RRosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Jerry Walker

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 2 in this regime · payroll 1.27× league · TAB -11.8
-11.8TAB — talent above budget27th/28
-7.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)26th/28
4.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars17th/28
-4.0dead WAR — sub-replacement drag13th/28
40%dead money %24th/28
0.461win %19th/28
18.0roster fWAR19th/28
-18surplus $M (value vs cost)28th/28
$41Mpayroll $M3rd/28

Roster

CFEric Davis 35GMilt Cuyler 29GJuan Samuel 25G
LFTony Phillips 104GMilt Cuyler 13GRiccardo Ingram 7G
RFJunior Félix 75GMickey Tettleton 17GDanny Bautista 16G
SSAlan Trammell 63GChris Gomez 57G
2BLou Whitaker 83GChris Gomez 30GTony Phillips 12G
3BTravis Fryman 114G
1BCecil Fielder 102GMickey Tettleton 24GSkeeter Barnes 15G
STARTERSDavid Wells 2.3WARTim Belcher 1.2WARJohn Doherty 0.9WARBill Gullickson 0.7WARGreg Gohr 0.3WAR
CChad Kreuter 64GMickey Tettleton 53GJohn Flaherty 33G
DHKirk Gibson 54GMickey Tettleton 22GAlan Trammell 9G
BULLPEN★ Mike Henneman 8svJoe Boever 0hBuddy Groom 0hGreg Cadaret 0hMike Gardiner 0hStorm Davis 0hGene Harris 0hPhil Stidham 0h
CChad Kreuter 64 · Mickey Tettleton 53 · John Flaherty 33
1BCecil Fielder 102 · Mickey Tettleton 24 · Skeeter Barnes 15
2BLou Whitaker 83 · Chris Gomez 30 · Tony Phillips 12
3BTravis Fryman 114
SSAlan Trammell 63 · Chris Gomez 57
LFTony Phillips 104 · Milt Cuyler 13 · Riccardo Ingram 7
CFEric Davis 35 · Milt Cuyler 29 · Juan Samuel 25
RFJunior Félix 75 · Mickey Tettleton 17 · Danny Bautista 16
DHKirk Gibson 54 · Mickey Tettleton 22 · Alan Trammell 9
SPDavid Wells 2.3 · Tim Belcher 1.2 · John Doherty 0.9 · Bill Gullickson 0.7 · Greg Gohr 0.3
BP★ Mike Henneman 8 · Joe Boever 0 · Buddy Groom 0 · Greg Cadaret 0 · Mike Gardiner 0 · Storm Davis 0 · Gene Harris 0 · Phil Stidham 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.

1994 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Tony Phillips 35 FA-elig 1144.4 2.4 +2.7
David Wells 31 FA-elig 162.3 2.5 +0.2
Lou Whitaker 37 FA-elig 922.1 2.8 -0.4
Cecil Fielder 30 FA-elig 1092.0 4.2 -1.9
Travis Fryman 25 arb 1141.9 2.4 -0.2
Mickey Tettleton 33 FA-elig 1071.4 1.9 -0.3
Kirk Gibson 37 FA-elig 981.2 1.5 -0.1
Tim Belcher 32 FA-elig 251.2 3.4 -2.1
Junior Felix 26 arb 861.1 0.3 +0.9
Juan Samuel 33 FA-elig 591.1 0.4 +0.8
John Doherty 27 pre-arb 180.9 0.3 +0.7
Bill Gullickson 35 FA-elig 210.7 2.4 -1.6
Greg Gohr 26 pre-arb 80.3 0.1 +0.3
Storm Davis 32 FA-elig 350.3 0.8 -0.5
Sean Bergman 24 pre-arb 30.3 0.1 +0.2
Buddy Groom 28 pre-arb 400.2 0.1 +0.1
Greg Cadaret↔ TOR 32 FA-elig 170.2 0.2 -0.0
Gene Harris↔ SDP 29 arb 110.2 0.3 -0.1
Chad Kreuter 29 FA-elig 650.2 1.0 -0.8
Danny Bautista 22 pre-arb 310.1 0.1 -0.0
Mike Henneman 32 FA-elig 300.0 1.3 -1.3
Jose Lima 21 pre-arb 3-0.0 0.1 -0.2
Skeeter Barnes 37 – 24-0.1 – –
Milt Cuyler 25 arb 48-0.1 0.3 -0.3
Mike Gardiner 28 arb 38-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Joe Boever 33 FA-elig 46-0.2 0.8 -1.0
Alan Trammell 36 FA-elig 76-0.2 3.0 -3.2
Bill Krueger↔ SDP 36 FA-elig 16-0.2 0.9 -1.1
Scott Livingstone↔ SDP 28 arb 15-0.2 0.1 -0.3
Phil Stidham 25 – 5-0.2 – –
Mike Moore 34 FA-elig 25-0.3 3.3 -3.7
Riccardo Ingram 27 – 12-0.4 – –
Eric Davis 32 FA-elig 37-0.4 3.0 -3.5
Chris Gomez 23 pre-arb 84-0.5 0.1 -0.7
John Flaherty 26 pre-arb 34-0.6 0.1 -0.8
Kurt Knudsen 27 – 4-0.6 – –

Key additions (new vs 1993)

PlayerfWAR
Tim Belcher1.2
Junior Felix1.1
Juan Samuel1.1
Greg Cadaret0.2
Gene Harris0.2
Jose Lima-0.0

Key subtractions (gone from 1993)

Player1993 fWAR
Tom Bolton1.4
Rob Deer0.8
Dan Gladden0.7
Mark Leiter0.3
Mark Grater0.1
John DeSilva0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1994 payroll
$40.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 1994, 1994–2000. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Cecil Fielder309.000$4.2M$9.2M$6.2MFREE AGENT
Tim Belcher327.000$3.4MFREE AGENT
Mike Moore3412.000$3.3M$3.3MFREE AGENT
Eric Davis3210.000$3.0MFREE AGENT
Alan Trammell3617.000$3.0M$1.3M$600kFREE AGENT
Lou Whitaker3717.000$2.8M$3.8MFREE AGENT
David Wells317.000$2.5M$1.4MFREE AGENT
Bill Gullickson3515.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
Tony Phillips3512.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
Mickey Tettleton3310.000$1.9MFREE AGENT
Kirk Gibson3715.000$1.5M$1.3MFREE AGENT
Mike Henneman327.000$1.3M$2.8MFREE AGENT
Chad Kreuter296.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Bill Krueger3611.000$867kFREE AGENT
Storm Davis3212.000$800kFREE AGENT
Joe Boever339.000$800k$600kFREE AGENT
Juan Samuel3311.000$400k$313kFREE AGENT
Greg Cadaret327.000$246kFREE AGENT
Skeeter Barnes3711.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (6)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Travis Fryman254.000$2.4MARB 3FREE AGENT
Junior Felix265.000$350kFREE AGENT
Gene Harris295.000$344kFREE AGENT
Milt Cuyler254.000$275kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Gardiner284.000$150kARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Livingstone283.000$76kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
John Doherty272.000$350kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Buddy Groom282.000$148kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Gomez231.000$140kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Flaherty262.000$140kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Gohr261.000$138kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Danny Bautista221.000$125kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sean Bergman241.000$120kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Lima210.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Riccardo Ingram27–—
Kurt Knudsen27–—
Phil Stidham25–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Tigers 1994; 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.