RRosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Dave Dombrowski

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.69× league · TAB +2.8
+2.8TAB — talent above budget17th/30
-5.2WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)23rd/30
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars18th/30
-4.6dead WAR — sub-replacement drag13th/30
22%dead money %14th/30
0.444win %21st/30
32.5roster fWAR19th/30
+6surplus $M (value vs cost)9th/30
$46Mpayroll $M22nd/30

Roster

CFAlex Sanchez 78GNook Logan 46GCraig Monroe 27G
LFRondell White 74GCraig Monroe 65GMarcus Thames 40G
RFBobby Higginson 115GCraig Monroe 51GMarcus Thames 12G
SSCarlos Guillén 135GOmar Infante 23GJason Smith 20G
2BOmar Infante 105GJason Smith 34GFernando Viña 29G
3BEric Munson 94GBrandon Inge 73GGreg Norton 18G
1BCarlos Pena 135GDmitri Young 25GChris Shelton 8G
STARTERSJason Johnson 2.7WARMike Maroth 2.5WARJeremy Bonderman 2.4WARNate Robertson 1.9WARWilfredo Ledezma 1.0WAR
CIvan Rodriguez 124GBrandon Inge 39GChris Shelton 6G
DHDmitri Young 74GRondell White 43GBobby Higginson 9G
BULLPEN★ Ugueth Urbina 21svJamie Walker 16hAl Levine 15hEsteban Yan 11hSteve Colyer 4hDanny Patterson 3hRoberto Novoa 3hCraig Dingman 0h
CIvan Rodriguez 124 · Brandon Inge 39 · Chris Shelton 6
1BCarlos Pena 135 · Dmitri Young 25 · Chris Shelton 8
2BOmar Infante 105 · Jason Smith 34 · Fernando Viña 29
3BEric Munson 94 · Brandon Inge 73 · Greg Norton 18
SSCarlos Guillén 135 · Omar Infante 23 · Jason Smith 20
LFRondell White 74 · Craig Monroe 65 · Marcus Thames 40
CFAlex Sanchez 78 · Nook Logan 46 · Craig Monroe 27
RFBobby Higginson 115 · Craig Monroe 51 · Marcus Thames 12
DHDmitri Young 74 · Rondell White 43 · Bobby Higginson 9
SPJason Johnson 2.7 · Mike Maroth 2.5 · Jeremy Bonderman 2.4 · Nate Robertson 1.9 · Wilfredo Ledezma 1.0
BP★ Ugueth Urbina 21 · Jamie Walker 16 · Al Levine 15 · Esteban Yan 11 · Steve Colyer 4 · Danny Patterson 3 · Roberto Novoa 3 · Craig Dingman 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.

2004 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Carlos Guillén 28 FA-elig 1365.4 2.5 +6.8
Ivan Rodriguez 32 FA-elig 1354.7 7.0 +1.1
Jason Johnson 30 FA-elig 332.7 3.0 +1.6
Mike Maroth 26 pre-arb 332.5 0.3 +4.0
Craig Monroe 27 arb 1282.4 0.3 +3.9
Jeremy Bonderman 21 pre-arb 332.4 0.3 +3.7
Carlos Pena 26 arb 1422.0 0.3 +3.1
Nate Robertson 26 pre-arb 341.9 0.3 +3.0
Omar Infante 22 pre-arb 1421.9 0.3 +2.9
Brandon Inge 27 arb 1311.7 0.3 +2.6
Marcus Thames 27 – 611.5 – –
Rondell White 32 FA-elig 1211.3 2.8 -0.5
Dmitri Young 30 FA-elig 1041.2 7.8 -5.7
Jamie Walker 32 FA-elig 701.0 0.8 +1.0
Bobby Higginson 33 FA-elig 1311.0 8.8 -7.1
Wilfredo Ledezma 23 – 151.0 – –
Esteban Yan 29 FA-elig 690.8 0.7 +0.7
Gary Knotts 27 arb 360.6 0.3 +0.7
Nook Logan 24 – 470.6 – –
Jason Smith 26 – 610.3 – –
Ugueth Urbina 30 – 540.1 – –
Curtis Granderson 23 – 90.1 – –
Andres Torres 26 – 30.0 – –
Nate Cornejo 24 arb 50.0 0.3 -0.3
Lino Urdaneta 24 pre-arb 10.0 0.3 -0.3
John Ennis 24 – 12-0.0 – –
Roberto Novoa 24 – 16-0.1 – –
Alex Sanchez 27 arb 79-0.1 0.4 -0.6
Fernando Viña 35 FA-elig 29-0.1 3.0 -3.2
Chris Shelton 24 pre-arb 27-0.2 0.3 -0.6
Eric Munson 26 arb 109-0.2 1.5 -1.8
Mike DiFelice↔ CHC 35 – 13-0.2 – –
Ryan Raburn 23 – 12-0.2 – –
Al Levine 36 FA-elig 65-0.3 0.8 -1.3
Franklyn German 24 – 16-0.3 – –
Craig Dingman 30 – 24-0.4 – –
Danny Patterson 33 FA-elig 37-0.5 2.8 -3.7
Steve Colyer 25 pre-arb 41-0.6 0.3 -1.4
Greg Norton 31 FA-elig 41-1.3 0.6 -2.8

Key additions (new vs 2003)

PlayerfWAR
Carlos Guillén5.4
Ivan Rodriguez4.7
Jason Johnson2.7
Marcus Thames1.5
Rondell White1.3
Esteban Yan0.8

Key subtractions (gone from 2003)

Player2003 fWAR
Warren Morris0.9
Fernando Rodney0.5
Adam Bernero0.5
Shane Halter0.5
Ben Petrick0.3
Chris Mears0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

2004 payroll
$46.2M

What the front office was committed to as of 2004, 2004–2010. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Bobby Higginson339.000$8.8M$8.8MFREE AGENT
Dmitri Young308.000$7.8M$8.0M$8.0MFREE AGENT
Ivan Rodriguez3213.000$7.0M$8.0M$10.6M$10.6M$8.8MFREE AGENT
Jason Johnson307.000$3.0M$4.0MFREE AGENT
Fernando Viña3511.000$3.0MFREE AGENT
Danny Patterson338.000$2.8MFREE AGENT
Rondell White3211.000$2.8M$3.2MFREE AGENT
Carlos Guillén286.000$2.5M$4.0M$5.0M$5.0M$12.0M$10.0M$13.0M
Al Levine368.000$825kFREE AGENT
Jamie Walker327.000$775k$900k$1.2MFREE AGENT
Esteban Yan298.000$650kFREE AGENT
Greg Norton318.000$600kFREE AGENT
Mike DiFelice358.000—FREE AGENT
Ugueth Urbina309.000—$2.8MFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (8)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Eric Munson264.000$1.5MARB 3FREE AGENT
Alex Sanchez273.000$385kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brandon Inge273.000$340kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nate Cornejo243.000$335kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Monroe273.000$335kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Carlos Pena263.000$330kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gary Knotts273.000$316kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Smith263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (17)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Mike Maroth262.000$332kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeremy Bonderman211.000$330kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Omar Infante222.000$305kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nate Robertson262.000$305kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Colyer251.000$302kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Shelton240.000$300kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lino Urdaneta240.000$300kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Dingman30–—
Andres Torres262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Ennis24–—
Marcus Thames272.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Franklyn German242.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nook Logan240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wilfredo Ledezma231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roberto Novoa24–—
Ryan Raburn230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Curtis Granderson230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Tigers 2004; 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.