RRosternomics
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Tigers DET

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GM: Dave Dombrowski

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.29× league · TAB +4.5
+4.5TAB — talent above budget10th/30
-4.3WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)19th/30
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars18th/30
-3.5dead WAR — sub-replacement drag11th/30
25%dead money %9th/30
0.500win %15th/30
41.9roster fWAR6th/30
-28surplus $M (value vs cost)21st/30
$118Mpayroll $M6th/30

Roster

CFAustin Jackson 149GDon Kelly 12GRyan Raburn 7G
LFRyan Raburn 73GDon Kelly 65GBrennan Boesch 44G
RFBrennan Boesch 79GMagglio Ordonez 71GCasper Wells 29G
SSRamon Santiago 85GJhonny Peralta 46GAdam Everett 31G
2BWill Rhymes 53GCarlos Guillén 47GScott Sizemore 40G
3BBrandon Inge 144GJhonny Peralta 100GDon Kelly 15G
1BMiguel Cabrera 148GDon Kelly 28GJhonny Peralta 2G
STARTERSJustin Verlander 6.6WARMax Scherzer 4.0WARRick Porcello 1.9WARJeremy Bonderman 0.9WARArmando Galarraga 0.6WAR
CAlex Avila 98GGerald Laird 87GMax St. Pierre 4G
DHJohnny Damon 98GCarlos Guillén 16GBrennan Boesch 14G
BULLPEN★ Jose Valverde 26svRyan Perry 19hPhil Coke 17hJoel Zumaya 11hBrad Thomas 4hRobbie Weinhardt 4hEddie Bonine 2hFu-Te Ni 1h
CAlex Avila 98 · Gerald Laird 87 · Max St. Pierre 4
1BMiguel Cabrera 148 · Don Kelly 28 · Jhonny Peralta 2
2BWill Rhymes 53 · Carlos Guillén 47 · Scott Sizemore 40
3BBrandon Inge 144 · Jhonny Peralta 100 · Don Kelly 15
SSRamon Santiago 85 · Jhonny Peralta 46 · Adam Everett 31
LFRyan Raburn 73 · Don Kelly 65 · Brennan Boesch 44
CFAustin Jackson 149 · Don Kelly 12 · Ryan Raburn 7
RFBrennan Boesch 79 · Magglio Ordonez 71 · Casper Wells 29
DHJohnny Damon 98 · Carlos Guillén 16 · Brennan Boesch 14
SPJustin Verlander 6.6 · Max Scherzer 4.0 · Rick Porcello 1.9 · Jeremy Bonderman 0.9 · Armando Galarraga 0.6
BP★ Jose Valverde 26 · Ryan Perry 19 · Phil Coke 17 · Joel Zumaya 11 · Brad Thomas 4 · Robbie Weinhardt 4 · Eddie Bonine 2 · Fu-Te Ni 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.

2010 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Justin Verlander 27 arb 336.6 6.8 +8.7
Miguel Cabrera 27 FA-elig 1506.0 20.0 -5.8
Austin Jackson 23 pre-arb 1514.1 0.4 +9.2
Max Scherzer 25 pre-arb 314.0 1.5 +7.9
Magglio Ordonez 36 FA-elig 842.4 17.8 -12.2
Johnny Damon 36 FA-elig 1452.3 8.0 -2.5
Ryan Raburn 29 FA-elig 1132.3 0.4 +5.0
Ramon Santiago 30 FA-elig 1122.0 1.2 +3.4
Rick Porcello 21 pre-arb 271.9 1.9 +2.7
Brandon Inge 33 FA-elig 1441.9 6.6 -2.2
Don Kelly 30 arb 1191.3 0.4 +2.7
Casper Wells 25 – 361.3 – –
Joel Zumaya 25 arb 311.1 0.9 +1.8
Phil Coke 27 pre-arb 741.1 0.4 +2.2
Will Rhymes 27 – 541.0 – –
Jeremy Bonderman 27 FA-elig 300.9 12.5 -10.4
Brennan Boesch 25 – 1330.7 – –
Armando Galarraga 28 – 250.6 0.5 +1.0
Jose Valverde 32 FA-elig 600.6 6.9 -5.4
Jhonny Peralta↔ CLE 28 FA-elig 570.6 1.9 -0.5
Danny Worth 24 – 390.5 – –
Dontrelle Willis↔ ARI 28 FA-elig 100.4 7.5 -6.5
Alex Avila 23 pre-arb 1040.3 0.4 +0.3
Robbie Weinhardt 24 – 280.3 – –
Ryan Perry 23 pre-arb 600.3 0.4 +0.2
Carlos Guillén 34 FA-elig 680.2 13.0 -12.6
Brad Thomas 32 FA-elig 490.2 1.0 -0.6
Jeff Frazier 27 – 90.1 – –
Alfredo Figaro 25 – 80.1 – –
Daniel Schlereth 24 – 180.0 – –
Eddie Bonine 29 pre-arb 470.0 0.4 -0.4
Andy Oliver 22 – 5-0.0 – –
Max St. Pierre 30 – 6-0.0 – –
Jay Sborz 25 – 1-0.0 – –
Fu-Te Ni 27 pre-arb 22-0.0 0.4 -0.5
Jeff Larish↔ OAK 27 – 3-0.1 – –
Casey Fien 26 – 2-0.1 0.4 -0.7
Adam Everett 33 FA-elig 31-0.3 1.6 -2.2
Enrique Gonzalez 27 – 18-0.3 – –
Scott Sizemore 25 pre-arb 48-0.3 0.4 -1.2
Gerald Laird 30 FA-elig 89-2.3 4.0 -9.2

Key additions (new vs 2009)

PlayerfWAR
Austin Jackson4.1
Max Scherzer4.0
Johnny Damon2.3
Casper Wells1.3
Phil Coke1.1
Will Rhymes1.0

Key subtractions (gone from 2009)

Player2009 fWAR
Edwin Jackson3.6
Curtis Granderson3.0
Placido Polanco2.9
Clete Thomas1.2
Brandon Lyon0.8
Bobby Seay0.8

Current & Historical Payroll

2010 payroll
$117.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 2010, 2010–2016. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc2010201120122013201420152016
Miguel Cabrera277.000$20.0M$20.0M$21.0M$21.0M$22.0M$22.0M$28.0M
Magglio Ordonez3613.000$17.8M$10.0MFREE AGENT
Carlos Guillén3412.000$13.0M$12.9MFREE AGENT
Jeremy Bonderman277.000$12.5MFREE AGENT
Johnny Damon3615.000$8.0MFREE AGENT
Dontrelle Willis287.000$7.5MFREE AGENT
Jose Valverde327.000$6.9M$7.0M$9.0M$2.0MFREE AGENT
Brandon Inge339.000$6.6M$5.5M$4.9MFREE AGENT
Gerald Laird307.000$4.0MFREE AGENT$1.0M
Jhonny Peralta287.000$1.9M$5.2M$5.5M$6.0MFREE AGENT
Adam Everett339.000$1.6MFREE AGENT
Ramon Santiago308.000$1.2M$1.4M$2.1M$2.1MFREE AGENT
Brad Thomas329.000$1.0M$800kFREE AGENT
Ryan Raburn296.000$438k$1.3M$2.1MFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (5)

PlayerAgeSvc2010201120122013201420152016
Justin Verlander275.000$6.8MFREE AGENT
Joel Zumaya254.000$915kARB 3FREE AGENT
Armando Galarraga283.000$480kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Don Kelly303.000$405kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Enrique Gonzalez274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (22)

PlayerAgeSvc2010201120122013201420152016
Rick Porcello211.000$1.9MPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Max Scherzer252.000$1.5MARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Phil Coke272.000$425kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ryan Perry231.000$408kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Fu-Te Ni271.000$408kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alex Avila231.000$405kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eddie Bonine292.000$404kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Austin Jackson230.000$400kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Sizemore250.000$400kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Casey Fien261.000$400kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Max St. Pierre30–—
Jay Sborz25–—
Alfredo Figaro251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brennan Boesch250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Frazier27–—
Jeff Larish272.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Will Rhymes270.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Casper Wells252.040—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andy Oliver220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Daniel Schlereth241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Robbie Weinhardt24–—
Danny Worth241.049—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Tigers 2010; 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.