RRosternomics
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Angels ANA

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GM: Mike Port

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.2× league · TAB -3.7
-3.7TAB — talent above budget17th/26
-9.3WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)21st/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars12th/26
-2.5dead WAR — sub-replacement drag4th/26
41%dead money %21st/26
0.463win %20th/26
32.8roster fWAR15th/26
-3surplus $M (value vs cost)19th/26
$13Mpayroll $M6th/26

Roster

CFGary Pettis 131GDevon White 64GRuppert Jones 3G
LFJack Howell 78GRuppert Jones 52GGeorge Hendrick 37G
RFDevon White 120GTony Armas 26GRuppert Jones 21G
SSDick Schofield 131GGus Polidor 46GMark McLemore 6G
2BJohnny Ray 148GMark McLemore 132GJack Howell 13G
3BJack Howell 48GGus Polidor 11GDarrell Miller 1G
1BWally Joyner 149GBill Buckner 79GGeorge Hendrick 9G
STARTERSMike Witt 4.0WARWillie Fraser 1.6WARDon Sutton 1.1WARJerry Reuss 0.4WARKirk McCaskill 0.3WAR
CBob Boone 127GDarrell Miller 33GButch Wynegar 28G
DHBrian Downing 115GBill Buckner 39GMark Ryal 5G
BULLPEN★ DeWayne Buice 17svGreg Minton 0hGary Lucas 0hChuck Finley 0hMike Cook 0hDonnie Moore 0hBryan Harvey 0h
CBob Boone 127 · Darrell Miller 33 · Butch Wynegar 28
1BWally Joyner 149 · Bill Buckner 79 · George Hendrick 9
2BJohnny Ray 148 · Mark McLemore 132 · Jack Howell 13
3BJack Howell 48 · Gus Polidor 11 · Darrell Miller 1
SSDick Schofield 131 · Gus Polidor 46 · Mark McLemore 6
LFJack Howell 78 · Ruppert Jones 52 · George Hendrick 37
CFGary Pettis 131 · Devon White 64 · Ruppert Jones 3
RFDevon White 120 · Tony Armas 26 · Ruppert Jones 21
DHBrian Downing 115 · Bill Buckner 39 · Mark Ryal 5
SPMike Witt 4.0 · Willie Fraser 1.6 · Don Sutton 1.1 · Jerry Reuss 0.4 · Kirk McCaskill 0.3
BP★ DeWayne Buice 17 · Greg Minton 0 · Gary Lucas 0 · Chuck Finley 0 · Mike Cook 0 · Donnie Moore 0 · Bryan Harvey 0

Each position lists its starter then backups by games (so platoons & bench show). Starters (mound) & bullpen (left, foul territory) are ranked by WAR; ★ marks the closer (most save chances). MLB Stats API.

1987 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Devon White 24 pre-arb 1594.6 0.1 +1.3
Mike Witt 26 FA-elig 364.0 1.1 +0.0
Wally Joyner 25 pre-arb 1494.0 0.2 +1.0
Brian Downing 36 FA-elig 1553.9 0.9 +0.2
Jack Howell 25 pre-arb 1382.4 0.1 +0.6
DeWayne Buice 29 pre-arb 572.1 0.1 +0.5
John Candelaria↔ NYM 33 FA-elig 202.1 0.7 -0.1
Willie Fraser 23 pre-arb 361.6 0.1 +0.4
Bob Boone 39 FA-elig 1281.3 0.9 -0.5
Dick Schofield 24 arb 1341.3 0.5 -0.1
Don Sutton 42 FA-elig 351.1 0.9 -0.6
Doug DeCinces↔ STL 36 FA-elig 1331.1 1.0 -0.7
Greg Minton↔ SFG 35 FA-elig 410.9 0.5 -0.3
Gary Pettis 29 arb 1330.9 0.4 -0.1
Chuck Finley 24 pre-arb 350.7 0.1 +0.1
Johnny Ray↔ PIT 30 FA-elig 300.5 0.2 -0.0
Bill Buckner↔ BOS 37 FA-elig 570.4 0.2 -0.0
Jerry Reuss↔ CIN 38 FA-elig 170.4 0.7 -0.6
Darrell Miller 29 arb 530.4 0.1 +0.0
Ruppert Jones 32 FA-elig 850.3 0.5 -0.4
Kirk McCaskill 26 pre-arb 140.3 0.2 -0.1
Donnie Moore 33 FA-elig 140.3 1.0 -0.9
Gary Lucas 32 FA-elig 480.3 0.7 -0.6
Bryan Harvey 24 – 30.1 – –
Jack Lazorko 31 – 260.0 – –
Butch Wynegar 31 FA-elig 310.0 0.7 -0.7
Jim Eppard 27 – 8-0.0 – –
Miguel Garcia↔ PIT 20 – 1-0.0 – –
Jack Fimple 28 arb 13-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Tack Wilson 32 – 7-0.0 – –
Mike Cook 23 – 16-0.2 – –
Gus Polidor 25 pre-arb 63-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Mark McLemore 22 – 138-0.3 – –
Urbano Lugo 24 – 7-0.3 – –
George Hendrick 37 FA-elig 65-0.4 1.0 -1.1
Mark Ryal 27 – 58-0.4 – –
Tony Armas 33 FA-elig 28-0.5 0.1 -0.2

Key additions (new vs 1986)

PlayerfWAR
DeWayne Buice2.1
Greg Minton0.9
Johnny Ray0.5
Bill Buckner0.4
Jerry Reuss0.4
Bryan Harvey0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1986)

Player1986 fWAR
Bobby Grich2.1
Reggie Jackson1.5
Rick Burleson0.7
Ron Romanick0.5
Terry Forster0.5
Vern Ruhle0.5

Current & Historical Payroll

1987 payroll
$12.9M

What the front office was committed to as of 1987, 1987–1993. Pre-2015 has no contract-terms data — forward italic $ are realized actuals (hindsight, not commitments known then). Control labels (ARB/FA) are point-in-time.

current $ guaranteed $ actual $ (hindsight) arbitration (proj) pre-arb (proj) free agent

Guaranteed / signed (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Mike Witt266.000$1.1M$1.4M$1.4M$800kFREE AGENT
Doug DeCinces3614.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Donnie Moore3312.000$1.0M$1.0MFREE AGENT
George Hendrick3716.000$989k$989kFREE AGENT
Brian Downing3614.000$900k$900k$1.2M$1.2MFREE AGENT
Don Sutton4221.000$890kFREE AGENT
Bob Boone3915.000$883k$883kFREE AGENT
Jerry Reuss3818.000$748kFREE AGENT
Butch Wynegar3111.000$733k$733kFREE AGENT
John Candelaria3312.000$696kFREE AGENT
Gary Lucas327.000$662kFREE AGENT
Greg Minton3512.000$549k$500k$830k$850kFREE AGENT
Ruppert Jones3211.000$450kFREE AGENT
Bill Buckner3718.000$158k$330kFREE AGENT
Johnny Ray306.000$158k$732k$850k$1.1MFREE AGENT
Tony Armas3311.000$62k$100k$525kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (5)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Dick Schofield244.000$475kARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Pettis295.000$400kFREE AGENT
Darrell Miller293.000$91kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jack Fimple284.000$75kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jack Lazorko313.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Kirk McCaskill262.000$232kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wally Joyner251.000$180kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jack Howell252.000$95kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chuck Finley241.000$78kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Devon White242.000$70kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gus Polidor252.000$67kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Willie Fraser231.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
DeWayne Buice290.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Cook23–—
Jim Eppard270.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Miguel Garcia20–—
Bryan Harvey240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Urbano Lugo24–—
Mark McLemore221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Ryal27–—
Tack Wilson32–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Angels 1987; the black line = the league-average player at each slot that season. Staying above the line deep into the roster is the depth edge; dropping below it = holes & dead weight.

What each regime is worth — every settled team-season since 1985

RegimeSeasonsWin %Playoff %Pennant %WS %
WINDOW 28152.131.05.01.1
CONTEND 30056.964.719.710.3
FORCED-SPEND 25648.09.81.61.6
REBUILD 32143.31.20.30.3
Rosternomics — quantifying front-office skill, attribution-clean. Follow @rosternomics on X. Decision-makers on record back to 1933; resource-controlled metrics (WAR & payroll) cover 1985–2026.
Data: FanGraphs (WAR), Baseball-Reference & the Chadwick Bureau register (rosters, IDs), the Lahman Database, Baseball America prospect rankings (via The Baseball Cube), and public payroll records. Transaction and trade data was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet. Executive birth/death data via Wikidata (CC0); bios are original. Emoji graphics by OpenMoji (CC BY-SA 4.0).
All figures are franchise-level outcomes credited to the decision-maker in the acquisition year — not solely attributable to one executive.