RRosternomics
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Braves ATL

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GM: John Schuerholz

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 13 in this regime · payroll 1.36× league · TAB +7.1
+7.1TAB — talent above budget9th/30
+10.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)5th/30
12.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars1st/30
-5.0dead WAR — sub-replacement drag18th/30
7%dead money %1st/30
0.593win %4th/30
45.1roster fWAR5th/30
-15surplus $M (value vs cost)21st/30
$90Mpayroll $M7th/30

2004: made playoffs · 96–66. Ranks are vs the 30 teams that season.

Roster

CFAndruw Jones 154GJ.D. Drew 8GDewayne Wise 7G
LFCharles Thomas 70GEli Marrero 47GDewayne Wise 34G
RFJ.D. Drew 138GEli Marrero 25GDewayne Wise 15G
SSRafael Furcal 131GJesse Garcia 25GWilson Betemit 11G
2BMarcus Giles 97GNick Green 75GJesse Garcia 11G
3BChipper Jones 96GMark DeRosa 72GMike Hessman 7G
1BAdam LaRoche 98GJulio Franco 84GMike Hessman 16G
STARTERSJaret Wright 4.3WARJohn Thomson 3.3WARMike Hampton 2.3WARPaul Byrd 2.0WARRuss Ortiz 1.4WAR
CJohnny Estrada 133GEddie Pérez 66G
DHChipper Jones 7GJ.D. Drew 1GJulio Franco 1G
BULLPEN★ John Smoltz 44svChris Reitsma 31hKevin Gryboski 16hAntonio Alfonseca 13hTom Martin 12hJuan Cruz 2hRoman Colon 1hTravis Smith 1h
CJohnny Estrada 133 · Eddie Pérez 66
1BAdam LaRoche 98 · Julio Franco 84 · Mike Hessman 16
2BMarcus Giles 97 · Nick Green 75 · Jesse Garcia 11
3BChipper Jones 96 · Mark DeRosa 72 · Mike Hessman 7
SSRafael Furcal 131 · Jesse Garcia 25 · Wilson Betemit 11
LFCharles Thomas 70 · Eli Marrero 47 · Dewayne Wise 34
CFAndruw Jones 154 · J.D. Drew 8 · Dewayne Wise 7
RFJ.D. Drew 138 · Eli Marrero 25 · Dewayne Wise 15
DHChipper Jones 7 · J.D. Drew 1 · Julio Franco 1
SPJaret Wright 4.3 · John Thomson 3.3 · Mike Hampton 2.3 · Paul Byrd 2.0 · Russ Ortiz 1.4
BP★ John Smoltz 44 · Chris Reitsma 31 · Kevin Gryboski 16 · Antonio Alfonseca 13 · Tom Martin 12 · Juan Cruz 2 · Roman Colon 1 · Travis Smith 1

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.

2004 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
J.D. Drew 28 FA-elig 1458.6 4.2 +10.6
Andruw Jones 27 FA-elig 1545.3 12.5 -3.4
Jaret Wright 28 FA-elig 324.3 0.8 +6.6
Chipper Jones Jr. 32 FA-elig 1373.3 15.3 -9.6
John Thomson 30 FA-elig 333.3 2.2 +3.5
Marcus Giles 26 arb 1023.0 0.4 +4.7
Rafael Furcal 26 arb 1432.8 3.7 +1.1
Johnny Estrada 28 arb 1342.7 0.3 +4.3
Mike Hampton 31 FA-elig 362.3 14.6 -10.7
John Smoltz 37 FA-elig 732.1 11.7 -8.1
Charles Thomas 25 – 832.0 – –
Paul Byrd 33 FA-elig 192.0 7.0 -3.6
Eli Marrero 30 FA-elig 901.7 3.0 -0.0
Russ Ortiz 30 FA-elig 341.4 6.2 -3.9
Julio Franco 45 FA-elig 1251.2 0.8 +1.3
Adam LaRoche 24 pre-arb 1100.8 0.3 +1.1
Juan Cruz 25 arb 500.6 0.4 +0.6
Chris Reitsma 26 arb 840.5 0.9 -0.0
Antonio Alfonseca 32 FA-elig 790.4 1.4 -0.6
Kevin Gryboski 30 pre-arb 690.3 0.4 +0.2
Roman Colon 24 – 180.3 – –
Dewayne Wise 26 arb 770.3 0.3 +0.2
Nick Green 25 – 950.2 – –
Eddie Pérez 36 FA-elig 740.2 0.6 -0.2
Horacio Ramirez 24 pre-arb 110.2 0.3 -0.0
Damon Hollins 30 – 70.1 – –
Sam McConnell 28 – 100.1 – –
Dan Meyer 22 – 20.0 – –
Tim Drew 25 – 12-0.0 – –
C.J. Nitkowski↔ NYY 31 FA-elig 22-0.1 0.2 -0.4
Will Cunnane 30 FA-elig 9-0.1 0.5 -0.7
Jose Capellan 23 – 3-0.2 – –
Armando Almanza 31 arb 13-0.2 0.5 -0.8
Tom Martin↔ LAD 34 FA-elig 29-0.2 0.5 -0.9
Jesse Garcia 30 arb 50-0.2 0.3 -0.7
Wilson Betemit 22 – 22-0.6 – –
Travis Smith 31 – 16-0.6 – –
Mike Hessman 26 pre-arb 29-0.8 0.3 -1.7
Mark DeRosa 29 FA-elig 118-1.9 0.7 -3.9

Key additions (new vs 2003)

PlayerfWAR
J.D. Drew8.6
John Thomson3.3
Charles Thomas2.0
Paul Byrd2.0
Eli Marrero1.7
Adam LaRoche0.8

Key subtractions (gone from 2003)

Player2003 fWAR
Gary Sheffield7.3
Javy Lopez6.8
Greg Maddux3.5
Vinny Castilla1.9
Shane Reynolds1.0
Robert Fick0.9

Current & Historical Payroll

2004 payroll
$90.5M

What the front office was committed to as of 2004, 2004–2010. 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 (19)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Chipper Jones Jr.3211.000$15.3M$16.1M$12.3M$12.3M$12.3M$10.0M$14.0M
Mike Hampton3111.000$14.6M$15.1MFREE AGENT$16.0M
Andruw Jones278.000$12.5M$13.0M$13.5M$14.0MFREE AGENT
John Smoltz3716.000$11.7M$9.0M$11.0M$8.0M$14.0MFREE AGENT
Paul Byrd339.000$7.0MFREE AGENT
Russ Ortiz306.000$6.2MFREE AGENT
J.D. Drew286.000$4.2MFREE AGENT
Eli Marrero307.000$3.0MFREE AGENT
John Thomson307.000$2.2M$4.2M$4.8MFREE AGENT
Antonio Alfonseca327.000$1.4MFREE AGENT
Jaret Wright287.000$850kFREE AGENT
Julio Franco4522.000$750k$1.0MFREE AGENT$836k
Mark DeRosa296.000$725kFREE AGENT
Eddie Pérez369.000$625k$625kFREE AGENT
Tom Martin347.000$534k$1.9MFREE AGENT
Will Cunnane307.000$525kFREE AGENT
C.J. Nitkowski319.000$201kFREE AGENT
Damon Hollins306.000—FREE AGENT
Travis Smith316.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Rafael Furcal264.000$3.7MARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Reitsma263.000$950kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Armando Almanza315.000$500kFREE AGENT
Marcus Giles263.000$430kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Cruz253.000$370kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dewayne Wise264.000$325kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jesse Garcia305.000$312kFREE AGENT
Johnny Estrada283.000$312kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Drew254.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wilson Betemit223.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (10)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Kevin Gryboski302.000$378kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Horacio Ramirez241.000$330kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Adam LaRoche240.000$300kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Hessman261.000$300kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nick Green250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roman Colon240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Capellan230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sam McConnell28–—
Charles Thomas250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dan Meyer220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Braves 2004; 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.