RRosternomics
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Astros HOU

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GM: Bill Wood

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 0.95× league · TAB +13.6
+13.6TAB — talent above budget2nd/28
+3.8WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)9th/28
12.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars1st/28
-0.8dead WAR — sub-replacement drag1st/28
8%dead money %1st/28
0.525win %10th/28
47.2roster fWAR4th/28
+9surplus $M (value vs cost)2nd/28
$30Mpayroll $M16th/28

Roster

CFSteve Finley 140GEric Anthony 23GRick Parker 13G
LFLuis Gonzalez 149GKevin Bass 12GCasey Candaele 4G
RFEric Anthony 121GKevin Bass 51GCasey Candaele 2G
SSAndujar Cedeno 149GJose Uribe 41GCasey Candaele 14G
2BCraig Biggio 155GCasey Candaele 19GChris Donnels 1G
3BKen Caminiti 143GChris Donnels 31GCasey Candaele 4G
1BJeff Bagwell 140GChris Donnels 23GJim Lindeman 9G
STARTERSMark Portugal 3.9WARDoug Drabek 3.8WARPete Harnisch 3.0WARDarryl Kile 2.3WARGreg Swindell 2.1WAR
CEddie Taubensee 90GScott Servais 82GScooter Tucker 8G
BULLPEN★ Doug Jones 26svXavier Hernandez 0hAl Osuna 0hTom Edens 0hTodd Jones 0hEric Bell 0hJuan Agosto 0hShane Reynolds 0h
CEddie Taubensee 90 · Scott Servais 82 · Scooter Tucker 8
1BJeff Bagwell 140 · Chris Donnels 23 · Jim Lindeman 9
2BCraig Biggio 155 · Casey Candaele 19 · Chris Donnels 1
3BKen Caminiti 143 · Chris Donnels 31 · Casey Candaele 4
SSAndujar Cedeno 149 · Jose Uribe 41 · Casey Candaele 14
LFLuis Gonzalez 149 · Kevin Bass 12 · Casey Candaele 4
CFSteve Finley 140 · Eric Anthony 23 · Rick Parker 13
RFEric Anthony 121 · Kevin Bass 51 · Casey Candaele 2
SPMark Portugal 3.9 · Doug Drabek 3.8 · Pete Harnisch 3.0 · Darryl Kile 2.3 · Greg Swindell 2.1
BP★ Doug Jones 26 · Xavier Hernandez 0 · Al Osuna 0 · Tom Edens 0 · Todd Jones 0 · Eric Bell 0 · Juan Agosto 0 · Shane Reynolds 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.

1993 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Jeff Bagwell 25 pre-arb 1425.5 0.7 +3.9
Luis Gonzalez 25 arb 1545.4 0.4 +4.1
Craig Biggio 27 arb 1554.7 3.0 +0.8
Mark Portugal 30 FA-elig 333.9 2.1 +1.1
Doug Drabek 30 FA-elig 343.8 4.2 -1.1
Pete Harnisch 26 arb 333.0 1.8 +0.6
Andujar Cedeno 23 arb 1492.9 0.2 +2.2
Steve Finley 28 arb 1422.7 2.9 -0.7
Darryl Kile 24 pre-arb 322.3 0.2 +1.6
Eric Anthony 25 arb 1452.1 0.3 +1.4
Greg Swindell 28 FA-elig 312.1 3.8 -2.1
Xavier Hernandez 27 arb 722.0 0.9 +0.8
Scott Servais 26 pre-arb 851.3 0.2 +0.9
Ken Caminiti 30 FA-elig 1431.3 3.1 -2.1
Chris James↔ TEX 30 FA-elig 651.1 0.4 +0.5
Kevin Bass 34 FA-elig 1111.0 0.7 +0.1
Eddie Taubensee 24 pre-arb 940.9 0.2 +0.6
Doug Jones 36 FA-elig 710.8 2.5 -1.8
Chris Donnels 27 pre-arb 880.3 0.1 +0.1
Shane Reynolds 25 pre-arb 50.2 0.1 +0.1
Rick Parker 30 arb 450.2 0.1 +0.0
Brian Williams 24 pre-arb 420.2 0.1 -0.0
Casey Candaele 32 FA-elig 750.1 0.8 -0.7
Mark Grant↔ COL 29 – 60.1 – –
Eric Bell 29 FA-elig 100.1 0.1 -0.1
Jim Lindeman 31 – 90.0 – –
Scooter Tucker 26 – 90.0 – –
Jack Daugherty↔ CIN 32 – 40.0 – –
Juan Agosto 35 – 6-0.0 – –
Jose Uribe 34 FA-elig 45-0.0 0.4 -0.4
Karl Rhodes↔ CHC 24 arb 5-0.0 0.0 -0.1
Jeff Juden 22 pre-arb 2-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Todd Jones 25 pre-arb 27-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Tom Edens 32 FA-elig 38-0.2 0.3 -0.5
Al Osuna 27 – 44-0.2 – –
Mike Brumley 30 – 8-0.2 – –

Key additions (new vs 1992)

PlayerfWAR
Doug Drabek3.8
Greg Swindell2.1
Chris James1.1
Kevin Bass1.0
Chris Donnels0.3
Rick Parker0.2

Key subtractions (gone from 1992)

Player1992 fWAR
Pete Incaviglia1.9
Butch Henry1.5
Jimmy Jones1.1
Rob Murphy0.5
Willie Blair0.4
Joe Boever0.3

Current & Historical Payroll

1993 payroll
$30.1M

What the front office was committed to as of 1993, 1993–1999. 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 (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1993199419951996199719981999
Doug Drabek307.000$4.2M$4.3M$5.0M$5.0MFREE AGENT
Greg Swindell287.000$3.8M$3.8M$4.5M$2.8MFREE AGENT
Ken Caminiti306.000$3.1M$3.2MFREE AGENT$4.5M
Doug Jones3611.000$2.5MFREE AGENT
Mark Portugal308.000$2.1MFREE AGENT
Casey Candaele327.000$775kFREE AGENT
Kevin Bass3411.000$650k$400kFREE AGENT
Chris James307.000$445kFREE AGENT
Jose Uribe349.000$400kFREE AGENT
Tom Edens326.000$325k$441kFREE AGENT
Eric Bell298.000$145kFREE AGENT
Juan Agosto3512.000—FREE AGENT
Mike Brumley306.000—FREE AGENT
Jack Daugherty326.000—FREE AGENT
Mark Grant299.000—FREE AGENT
Jim Lindeman317.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1993199419951996199719981999
Craig Biggio275.000$3.0MFREE AGENT
Steve Finley284.000$2.9MARB 3FREE AGENT
Pete Harnisch265.000$1.8MFREE AGENT
Xavier Hernandez274.000$900kARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Gonzalez253.000$360kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Anthony254.000$350kARB 3FREE AGENT
Andujar Cedeno233.000$178kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rick Parker303.000$140kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Karl Rhodes243.000$30kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Al Osuna273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1993199419951996199719981999
Jeff Bagwell252.000$655kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Darryl Kile242.000$248kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eddie Taubensee242.000$170kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Servais262.000$170kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Williams242.000$140kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Donnels272.000$137kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shane Reynolds251.000$112kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Juden222.000$109kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Jones250.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scooter Tucker261.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Astros 1993; 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.