taters in 2015, and helped lead the Blue Jays to the playoffs. In the deciding game in the ALDS against Texas, Bautista hit the game-winning Home Run and delivered after the most famous bat flip in Canada. Toronto did not win the Pennant that year, but Bautista's moment will be forever etched in Blue Jays fans.

Age caught up to Bautista after, and so did a bit of karma, in terms of a punch to the face by Texas's Rougned Odor. He was not resigned after 2017, leaving the Jays with 1,103 Hits and 288 Home Runs.  Bautista was inducted into the Jays Level of Excellence in 2023.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our post 2022 revision of our top Detroit Tigers.

As for all of our top 50 players in basketball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, Detroit had another rough year an failed to make the playoffs, and they had no new entrants on our top 50 list, but one impactful elevation.

As always, we present our top five, which has the only change, with a new number five.

1. Ty Cobb

2. Al Kaline                            

3. Hal Newhouser

4. Charlie Gehringer

5. Miguel Cabrera

You can find the entire list here.

As mentioned earlier, Cabrera enters the top five, though at this stage of his career, advancing any higher might prove difficult.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.