RRosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Randy Smith

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.78× league · TAB -3.2
-3.2TAB — talent above budget21st/30
-9.3WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)24th/30
4.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars26th/30
-4.1dead WAR — sub-replacement drag14th/30
42%dead money %26th/30
0.429win %24th/30
27.9roster fWAR19th/30
-2surplus $M (value vs cost)12th/30
$38Mpayroll $M21st/30

Roster

CFGabe Kapler 114GKimera Bartee 38GJuan Encarnacion 22G
LFJuan Encarnacion 118GKarim Garcia 35GLuis Polonia 31G
RFBobby Higginson 88GKarim Garcia 55GGabe Kapler 32G
SSDeivi Cruz 155GDamion Easley 19GJason Wood 9G
2BDamion Easley 147GFrank Catalanotto 32GGregg Jefferies 2G
3BDean Palmer 141GFrank Catalanotto 21GJason Wood 9G
1BTony Clark 132GFrank Catalanotto 32GJason Wood 5G
STARTERSBrian Moehler 3.4WARDave Mlicki 2.8WARJeff Weaver 1.8WARJustin Thompson 1.0WARDave Borkowski 0.6WAR
CBrad Ausmus 127GBill Haselman 39GRobert Fick 4G
DHLuis Polonia 43GGregg Jefferies 43GBobby Higginson 17G
BULLPEN★ Todd Jones 30svDoug Brocail 23hFrancisco Cordero 6hMasao Kida 4hMatt Anderson 3hWill Brunson 1hSean Runyan 1hErik Hiljus 1h
CBrad Ausmus 127 · Bill Haselman 39 · Robert Fick 4
1BTony Clark 132 · Frank Catalanotto 32 · Jason Wood 5
2BDamion Easley 147 · Frank Catalanotto 32 · Gregg Jefferies 2
3BDean Palmer 141 · Frank Catalanotto 21 · Jason Wood 9
SSDeivi Cruz 155 · Damion Easley 19 · Jason Wood 9
LFJuan Encarnacion 118 · Karim Garcia 35 · Luis Polonia 31
CFGabe Kapler 114 · Kimera Bartee 38 · Juan Encarnacion 22
RFBobby Higginson 88 · Karim Garcia 55 · Gabe Kapler 32
DHLuis Polonia 43 · Gregg Jefferies 43 · Bobby Higginson 17
SPBrian Moehler 3.4 · Dave Mlicki 2.8 · Jeff Weaver 1.8 · Justin Thompson 1.0 · Dave Borkowski 0.6
BP★ Todd Jones 30 · Doug Brocail 23 · Francisco Cordero 6 · Masao Kida 4 · Matt Anderson 3 · Will Brunson 1 · Sean Runyan 1 · Erik Hiljus 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.

1999 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Brian Moehler 27 arb 323.4 0.5 +3.8
Brad Ausmus 30 FA-elig 1273.3 2.2 +2.0
Tony Clark 27 arb 1432.9 2.4 +1.3
Dave Mlicki↔ LAD 31 FA-elig 312.8 2.1 +1.4
Doug Brocail 32 FA-elig 701.8 0.9 +1.4
Gabe Kapler 23 pre-arb 1301.8 0.2 +2.1
Jeff Weaver 22 pre-arb 311.8 0.2 +2.0
Damion Easley 29 FA-elig 1511.7 3.4 -1.2
Deivi Cruz 26 pre-arb 1551.7 0.4 +1.7
Dean Palmer 30 FA-elig 1501.5 5.0 -3.1
Juan Encarnacion 23 pre-arb 1321.5 0.2 +1.7
Luis Polonia 35 FA-elig 871.1 0.3 +1.1
Justin Thompson 26 arb 241.0 0.7 +0.6
Todd Jones 31 FA-elig 650.8 2.5 -1.5
Dave Borkowski 22 pre-arb 170.6 0.2 +0.6
Bryce Florie↔ BOS 29 arb 270.6 0.9 -0.2
C.J. Nitkowski 26 arb 690.5 0.3 +0.4
Brian L. Hunter↔ SEA 28 arb 180.5 0.2 +0.4
Frank Catalanotto 25 pre-arb 1000.5 0.2 +0.3
Masao Kida 30 pre-arb 490.4 1.6 -1.0
Kimera Bartee 26 arb 410.4 0.2 +0.3
Nelson Cruz 26 pre-arb 290.4 0.2 +0.3
Bobby Higginson 28 arb 1070.3 3.8 -3.4
Bill Haselman 33 FA-elig 480.2 0.7 -0.4
Jose Macias 27 pre-arb 50.2 0.2 +0.0
Karim Garcia 23 arb 960.1 0.3 -0.2
Robert Fick 25 pre-arb 150.1 0.2 -0.1
Willie Blair 33 FA-elig 390.1 3.8 -3.7
Willis Roberts 24 – 1-0.0 – –
Francisco Cordero 24 pre-arb 20-0.0 0.2 -0.2
Sean Runyan 25 pre-arb 12-0.0 0.3 -0.3
Will Brunson 29 – 17-0.1 – –
Felipe Lira 27 arb 2-0.2 0.4 -0.6
Erik Hiljus 26 – 6-0.2 – –
Luis Garcia 24 – 8-0.2 – –
Beiker Graterol 24 – 1-0.3 – –
Gabe Alvarez 25 – 22-0.3 – –
Mel Rojas↔ LAD 32 FA-elig 5-0.4 1.8 -2.2
Jason Wood 29 pre-arb 27-0.5 0.2 -0.9
Matt Anderson 22 pre-arb 37-0.6 0.2 -1.0
Gregg Jefferies 31 FA-elig 70-1.3 1.4 -3.1

Key additions (new vs 1998)

PlayerfWAR
Brad Ausmus3.3
Dave Mlicki2.8
Jeff Weaver1.8
Dean Palmer1.5
Luis Polonia1.1
Dave Borkowski0.6

Key subtractions (gone from 1998)

Player1998 fWAR
Joe Randa1.8
Luis Gonzalez1.7
Seth Greisinger1.3
Frank Castillo1.0
Paul Bako0.6
Tim Worrell0.6

Current & Historical Payroll

1999 payroll
$38.1M

What the front office was committed to as of 1999, 1999–2005. 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 (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Dean Palmer3010.000$5.0M$7.0M$7.5M$8.0M$8.5MFREE AGENT
Willie Blair339.000$3.8M$4.5MFREE AGENT
Damion Easley297.000$3.4M$4.0M$5.1M$6.2MFREE AGENT
Todd Jones316.000$2.5M$3.6M$2.6MFREE AGENT
Brad Ausmus306.000$2.2M$4.0MFREE AGENT
Dave Mlicki317.000$2.1M$4.5M$3.0MFREE AGENT
Mel Rojas329.000$1.8MFREE AGENT
Gregg Jefferies3112.000$1.4M$3.1MFREE AGENT
Doug Brocail327.000$900k$1.3MFREE AGENT
Bill Haselman339.000$650kFREE AGENT
Luis Polonia3512.000$300k$752kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Bobby Higginson284.000$3.8MARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Clark274.000$2.4MARB 3FREE AGENT
Bryce Florie295.000$856kFREE AGENT
Justin Thompson263.000$650kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Moehler273.000$467kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Felipe Lira274.000$380kARB 3FREE AGENT
C.J. Nitkowski264.000$300kARB 3FREE AGENT
Karim Garcia234.000$270kARB 3FREE AGENT
Kimera Bartee263.000$240kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian L. Hunter285.000$227kFREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (20)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Masao Kida300.000$1.6MPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Deivi Cruz262.000$430kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Sean Runyan251.000$280kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Anderson221.000$240kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Frank Catalanotto252.000$238kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Encarnacion232.000$233kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nelson Cruz262.000$210kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Wood291.000$210kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gabe Kapler231.000$200kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Robert Fick251.000$200kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Borkowski220.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Francisco Cordero240.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Macias270.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Weaver220.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Will Brunson29–—
Gabe Alvarez251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Garcia24–—
Beiker Graterol24–—
Erik Hiljus260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Willis Roberts240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Tigers 1999; 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.