Rosternomics
𝕏

Astros HOU

Switch team:

GM: Bob Watson (since 1994)

1994 roster — every player, value & surplus

‹ Prev Next ›
+7.6
WAB — wins above budget
+15.4
TAB — roster Talent above budget
66–49 (0.574)
record
+8M
surplus $M (value/$)
35.5
roster fWAR
$32.8M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Jeff Bagwell 26 arb 110 7.8 2.5 +6.5
Craig Biggio 28 FA-elig 114 4.4 3.5 +1.6
Ken Caminiti 31 FA-elig 111 3.9 3.2 +1.3
Doug Drabek 31 FA-elig 24 3.3 4.3 -0.4
Shane Reynolds 26 pre-arb 33 2.5 0.1 +2.8
Steve Finley 29 arb 94 2.3 3.0 -0.4
Luis Gonzalez 26 arb 112 1.7 1.6 +0.3
Greg Swindell 29 FA-elig 24 1.6 3.8 -1.9
Kevin Bass 35 FA-elig 82 1.6 0.4 +1.5
Todd Jones 26 pre-arb 48 1.5 0.1 +1.6
Tony Eusebio 27 arb 55 1.2 0.1 +1.2
James Mouton 25 pre-arb 99 1.0 0.1 +1.1
Darryl Kile 25 arb 24 0.9 0.5 +0.5
Chris Donnels 28 arb 54 0.6 0.2 +0.5
Andujar Cedeno 24 arb 98 0.5 0.3 +0.2
Orlando Miller 25 pre-arb 16 0.5 0.1 +0.5
Dave Veres 27 pre-arb 32 0.5 0.1 +0.5
Andy Stankiewicz 29 pre-arb 37 0.4 0.1 +0.4
Tom Edens↔ PHI 33 FA-elig 39 0.4 0.4 +0.1
Sid Bream 33 FA-elig 46 0.4 0.3 +0.1
Pete Harnisch 27 FA-elig 18 0.3 3.2 -2.8
Milt Thompson↔ PHI 35 FA-elig 9 0.2 0.1 +0.1
Brian Williams 25 arb 20 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Brian L. Hunter 23 pre-arb 6 0.0 0.1 -0.1
John Hudek 27 pre-arb 42 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Ross Powell 26 pre-arb 12 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Mike Simms 27 arb 6 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Roberto Petagine 23 pre-arb 8 -0.1 0.1 -0.3
Mike Hampton 21 pre-arb 44 -0.1 0.1 -0.3
Eddie Taubensee↔ CIN 25 arb 5 -0.1 0.0 -0.2
Mike Felder 32 FA-elig 58 -0.5 0.8 -1.4
Scott Servais 27 arb 78 -0.6 0.3 -0.9
Mitch Williams 29 FA-elig 25 -0.8 2.5 -3.5

WAR = FanGraphs (fWAR). Green = produced more value than paid (bargain); red = paid more than produced. Service: pre-arb (<3 yr) / arb (3–6) / FA-eligible (6+). Click headers to sort.

History: front-office performance & develop-vs-buy (1985–2024)

Trade ledger (realized WAR, all-time)

Best acquisitions
PlayerYearWAR for HOU
Jeff Bagwell199080.2
Yordan Álvarez201626.7
Mike Scott198221.9
Justin Verlander201719.7
Mike Hampton199319.2
Kevin Bass198217.5
Nolan Ryan198516.2
Moisés Alou199713.5
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Kenny Lofton199142.5
Curt Schilling199236.3
Ben Zobrist200633.1
Ken Caminiti199417.4
Freddy García199815.6
Jed Lowrie201313.0
Ramón Laureano20179.2
Patrick Sandoval20188.9
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.