RRosternomics
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Astros HOU

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GM: Bill Wood

Overview

FORCED-SPEND → steady
expensive & losing · year 3 in this regime · payroll 1.18× league · TAB -5.8
-5.8TAB — talent above budget23rd/26
+1.9WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)11th/26
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars8th/26
-3.7dead WAR — sub-replacement drag12th/26
44%dead money %25th/26
0.531win %10th/26
30.5roster fWAR18th/26
-5surplus $M (value vs cost)23rd/26
$16Mpayroll $M7th/26

Roster

CFGerald Young 143GTerry Puhl 11GCraig Biggio 4G
LFTerry Puhl 36GKevin Bass 31GLouie Meadows 12G
RFGlenn Wilson 110GTerry Puhl 64GKevin Bass 53G
SSRafael Ramirez 149GCraig Reynolds 26GEric Yelding 15G
2BBill Doran 138GCraig Reynolds 29GSteve Lombardozzi Sr. 18G
3BKen Caminiti 160GCraig Reynolds 10GAlex Trevino 2G
1BGlenn Davis 156GHarry Spilman 9GGreg Gross 6G
STARTERSMike Scott 2.5WARJim Deshaies 2.4WARMark Portugal 1.9WARJim Clancy 0.4WARRick Rhoden 0.2WAR
CCraig Biggio 125GAlex Trevino 32GAlan Ashby 19G
BULLPEN★ Dave Smith 25svJuan Agosto 0hDanny Darwin 0hLarry Andersen 0hDan Schatzeder 0hBrian Meyer 0hJose Cano 0hRoger Mason 0h
CCraig Biggio 125 · Alex Trevino 32 · Alan Ashby 19
1BGlenn Davis 156 · Harry Spilman 9 · Greg Gross 6
2BBill Doran 138 · Craig Reynolds 29 · Steve Lombardozzi Sr. 18
3BKen Caminiti 160 · Craig Reynolds 10 · Alex Trevino 2
SSRafael Ramirez 149 · Craig Reynolds 26 · Eric Yelding 15
LFTerry Puhl 36 · Kevin Bass 31 · Louie Meadows 12
CFGerald Young 143 · Terry Puhl 11 · Craig Biggio 4
RFGlenn Wilson 110 · Terry Puhl 64 · Kevin Bass 53
SPMike Scott 2.5 · Jim Deshaies 2.4 · Mark Portugal 1.9 · Jim Clancy 0.4 · Rick Rhoden 0.2
BP★ Dave Smith 25 · Juan Agosto 0 · Danny Darwin 0 · Larry Andersen 0 · Dan Schatzeder 0 · Brian Meyer 0 · Jose Cano 0 · Roger Mason 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.

1989 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Glenn Davis 28 arb 1584.8 1.1 +0.6
Ken Caminiti 26 pre-arb 1614.5 0.1 +1.5
Kevin Bass 30 FA-elig 873.1 0.9 +0.2
Terry Puhl 32 FA-elig 1212.5 0.9 -0.1
Mike Scott 34 FA-elig 332.5 1.3 -0.4
Jim Deshaies 29 arb 352.4 0.5 +0.4
Larry Andersen 36 FA-elig 602.4 0.5 +0.4
Craig Biggio 23 pre-arb 1342.1 0.1 +0.7
Mark Portugal 26 arb 201.9 0.1 +0.6
Gerald Young 24 pre-arb 1461.7 0.1 +0.5
Danny Darwin 33 FA-elig 681.5 0.9 -0.3
Bill Doran 31 FA-elig 1421.1 0.9 -0.5
Alex Trevino 31 FA-elig 591.1 0.3 +0.0
Dave Smith 34 FA-elig 520.6 1.1 -0.9
Jim Clancy 33 FA-elig 330.4 1.2 -1.1
Steve Lombardozzi Sr. 29 – 210.3 – –
Harry Spilman 34 FA-elig 320.2 0.1 -0.1
Juan Agosto 31 FA-elig 710.2 0.6 -0.5
Rick Rhoden 36 FA-elig 200.2 0.9 -0.8
Glenn Wilson↔ PIT 30 FA-elig 280.2 0.2 -0.1
Billy Hatcher↔ PIT 28 arb 1080.2 0.4 -0.3
Dan Schatzeder 34 FA-elig 360.1 0.2 -0.2
Mark Davidson 28 – 330.1 – –
Eric Anthony 21 pre-arb 250.0 0.1 -0.1
Roger Mason 30 – 20.0 – –
Brian Meyer 26 pre-arb 12-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Jose Cano 27 – 6-0.1 – –
Ron Washington 37 – 7-0.1 – –
Carl Nichols 26 – 8-0.2 – –
Bob Knepper↔ SFG 35 FA-elig 22-0.2 0.0 -0.1
Greg Gross 36 – 60-0.2 – –
Alan Ashby 37 FA-elig 22-0.3 0.6 -0.7
Eric Yelding 24 pre-arb 70-0.4 0.1 -0.2
Louie Meadows 28 – 31-0.4 – –
Craig Reynolds 36 FA-elig 101-0.5 0.6 -0.8
Rafael Ramirez 31 FA-elig 151-0.5 1.1 -1.2
Bob Forsch 39 FA-elig 37-0.6 1.0 -1.2

Key additions (new vs 1988)

PlayerfWAR
Mark Portugal1.9
Jim Clancy0.4
Steve Lombardozzi Sr.0.3
Rick Rhoden0.2
Glenn Wilson0.2
Dan Schatzeder0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1988)

Player1988 fWAR
Nolan Ryan Jr.3.0
Denny Walling0.8
Buddy Bell0.6
Chuck Jackson0.3
Dave Meads0.1
Steve Henderson0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1989 payroll
$16.0M

What the front office was committed to as of 1989, 1989–1995. 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 (21)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Mike Scott3410.000$1.3M$2.0M$2.4MFREE AGENT
Jim Clancy3312.000$1.2M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Dave Smith349.000$1.1M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Rafael Ramirez319.000$1.1M$1.0M$1.2M$400kFREE AGENT
Bob Forsch3915.000$975kFREE AGENT
Terry Puhl3212.000$950k$800kFREE AGENT
Kevin Bass307.000$940kFREE AGENT$650k$400k
Bill Doran317.000$933k$808kFREE AGENT
Rick Rhoden3615.000$900kFREE AGENT
Danny Darwin3311.000$855k$1.2MFREE AGENT
Juan Agosto318.000$610k$850kFREE AGENT
Craig Reynolds3614.000$600kFREE AGENT
Alan Ashby3716.000$550kFREE AGENT
Larry Andersen3614.000$475k$742kFREE AGENT
Alex Trevino3111.000$350k$253kFREE AGENT
Dan Schatzeder3412.000$245k$397kFREE AGENT
Glenn Wilson307.000$164k$750kFREE AGENT
Harry Spilman3411.000$150kFREE AGENT
Bob Knepper3513.000$43kFREE AGENT
Greg Gross3616.000—FREE AGENT
Ron Washington3712.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Glenn Davis285.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Jim Deshaies295.000$470kFREE AGENT
Billy Hatcher285.000$396kFREE AGENT
Mark Portugal264.000$95kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Davidson283.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Lombardozzi Sr.294.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roger Mason305.000—FREE AGENT
Louie Meadows283.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Carl Nichols263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (7)

PlayerAgeSvc1989199019911992199319941995
Gerald Young242.000$150kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Caminiti262.000$129kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Biggio231.000$78kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Anthony210.000$68kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Meyer261.000$68kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Yelding240.000$68kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Cano27–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Astros 1989; 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.