RRosternomics
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Rockies COL

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GM: Bob Gebhard

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↗ rising
expensive & losing · year 2 in this regime · payroll 1.07× league · TAB -8.2
-8.2TAB — talent above budget24th/28
+0.2WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)14th/28
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars21st/28
-5.0dead WAR — sub-replacement drag13th/28
33%dead money %24th/28
0.512win %13th/28
26.8roster fWAR22nd/28
-12surplus $M (value vs cost)22nd/28
$35Mpayroll $M13th/28

Roster

CFQuinton McCracken 85GLarry Walker 54GEllis Burks 32G
LFEllis Burks 129GJohn Vander Wal 24GDante Bichette 19G
RFDante Bichette 138GEric Anthony 34GLarry Walker 33G
SSWalt Weiss 155GJason Bates 18GNeifi Perez 14G
2BEric Young Sr. 139GJason Bates 37GNeifi Perez 4G
3BVinny Castilla 160GJason Bates 12GPedro Castellano 1G
1BAndres Galarraga 159GJohn Vander Wal 10G
STARTERSKevin Ritz 2.2WARArmando Reynoso 1.4WARJamey Wright 0.9WARRoger Bailey 0.9WARMark Thompson 0.7WAR
CJeff Reed 111GJayhawk Owens 68GSteve Decker 40G
BULLPEN★ Bruce Ruffin 24svSteve Reed 0hCurt Leskanic 0hDarren Holmes 0hMike Munoz 0hLance Painter 0hJohn Habyan 0hJohn Burke 0h
CJeff Reed 111 · Jayhawk Owens 68 · Steve Decker 40
1BAndres Galarraga 159 · John Vander Wal 10
2BEric Young Sr. 139 · Jason Bates 37 · Neifi Perez 4
3BVinny Castilla 160 · Jason Bates 12 · Pedro Castellano 1
SSWalt Weiss 155 · Jason Bates 18 · Neifi Perez 14
LFEllis Burks 129 · John Vander Wal 24 · Dante Bichette 19
CFQuinton McCracken 85 · Larry Walker 54 · Ellis Burks 32
RFDante Bichette 138 · Eric Anthony 34 · Larry Walker 33
SPKevin Ritz 2.2 · Armando Reynoso 1.4 · Jamey Wright 0.9 · Roger Bailey 0.9 · Mark Thompson 0.7
BP★ Bruce Ruffin 24 · Steve Reed 0 · Curt Leskanic 0 · Darren Holmes 0 · Mike Munoz 0 · Lance Painter 0 · John Habyan 0 · John Burke 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.

1996 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Ellis Burks 31 FA-elig 1567.2 4.0 +2.1
Vinny Castilla 28 arb 1603.3 1.2 +1.6
Andres Galarraga 35 FA-elig 1593.2 4.5 -1.7
Eric Young Sr. 29 arb 1412.8 1.1 +1.2
Kevin Ritz 31 FA-elig 352.2 0.7 +1.1
Bruce Ruffin 32 FA-elig 711.7 1.0 +0.4
Armando Reynoso 30 arb 301.4 0.4 +0.8
Larry Walker 29 FA-elig 831.3 4.4 -3.3
Darren Holmes 30 FA-elig 621.1 1.2 -0.2
Roger Bailey 25 pre-arb 240.9 0.1 +0.6
Dante Bichette 32 FA-elig 1590.9 3.6 -2.9
Jamey Wright 21 pre-arb 160.9 0.1 +0.6
Jeff Reed 33 FA-elig 1160.7 0.5 +0.1
Mark Thompson 25 pre-arb 340.7 0.1 +0.5
Mike Munoz 30 FA-elig 540.7 0.3 +0.3
Walt Weiss 32 FA-elig 1550.5 1.6 -1.2
Bill Swift 34 FA-elig 70.4 4.6 -4.3
Steve Reed 31 arb 700.4 0.5 -0.2
Marvin Freeman↔ CHW 33 FA-elig 260.3 2.4 -2.1
Steve Decker↔ SFG 30 – 100.3 – –
Trenidad Hubbard↔ SFG 30 pre-arb 450.3 0.1 +0.1
Curt Leskanic 28 arb 700.3 0.3 -0.1
John Vander Wal 30 arb 1040.1 0.5 -0.4
John Burke 26 – 110.1 – –
Quinton McCracken 25 pre-arb 124-0.0 0.1 -0.1
John Habyan 32 – 19-0.0 – –
Ryan Hawblitzel 25 – 8-0.0 – –
Garvin Alston 24 – 6-0.0 – –
Bryan Rekar 24 pre-arb 14-0.0 0.1 -0.2
Alan Cockrell 33 – 9-0.1 – –
Terry Jones 25 – 12-0.1 – –
Jayhawk Owens 27 arb 73-0.1 0.2 -0.2
Harvey Pulliam 28 – 10-0.1 – –
Mike Farmer 27 – 7-0.1 – –
David Nied 27 – 6-0.2 – –
Jorge Brito 30 pre-arb 8-0.2 0.1 -0.3
Angel Echevarria 25 – 26-0.2 – –
Eric Anthony↔ CIN 28 FA-elig 32-0.3 0.4 -0.7
Robbie Beckett 23 – 5-0.3 – –
Pedro Castellano 26 arb 13-0.4 0.1 -0.5
Milt Thompson↔ LAD 37 FA-elig 14-0.5 0.1 -0.5
Lance Painter 28 arb 35-0.6 0.2 -0.6
Neifi Perez 23 pre-arb 17-0.8 0.1 -0.7
Jason Bates 25 pre-arb 88-0.9 0.2 -1.0

Key additions (new vs 1995)

PlayerfWAR
Jamey Wright0.9
Jeff Reed0.7
Steve Decker0.3
John Burke0.1
John Habyan-0.0
Ryan Hawblitzel-0.0

Key subtractions (gone from 1995)

Player1995 fWAR
Joe Grahe0.7
Bret Saberhagen0.1
A.J. Sager0.0
Craig Counsell0.0
Omar Olivares-0.0
Mike Kingery-0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1996 payroll
$34.9M

What the front office was committed to as of 1996, 1996–2002. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1996199719981999200020012002
Bill Swift3411.000$4.6M$4.6MFREE AGENT
Andres Galarraga3511.000$4.5M$5.0MFREE AGENT
Larry Walker297.000$4.4M$6.3M$6.0M$5.4M$12.1M$12.2M$12.7M
Ellis Burks319.000$4.0M$4.0M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Dante Bichette328.000$3.6M$5.2M$5.3M$7.2MFREE AGENT
Marvin Freeman3310.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
Walt Weiss329.000$1.6M$2.7MFREE AGENT
Darren Holmes306.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Bruce Ruffin3210.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Kevin Ritz317.000$740k$2.5M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Jeff Reed3312.000$525k$650k$1.5M$719kFREE AGENT
Eric Anthony287.000$415kFREE AGENT
Mike Munoz307.000$290k$350k$585kFREE AGENT
Milt Thompson3712.000$68kFREE AGENT
Steve Decker306.000—FREE AGENT
John Habyan3211.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1996199719981999200020012002
Vinny Castilla285.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Eric Young Sr.294.000$1.1MARB 3FREE AGENT
John Vander Wal305.000$512kFREE AGENT
Steve Reed314.000$450kARB 3FREE AGENT
Armando Reynoso305.000$440kFREE AGENT
Curt Leskanic283.000$270kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lance Painter283.000$167kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jayhawk Owens273.000$155kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pedro Castellano263.000$120kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
David Nied274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Harvey Pulliam285.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (17)

PlayerAgeSvc1996199719981999200020012002
Jason Bates251.000$182kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roger Bailey251.000$150kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Thompson252.000$145kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bryan Rekar241.000$135kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jorge Brito301.000$130kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Quinton McCracken251.000$112kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jamey Wright210.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Neifi Perez230.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Trenidad Hubbard302.000$104kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Garvin Alston24–—
Robbie Beckett23–—
John Burke260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alan Cockrell33–—
Angel Echevarria250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Farmer27–—
Ryan Hawblitzel25–—
Terry Jones250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Rockies 1996; 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.