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Committee Chairman

Committee Chairman

Kirk Buchner, "The Committee Chairman", is the owner and operator of the site.  Kirk can be contacted at [email protected] .

The son of former Colorado Rockies' star Dante Bichette, Bo Bichette was a star at Arizona State, which he parlayed into a Second Round Pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016.  Three years later, the second-generation player was called up, and he has taken over where his father left off.  Bichette played only in 46 Games that year for the Jays but batted .311 with 11 Home Runs and matched Ted Williams' rookie mark of nine straight games with an Extra Base Hit.

Bichette missed a lot of the COVID-shortened 2020 but exploded in 2021, going to the All-Star Game with a league-leading 191 Hits while batting .298 with 298 with 29 Home Runs, 102 RBIs, and 25 Stolen Bases.  He was now a star, a more balanced player than his dad, and was 12th in MVP voting.  Bichette led the AL in Hits again in 2022 (189), was 11th in MVP voting, and had a good power year (24 HR).  Last season, Bichette emerged as the Blue Jays best player, adding a second All-Star, and batting over .300 for the first time (.307).

Going into 2024, Bichette had the makings of an MVP, but he had his worst year to date, fighting injuries while finishing with a negative bWAR (-0.3) and .598 OPS.  It has to be better for Bichette in 2025, for the Blue Jays to have any success.

Willie Upshaw was taken from the Yankees organization via the Rule 5 Draft, with the Blue Jays hopeful that he would be the First Baseman of the future, and by 1982, four years after, he was their starter. 

Upshaw was one of Toronto’s building blocks, and he had three straight 150 Hit years, the first two where he belted over 20 Home Runs.  His best season was in 1983, where he had career-bests in HR (27), Hits (177), RBI (104), and the Slash Line (.306/.373/.515) and received votes for the MVP, finishing 11th.  Upshaw could not reproduce that year but was a large part in getting them to their first playoff in 1985.  He played three more years in Toronto before Cleveland bought his contract.

Upshaw’s offensive numbers look like he should be higher, but First Baseman generally are better producers, which hampers his rank a little.

One of the few Canadians to play for a Canadian team, Paul Quantrill's hometown was London, Ontario, two hours away from Toronto.  The Pitcher played collegiately at the University of Wisconsin and then professionally for the Red Sox and Phillies before the latter traded him to Toronto after the 1995 Season.

Quantrill's first year with the Blue Jays was dismal, going 5-14 with a 5.43 ERA and going back and forth as a starter and reliever.  Going into 1997, Quantrill was assigned to the bullpen, and it was a good fit for him, as he kept his ERA low (1.94 in 1997 and 2.59 in 1998), and in 2001, he was an All-Star Middle Reliver, leading the AL in Games Pitched (80) with an 11-2 record.  

Quantrill was traded to Los Angeles after his 2001 All-Star year, leaving the Jays with 386 appearances.  He is also a part of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Kevin Pillar was the best player at California State University, where he set a Division II school hit streak record with 54 Games.  As good as he was, Pillar still played in Division II and dropped to the 32nd Round of the 2011 Draft, but Pillar defied the odds and first made the Blue Jays in only two years. 

Pillar entered the 2015 season as Toronto's starting Centerfielder, and he batted .278 with 163 Hits and a Wilson Platinum Glove.  The Blue Jays were contenders, with Pillar providing the occasional clutch hit.  Toronto reached the ALCS in 2015 and did so again in 2016, with a 144 Hit/.266 campaign. 

He never played another playoff game in Toronto but had two more respectable years, though his OBP was not great.  The Jays shipped him off to San Francisco early in the 2019 season, leaving Pillar with 641 Hits as a Blue Jay.