RRosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Randy Smith

Overview

CONTEND → steady
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.08× league · TAB +1.8
+1.8TAB — talent above budget12th/30
-4.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)21st/30
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars8th/30
-2.0dead WAR — sub-replacement drag3rd/30
11%dead money %3rd/30
0.488win %18th/30
37.0roster fWAR13th/30
-9surplus $M (value vs cost)16th/30
$59Mpayroll $M12th/30

Roster

CFJuan Encarnacion 141GRich Becker 38GWendell Magee 5G
LFBobby Higginson 145GRich Becker 22GWendell Magee 18G
RFJuan Gonzalez 66GWendell Magee 56GRich Becker 48G
SSDeivi Cruz 156GShane Halter 17GJose Macias 1G
2BDamion Easley 125GJose Macias 39GGregg Jefferies 14G
3BDean Palmer 115GShane Halter 55GJose Macias 26G
1BTony Clark 58GHal Morris 54GRobert Fick 34G
STARTERSBrian Moehler 3.2WARJeff Weaver 3.0WARSteve Sparks 2.1WARHideo Nomo 2.1WARWillie Blair 1.6WAR
CBrad Ausmus 150GJavier Cardona 26GRobert Fick 16G
DHJuan Gonzalez 48GBilly McMillon 23GDean Palmer 13G
BULLPEN★ Todd Jones 42svDoug Brocail 19hDanny Patterson 12hMatt Anderson 9hNelson Cruz 2hAllen McDill 1hAdam Bernero 1hMark Johnson 0h
CBrad Ausmus 150 · Javier Cardona 26 · Robert Fick 16
1BTony Clark 58 · Hal Morris 54 · Robert Fick 34
2BDamion Easley 125 · Jose Macias 39 · Gregg Jefferies 14
3BDean Palmer 115 · Shane Halter 55 · Jose Macias 26
SSDeivi Cruz 156 · Shane Halter 17 · Jose Macias 1
LFBobby Higginson 145 · Rich Becker 22 · Wendell Magee 18
CFJuan Encarnacion 141 · Rich Becker 38 · Wendell Magee 5
RFJuan Gonzalez 66 · Wendell Magee 56 · Rich Becker 48
DHJuan Gonzalez 48 · Billy McMillon 23 · Dean Palmer 13
SPBrian Moehler 3.2 · Jeff Weaver 3.0 · Steve Sparks 2.1 · Hideo Nomo 2.1 · Willie Blair 1.6
BP★ Todd Jones 42 · Doug Brocail 19 · Danny Patterson 12 · Matt Anderson 9 · Nelson Cruz 2 · Allen McDill 1 · Adam Bernero 1 · Mark Johnson 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.

2000 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Bobby Higginson 29 arb 1544.3 4.4 +1.7
Damion Easley 30 FA-elig 1264.0 4.0 +1.8
Brad Ausmus 31 FA-elig 1503.9 4.0 +1.6
Brian Moehler 28 arb 293.2 1.8 +2.8
Jeff Weaver 23 pre-arb 313.0 0.3 +4.0
Deivi Cruz 27 arb 1562.4 2.0 +1.4
Hideo Nomo 31 arb 322.1 1.0 +1.9
Steve Sparks 34 – 202.1 – –
Juan Gonzalez 30 FA-elig 1151.7 7.5 -5.1
Willie Blair 34 FA-elig 471.6 4.5 -2.2
Todd Jones 32 FA-elig 671.4 3.6 -1.6
Juan Encarnacion 24 arb 1411.1 0.3 +1.2
C.J. Nitkowski 27 arb 671.0 0.9 +0.5
Tony Clark 28 arb 600.9 4.1 -2.8
Billy McMillon 28 arb 460.8 0.2 +1.0
Doug Brocail 33 FA-elig 490.8 1.3 -0.1
Dave Mlicki 32 FA-elig 240.8 4.5 -3.4
Danny Patterson 29 arb 580.7 0.6 +0.4
Dean Palmer 31 FA-elig 1450.5 7.0 -6.2
Nelson Cruz 27 arb 270.5 0.2 +0.5
Shane Halter 30 arb 1050.4 0.2 +0.3
Dusty Allen↔ SDP 27 pre-arb 180.4 0.1 +0.4
Adam Bernero 23 – 120.3 – –
Jose Macias 28 pre-arb 730.3 0.2 +0.2
Matt Anderson 23 pre-arb 690.2 0.3 +0.1
Rich Becker↔ OAK 28 FA-elig 920.2 0.4 -0.2
Hal Morris↔ CIN 35 FA-elig 400.1 0.2 -0.0
Kevin Tolar 29 – 50.1 – –
Robert Fick 26 pre-arb 660.1 0.2 -0.1
Gregg Jefferies 32 FA-elig 410.1 3.1 -3.0
Sean Runyan 26 pre-arb 30.0 0.3 -0.3
Allen McDill 28 – 13-0.0 – –
Gabe Alvarez↔ SDP 26 – 1-0.0 – –
Brandon Villafuerte 24 – 3-0.0 – –
Rod Lindsey 24 – 11-0.0 – –
Erik Hiljus 27 – 3-0.0 – –
Luis Polonia↔ NYY 36 FA-elig 80-0.0 0.8 -0.8
Masao Kida 31 – 2-0.1 – –
Mark Johnson 25 pre-arb 9-0.1 0.2 -0.4
Eric Munson 22 – 3-0.1 – –
Wendell Magee 27 arb 91-0.3 0.2 -0.6
Dave Borkowski 23 – 2-0.3 – –
Jim Poole↔ WSN 34 FA-elig 18-0.3 0.2 -0.6
Javier Cardona 24 – 26-0.3 – –
Karim Garcia↔ BAL 24 arb 8-0.4 0.3 -0.9

Key additions (new vs 1999)

PlayerfWAR
Hideo Nomo2.1
Steve Sparks2.1
Juan Gonzalez1.7
Billy McMillon0.8
Danny Patterson0.7
Shane Halter0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1999)

Player1999 fWAR
Gabe Kapler1.8
Justin Thompson1.0
Bryce Florie0.6
Brian L. Hunter0.5
Frank Catalanotto0.5
Kimera Bartee0.4

Current & Historical Payroll

2000 payroll
$59.0M

What the front office was committed to as of 2000, 2000–2006. 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 (13)

PlayerAgeSvc2000200120022003200420052006
Juan Gonzalez3011.000$7.5MFREE AGENT
Dean Palmer3111.000$7.0M$7.5M$8.0M$8.5MFREE AGENT
Dave Mlicki328.000$4.5M$3.0MFREE AGENT
Willie Blair3410.000$4.5MFREE AGENT
Brad Ausmus317.000$4.0MFREE AGENT
Damion Easley308.000$4.0M$5.1M$6.2MFREE AGENT
Todd Jones327.000$3.6M$2.6MFREE AGENT$5.8M
Gregg Jefferies3213.000$3.1MFREE AGENT
Doug Brocail338.000$1.3MFREE AGENT
Luis Polonia3613.000$752kFREE AGENT
Rich Becker287.000$400kFREE AGENT
Hal Morris3512.000$202kFREE AGENT
Jim Poole3410.000$157kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (15)

PlayerAgeSvc2000200120022003200420052006
Bobby Higginson295.000$4.4MFREE AGENT
Tony Clark285.000$4.1MFREE AGENT
Deivi Cruz273.000$2.0MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Moehler284.000$1.8MARB 3FREE AGENT
Hideo Nomo315.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
C.J. Nitkowski275.000$950kFREE AGENT
Danny Patterson294.000$550kARB 3FREE AGENT
Karim Garcia245.000$350kFREE AGENT
Juan Encarnacion243.000$325kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Billy McMillon284.000$250kARB 3FREE AGENT
Nelson Cruz273.000$250kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shane Halter303.000$236kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wendell Magee274.000$205kARB 3FREE AGENT
Allen McDill283.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Sparks345.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (17)

PlayerAgeSvc2000200120022003200420052006
Sean Runyan262.000$300kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Weaver231.000$275kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Anderson232.000$255kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Macias281.000$205kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Johnson250.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Robert Fick262.000$200kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dusty Allen270.000$133kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gabe Alvarez262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Borkowski231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Erik Hiljus271.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Masao Kida311.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brandon Villafuerte240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Javier Cardona240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Munson220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Adam Bernero230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rod Lindsey24–—
Kevin Tolar29–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Tigers 2000; 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.