RRosternomics
𝕏

Braves ATL

‹ ›

GM: Bobby Cox

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↗ rising
expensive & losing · year 3 in this regime · payroll 1.27× league · TAB -13.5
-13.5TAB — talent above budget24th/26
-15.6WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)23rd/26
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars18th/26
-4.0dead WAR — sub-replacement drag14th/26
46%dead money %24th/26
0.429win %23rd/26
23.5roster fWAR23rd/26
-7surplus $M (value vs cost)25th/26
$14Mpayroll $M3rd/26

Roster

CFDion James 99GAlbert Hall 68GKen Griffey Sr. 1G
LFKen Griffey Sr. 107GGary Roenicke 40GDion James 29G
RFDale Murphy 159GGary Roenicke 4GAlbert Hall 1G
SSAndres Thomas 81GJeff Blauser 50GRafael Ramirez 38G
2BGlenn Hubbard 139GRon Gant 20GKen Oberkfell 11G
3BKen Oberkfell 126GGraig Nettles 40GRafael Ramirez 12G
1BGerald Perry 136GTed Simmons 28GGary Roenicke 9G
STARTERSZane Smith 3.6WARCharlie Puleo 2.4WARDavid Palmer 1.8WARRick Mahler 1.1WARPete Smith 0.1WAR
COzzie Virgil Jr. 122GBruce Benedict 35GTed Simmons 15G
BULLPEN★ Jim Acker 14svJeff Dedmon 0hPaul Assenmacher 0hEd Olwine 0hJoe Boever 0hChuck Cary 0hLarry McWilliams 0hMarty Clary 0h
COzzie Virgil Jr. 122 · Bruce Benedict 35 · Ted Simmons 15
1BGerald Perry 136 · Ted Simmons 28 · Gary Roenicke 9
2BGlenn Hubbard 139 · Ron Gant 20 · Ken Oberkfell 11
3BKen Oberkfell 126 · Graig Nettles 40 · Rafael Ramirez 12
SSAndres Thomas 81 · Jeff Blauser 50 · Rafael Ramirez 38
LFKen Griffey Sr. 107 · Gary Roenicke 40 · Dion James 29
CFDion James 99 · Albert Hall 68 · Ken Griffey Sr. 1
RFDale Murphy 159 · Gary Roenicke 4 · Albert Hall 1
SPZane Smith 3.6 · Charlie Puleo 2.4 · David Palmer 1.8 · Rick Mahler 1.1 · Pete Smith 0.1
BP★ Jim Acker 14 · Jeff Dedmon 0 · Paul Assenmacher 0 · Ed Olwine 0 · Joe Boever 0 · Chuck Cary 0 · Larry McWilliams 0 · Marty Clary 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
Dale Murphy 31 FA-elig 1597.1 1.9 +0.1
Zane Smith 26 arb 413.6 0.2 +0.8
Dion James 24 arb 1342.5 0.1 +0.6
Glenn Hubbard 29 FA-elig 1412.4 0.6 +0.1
Charlie Puleo 32 FA-elig 362.4 0.1 +0.6
Ozzie Virgil Jr. 30 FA-elig 1232.1 0.8 -0.2
David Palmer 29 FA-elig 281.8 0.7 -0.2
Rick Mahler 33 FA-elig 401.1 0.7 -0.4
Ken Griffey Sr. 37 FA-elig 1221.0 1.1 -0.9
Albert Hall 29 FA-elig 920.7 0.1 +0.1
Gary Roenicke 32 FA-elig 670.7 0.4 -0.2
Gene Garber↔ KCR 39 FA-elig 490.5 0.6 -0.5
Ken Oberkfell 31 FA-elig 1350.4 0.7 -0.6
Doyle Alexander↔ DET 36 FA-elig 160.3 0.4 -0.3
Jeff Dedmon 27 arb 530.3 0.3 -0.2
Jim Acker 28 arb 680.3 0.3 -0.3
Pete Smith 21 – 60.1 – –
Larry McWilliams 33 FA-elig 90.1 0.9 -0.9
Gerald Perry 26 arb 1420.1 0.1 -0.1
Chuck Cary 27 – 130.0 – –
Steve Ziem 25 – 20.0 – –
Ted Simmons 37 FA-elig 730.0 0.5 -0.5
Mike Fischlin 31 – 10.0 – –
Jeff Blauser 21 pre-arb 51-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Marty Clary 25 – 7-0.0 – –
Terry Bell 24 – 1-0.0 – –
Paul Runge 29 FA-elig 27-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Tom Glavine 21 pre-arb 9-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Trench Davis 26 – 6-0.1 – –
Kevin Coffman 22 – 5-0.1 – –
Phil Niekro↔ CLE 48 FA-elig 1-0.1 0.0 -0.0
Ron Gant 22 – 21-0.1 – –
Joe Boever 26 pre-arb 14-0.2 0.6 -0.7
Paul Assenmacher 26 pre-arb 52-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Graig Nettles 42 FA-elig 112-0.2 0.2 -0.3
Darryl Motley 27 FA-elig 6-0.2 0.2 -0.3
Ed Olwine 29 pre-arb 27-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Randy O'Neal↔ STL 26 – 17-0.3 – –
Rafael Ramirez 29 FA-elig 56-0.5 0.9 -1.0
Bruce Benedict 31 FA-elig 37-0.6 0.6 -0.8
Andres Thomas 23 pre-arb 82-1.1 0.1 -0.4

Key additions (new vs 1986)

PlayerfWAR
Dion James2.5
Gary Roenicke0.7
Pete Smith0.1
Larry McWilliams0.1
Chuck Cary0.0
Steve Ziem0.0

Key subtractions (gone from 1986)

Player1986 fWAR
Bob Horner1.1
Joe Johnson0.7
Bill Sample0.5
Chris Chambliss0.3
Cliff Speck0.1
Craig McMurtry0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1987 payroll
$13.8M

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 (21)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Dale Murphy3111.000$1.9M$2.0M$2.0M$1.3MFREE AGENT
Ken Griffey Sr.3714.000$1.1M$367kFREE AGENT
Larry McWilliams339.000$900kFREE AGENT
Rafael Ramirez297.000$875kFREE AGENT
Ozzie Virgil Jr.307.000$760k$900kFREE AGENT
Ken Oberkfell3110.000$725k$621kFREE AGENT
David Palmer299.000$725kFREE AGENT
Rick Mahler338.000$695k$738kFREE AGENT
Gene Garber3918.000$622kFREE AGENT
Bruce Benedict319.000$615k$665k$395kFREE AGENT
Glenn Hubbard299.000$555kFREE AGENT
Ted Simmons3719.000$500k$470kFREE AGENT
Doyle Alexander3616.000$385kFREE AGENT
Gary Roenicke3211.000$380k$380kFREE AGENT
Graig Nettles4220.000$220kFREE AGENT
Darryl Motley276.000$210kFREE AGENT
Albert Hall296.000$150k$250kFREE AGENT
Charlie Puleo326.000$118k$195kFREE AGENT
Paul Runge296.000$95k$108kFREE AGENT
Phil Niekro4823.000$4kFREE AGENT
Mike Fischlin3110.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (6)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Jim Acker284.000$350kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Dedmon274.000$300kARB 3FREE AGENT
Zane Smith263.000$250kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gerald Perry264.000$150kARB 3FREE AGENT
Dion James244.000$120kARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy O'Neal263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Joe Boever262.000$625kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Assenmacher261.000$80kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andres Thomas232.000$75kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ed Olwine291.000$70kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Blauser210.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Glavine210.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Bell24–—
Chuck Cary272.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Marty Clary250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Coffman220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Trench Davis26–—
Ron Gant220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pete Smith210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Ziem25–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Braves 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.