RRosternomics
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Rockies COL

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GM: Bob Gebhard

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↗ rising
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.08× league · TAB -5.4
-5.4TAB — talent above budget19th/28
+3.3WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)10th/28
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars18th/28
-3.3dead WAR — sub-replacement drag5th/28
29%dead money %20th/28
0.535win %9th/28
26.4roster fWAR17th/28
-10surplus $M (value vs cost)22nd/28
$36Mpayroll $M10th/28

1995: made playoffs · 77–67. Ranks are vs the 28 teams that season.

Roster

CFMike Kingery 108GEllis Burks 65GTrenidad Hubbard 14G
LFDante Bichette 120GEllis Burks 23GEric Young Sr. 19G
RFLarry Walker 129GDante Bichette 35GJohn Vander Wal 3G
SSWalt Weiss 136GJason Bates 20GVinny Castilla 5G
2BJason Bates 82GEric Young Sr. 77GRoberto Mejia 16G
3BVinny Castilla 137GJason Bates 15GPedro Castellano 3G
1BAndres Galarraga 142GJohn Vander Wal 10GMike Kingery 5G
STARTERSKevin Ritz 3.1WARBill Swift 1.7WARBryan Rekar 1.1WARJoe Grahe 0.7WARMarvin Freeman 0.5WAR
CJoe Girardi 122GMatt Nokes 19GJorge Brito 18G
BULLPEN★ Darren Holmes 14svCurt Leskanic 0hSteve Reed 0hMike Munoz 0hBryan Hickerson 0hBruce Ruffin 0hLance Painter 0hA.J. Sager 0h
CJoe Girardi 122 · Matt Nokes 19 · Jorge Brito 18
1BAndres Galarraga 142 · John Vander Wal 10 · Mike Kingery 5
2BJason Bates 82 · Eric Young Sr. 77 · Roberto Mejia 16
3BVinny Castilla 137 · Jason Bates 15 · Pedro Castellano 3
SSWalt Weiss 136 · Jason Bates 20 · Vinny Castilla 5
LFDante Bichette 120 · Ellis Burks 23 · Eric Young Sr. 19
CFMike Kingery 108 · Ellis Burks 65 · Trenidad Hubbard 14
RFLarry Walker 129 · Dante Bichette 35 · John Vander Wal 3
SPKevin Ritz 3.1 · Bill Swift 1.7 · Bryan Rekar 1.1 · Joe Grahe 0.7 · Marvin Freeman 0.5
BP★ Darren Holmes 14 · Curt Leskanic 0 · Steve Reed 0 · Mike Munoz 0 · Bryan Hickerson 0 · Bruce Ruffin 0 · Lance Painter 0 · A.J. Sager 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.

1995 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Larry Walker 28 FA-elig 1314.6 5.0 -0.6
Kevin Ritz 30 FA-elig 313.1 0.4 +2.5
Curt Leskanic 27 pre-arb 762.7 0.1 +2.4
Vinny Castilla 27 arb 1392.3 0.3 +1.9
Eric Young Sr. 28 arb 1202.2 0.3 +1.9
Dante Bichette 31 FA-elig 1391.8 3.4 -1.7
Steve Reed 30 arb 711.7 0.3 +1.4
Bill Swift 33 FA-elig 191.7 3.9 -2.3
Darren Holmes 29 arb 681.6 1.4 +0.1
Walt Weiss 31 FA-elig 1371.5 2.3 -0.8
Bryan Rekar 23 pre-arb 151.1 0.1 +0.9
Andres Galarraga 34 FA-elig 1431.1 4.0 -2.9
John Vander Wal 29 arb 1050.8 0.3 +0.5
Joe Grahe 27 arb 170.7 0.6 +0.1
Marvin Freeman 32 FA-elig 220.5 1.9 -1.4
Bruce Ruffin 31 FA-elig 370.5 1.0 -0.5
Armando Reynoso 29 arb 200.5 0.3 +0.2
Mark Thompson 24 pre-arb 210.4 0.1 +0.3
Jayhawk Owens 26 pre-arb 180.3 0.1 +0.1
Ellis Burks 30 FA-elig 1030.2 3.3 -3.2
Harvey Pulliam 27 – 50.1 – –
Bret Saberhagen↔ NYM 31 FA-elig 90.1 2.0 -1.9
Trenidad Hubbard 31 pre-arb 240.1 0.1 -0.0
Lance Painter 27 pre-arb 330.1 0.1 -0.0
Roger Bailey 24 pre-arb 390.1 0.1 -0.0
A.J. Sager 30 pre-arb 100.0 0.1 -0.1
Craig Counsell 24 – 30.0 – –
Omar Olivares↔ PHI 27 arb 12-0.0 0.3 -0.3
Quinton McCracken 24 pre-arb 3-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Mike Kingery 34 FA-elig 119-0.1 0.7 -0.8
Pedro Castellano 25 – 4-0.1 – –
David Nied 26 arb 2-0.1 0.3 -0.4
Matt Nokes↔ BAL 31 FA-elig 10-0.1 0.2 -0.3
Jason Bates 24 pre-arb 116-0.2 0.1 -0.3
Jim Tatum 27 arb 34-0.2 0.1 -0.3
Bryan Hickerson↔ CHC 31 arb 18-0.2 0.1 -0.4
Jorge Brito 29 pre-arb 18-0.3 0.1 -0.4
Juan Acevedo 25 pre-arb 17-0.3 0.1 -0.4
Mike Munoz 29 FA-elig 64-0.4 0.3 -0.6
Joe Girardi 30 FA-elig 125-0.7 1.9 -2.5
Roberto Mejia 23 – 23-0.7 – –

Key additions (new vs 1994)

PlayerfWAR
Larry Walker4.6
Bill Swift1.7
Bryan Rekar1.1
Joe Grahe0.7
Harvey Pulliam0.1
Bret Saberhagen0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1994)

Player1994 fWAR
Charlie Hayes0.9
Mike Harkey0.5
Nelson Liriano0.5
Greg Harris0.3
Kent Bottenfield0.2
Willie Blair0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1995 payroll
$35.9M

What the front office was committed to as of 1995, 1995–2001. 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 (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1995199619971998199920002001
Larry Walker286.000$5.0M$4.4M$6.3M$6.0M$5.4M$12.1M$12.2M
Andres Galarraga3410.000$4.0M$4.5M$5.0MFREE AGENT
Bill Swift3310.000$3.9M$4.6M$4.6MFREE AGENT
Dante Bichette317.000$3.4M$3.6M$5.2M$5.3M$7.2MFREE AGENT
Ellis Burks308.000$3.3M$4.0M$4.0M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Walt Weiss318.000$2.3M$1.6M$2.7MFREE AGENT
Bret Saberhagen3111.000$2.0MFREE AGENT
Marvin Freeman329.000$1.9M$2.4MFREE AGENT
Joe Girardi306.000$1.9MFREE AGENT
Bruce Ruffin319.000$1.0M$1.0MFREE AGENT
Mike Kingery349.000$700kFREE AGENT
Kevin Ritz306.000$447k$740k$2.5M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Mike Munoz296.000$300k$290k$350k$585kFREE AGENT
Matt Nokes3110.000$194kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1995199619971998199920002001
Darren Holmes295.000$1.4MFREE AGENT
Joe Grahe275.000$575kFREE AGENT
John Vander Wal294.000$300kARB 3FREE AGENT
Omar Olivares275.000$289kFREE AGENT
David Nied263.000$275kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Vinny Castilla274.000$265kARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Reed303.000$265kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Armando Reynoso294.000$258kARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Young Sr.283.000$252kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Tatum273.000$135kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bryan Hickerson314.000$129kARB 3FREE AGENT
Harvey Pulliam274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1995199619971998199920002001
Lance Painter272.000$131kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Curt Leskanic272.000$130kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jayhawk Owens262.000$124kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Trenidad Hubbard311.000$114kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jorge Brito290.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Bates240.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roger Bailey240.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Acevedo250.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Quinton McCracken240.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bryan Rekar230.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Thompson241.000$109kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
A.J. Sager301.000$109kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pedro Castellano252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Counsell240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roberto Mejia232.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Rockies 1995; 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.