RRosternomics
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Astros HOU

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GM: Bill Wood

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.51× league · TAB +3.1
+3.1TAB — talent above budget11th/26
+7.9WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)10th/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars11th/26
-7.1dead WAR — sub-replacement drag23rd/26
33%dead money %14th/26
0.500win %13th/26
28.9roster fWAR17th/26
+9surplus $M (value vs cost)4th/26
$15Mpayroll $M25th/26

Roster

CFSteve Finley 160GGerald Young 14GChris Jones 5G
LFLuis Gonzalez 111GPete Incaviglia 57GCasey Candaele 20G
RFEric Anthony 112GPete Incaviglia 48GGerald Young 43G
SSAndujar Cedeno 70GCasey Candaele 65GRafael Ramirez 57G
2BCraig Biggio 161GCasey Candaele 9GJuan Guerrero 2G
3BKen Caminiti 129GCasey Candaele 29GJuan Guerrero 12G
1BJeff Bagwell 159GBenny Distefano 6GErnest Riles 4G
STARTERSPete Harnisch 2.8WARButch Henry 1.5WARJimmy Jones 1.1WARDarryl Kile 1.0WARMark Portugal 0.6WAR
CEddie Taubensee 103GScott Servais 73GScooter Tucker 19G
BULLPEN★ Doug Jones 36svJoe Boever 0hXavier Hernandez 0hAl Osuna 0hRob Murphy 0hRob Mallicoat 0hRich Scheid 0h
CEddie Taubensee 103 · Scott Servais 73 · Scooter Tucker 19
1BJeff Bagwell 159 · Benny Distefano 6 · Ernest Riles 4
2BCraig Biggio 161 · Casey Candaele 9 · Juan Guerrero 2
3BKen Caminiti 129 · Casey Candaele 29 · Juan Guerrero 12
SSAndujar Cedeno 70 · Casey Candaele 65 · Rafael Ramirez 57
LFLuis Gonzalez 111 · Pete Incaviglia 57 · Casey Candaele 20
CFSteve Finley 160 · Gerald Young 14 · Chris Jones 5
RFEric Anthony 112 · Pete Incaviglia 48 · Gerald Young 43
SPPete Harnisch 2.8 · Butch Henry 1.5 · Jimmy Jones 1.1 · Darryl Kile 1.0 · Mark Portugal 0.6
BP★ Doug Jones 36 · Joe Boever 0 · Xavier Hernandez 0 · Al Osuna 0 · Rob Murphy 0 · Rob Mallicoat 0 · Rich Scheid 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.

1992 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Steve Finley 27 arb 1625.4 1.2 +3.0
Jeff Bagwell 24 pre-arb 1624.5 0.3 +3.2
Craig Biggio 26 arb 1623.9 1.4 +1.6
Ken Caminiti 29 arb 1353.8 1.5 +1.5
Pete Harnisch 25 arb 342.8 0.5 +1.7
Doug Jones 35 FA-elig 802.6 1.6 +0.4
Luis Gonzalez 24 pre-arb 1222.0 0.3 +1.3
Pete Incaviglia 28 FA-elig 1131.9 0.8 +0.7
Butch Henry 23 pre-arb 281.5 0.1 +1.0
Jimmy Jones 28 FA-elig 261.1 0.5 +0.3
Eddie Taubensee 23 pre-arb 1041.1 0.1 +0.7
Eric Anthony 24 arb 1371.0 0.1 +0.7
Darryl Kile 23 pre-arb 221.0 0.2 +0.6
Xavier Hernandez 26 arb 770.9 0.2 +0.5
Mark Portugal 29 FA-elig 180.6 1.2 -0.8
Rob Murphy 32 FA-elig 590.5 0.8 -0.5
Willie Blair 26 pre-arb 290.4 0.1 +0.2
Joe Boever 31 FA-elig 810.3 0.7 -0.5
Shane Reynolds 24 – 80.3 – –
Scott Servais 25 pre-arb 770.2 0.1 +0.0
Ernest Riles 31 FA-elig 390.1 0.4 -0.3
Eric Yelding 27 – 90.1 – –
Mike Simms 25 pre-arb 150.0 0.1 -0.1
Denny Walling 38 FA-elig 30.0 0.3 -0.3
Benny Distefano 30 – 52-0.0 – –
Brian Williams 23 – 20-0.1 – –
Karl Rhodes 23 – 5-0.1 – –
Gerald Young 27 arb 74-0.1 0.4 -0.5
Rich Scheid 27 – 7-0.2 – –
Chris Jones 26 – 54-0.3 – –
Rafael Ramirez 34 FA-elig 73-0.3 0.4 -0.7
Juan Guerrero 25 pre-arb 79-0.5 0.1 -0.5
Scooter Tucker 25 – 20-0.6 – –
Rob Mallicoat 27 – 25-0.6 – –
Casey Candaele 31 FA-elig 135-0.8 0.9 -1.6
Andujar Cedeno 22 pre-arb 71-0.9 0.1 -0.8
Ryan Bowen 24 pre-arb 15-1.3 0.1 -1.1
Al Osuna 26 pre-arb 66-1.4 0.2 -1.3

Key additions (new vs 1991)

PlayerfWAR
Doug Jones2.6
Pete Incaviglia1.9
Butch Henry1.5
Eddie Taubensee1.1
Rob Murphy0.5
Willie Blair0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1991)

Player1991 fWAR
Curt Schilling1.0
Javier Ortiz0.6
Jim Corsi0.3
Carl Nichols0.2
Ken Oberkfell0.1
Jim Deshaies0.1

Current & Historical Payroll

1992 payroll
$15.2M

What the front office was committed to as of 1992, 1992–1998. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Doug Jones3510.000$1.6M$2.5MFREE AGENT
Mark Portugal297.000$1.2M$2.1MFREE AGENT
Casey Candaele316.000$935k$775kFREE AGENT
Rob Murphy327.000$810kFREE AGENT
Pete Incaviglia286.000$800kFREE AGENT$195k
Joe Boever317.000$725kFREE AGENT
Jimmy Jones286.000$500kFREE AGENT
Rafael Ramirez3412.000$400kFREE AGENT
Ernest Riles317.000$400kFREE AGENT
Denny Walling3817.000$300kFREE AGENT
Benny Distefano308.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (8)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Ken Caminiti295.000$1.5MFREE AGENT
Craig Biggio264.000$1.4MARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Finley273.000$1.2MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pete Harnisch254.000$475kARB 3FREE AGENT
Gerald Young275.000$420kFREE AGENT
Xavier Hernandez263.000$230kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Anthony243.000$120kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Yelding273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (19)

PlayerAgeSvc1992199319941995199619971998
Jeff Bagwell241.000$350kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Gonzalez242.000$285kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Al Osuna262.000$240kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Darryl Kile231.000$190kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andujar Cedeno222.000$139kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Willie Blair262.000$138kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eddie Taubensee231.000$132kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ryan Bowen241.000$125kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Servais251.000$120kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Simms252.000$115kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Guerrero250.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Butch Henry230.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Jones261.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rob Mallicoat27–—
Shane Reynolds240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Karl Rhodes232.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rich Scheid27–—
Scooter Tucker250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Williams231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Astros 1992; 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.