RRosternomics
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Astros HOU

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GM: Bob Watson

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.03× league · TAB +15.4
+15.4TAB — talent above budget4th/28
+7.6WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)5th/28
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars6th/28
-2.4dead WAR — sub-replacement drag6th/28
27%dead money %11th/28
0.574win %7th/28
35.5roster fWAR5th/28
+8surplus $M (value vs cost)3rd/28
$33Mpayroll $M14th/28

Roster

CFSteve Finley 92GJames Mouton 19GMike Felder 6G
LFLuis Gonzalez 111GKevin Bass 11GMike Felder 8G
RFJames Mouton 80GKevin Bass 47GMike Felder 21G
SSAndujar Cedeno 95GAndy Stankiewicz 17GOrlando Miller 11G
2BCraig Biggio 113GAndy Stankiewicz 6GChris Donnels 4G
3BKen Caminiti 108GChris Donnels 14GAndy Stankiewicz 1G
1BJeff Bagwell 109GSid Bream 10GChris Donnels 4G
STARTERSDoug Drabek 3.3WARShane Reynolds 2.5WARGreg Swindell 1.6WARDarryl Kile 0.9WARPete Harnisch 0.3WAR
CScott Servais 78GTony Eusebio 52G
BULLPEN★ John Hudek 16svTodd Jones 0hMike Hampton 0hDave Veres 0hMitch Williams 0hRoss Powell 0h
CScott Servais 78 · Tony Eusebio 52
1BJeff Bagwell 109 · Sid Bream 10 · Chris Donnels 4
2BCraig Biggio 113 · Andy Stankiewicz 6 · Chris Donnels 4
3BKen Caminiti 108 · Chris Donnels 14 · Andy Stankiewicz 1
SSAndujar Cedeno 95 · Andy Stankiewicz 17 · Orlando Miller 11
LFLuis Gonzalez 111 · Kevin Bass 11 · Mike Felder 8
CFSteve Finley 92 · James Mouton 19 · Mike Felder 6
RFJames Mouton 80 · Kevin Bass 47 · Mike Felder 21
SPDoug Drabek 3.3 · Shane Reynolds 2.5 · Greg Swindell 1.6 · Darryl Kile 0.9 · Pete Harnisch 0.3
BP★ John Hudek 16 · Todd Jones 0 · Mike Hampton 0 · Dave Veres 0 · Mitch Williams 0 · Ross Powell 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.

1994 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Jeff Bagwell 26 arb 1107.8 2.5 +6.5
Craig Biggio 28 FA-elig 1144.4 3.5 +1.6
Ken Caminiti 31 FA-elig 1113.9 3.2 +1.3
Doug Drabek 31 FA-elig 243.3 4.3 -0.4
Shane Reynolds 26 pre-arb 332.5 0.1 +2.8
Steve Finley 29 arb 942.3 3.0 -0.4
Luis Gonzalez 26 arb 1121.7 1.6 +0.3
Greg Swindell 29 FA-elig 241.6 3.8 -1.9
Kevin Bass 35 FA-elig 821.6 0.4 +1.5
Todd Jones 26 pre-arb 481.5 0.1 +1.6
Tony Eusebio 27 arb 551.2 0.1 +1.2
James Mouton 25 pre-arb 991.0 0.1 +1.1
Darryl Kile 25 arb 240.9 0.5 +0.5
Chris Donnels 28 arb 540.6 0.2 +0.5
Andujar Cedeno 24 arb 980.5 0.3 +0.2
Orlando Miller 25 pre-arb 160.5 0.1 +0.5
Dave Veres 27 pre-arb 320.5 0.1 +0.5
Andy Stankiewicz 29 pre-arb 370.4 0.1 +0.4
Tom Edens↔ PHI 33 FA-elig 390.4 0.4 +0.1
Sid Bream 33 FA-elig 460.4 0.3 +0.1
Pete Harnisch 27 FA-elig 180.3 3.2 -2.8
Milt Thompson↔ PHI 35 FA-elig 90.2 0.1 +0.1
Brian Williams 25 arb 200.1 0.2 -0.1
Brian L. Hunter 23 pre-arb 60.0 0.1 -0.1
John Hudek 27 pre-arb 420.0 0.1 -0.1
Ross Powell 26 pre-arb 120.0 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

Key additions (new vs 1993)

PlayerfWAR
Tony Eusebio1.2
James Mouton1.0
Orlando Miller0.5
Dave Veres0.5
Andy Stankiewicz0.4
Sid Bream0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1993)

Player1993 fWAR
Mark Portugal3.9
Eric Anthony2.1
Xavier Hernandez2.0
Chris James1.1
Doug Jones0.8
Rick Parker0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

1994 payroll
$32.8M

What the front office was committed to as of 1994, 1994–2000. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Doug Drabek318.000$4.3M$5.0M$5.0MFREE AGENT
Greg Swindell298.000$3.8M$4.5M$2.8MFREE AGENT
Craig Biggio286.000$3.5M$4.7M$2.1M$6.3M$6.1M$6.1M$6.8M
Ken Caminiti317.000$3.2MFREE AGENT$4.5M$4.5M
Pete Harnisch276.000$3.2MFREE AGENT
Mitch Williams298.000$2.5MFREE AGENT
Mike Felder329.000$850kFREE AGENT
Tom Edens337.000$441kFREE AGENT
Kevin Bass3512.000$400kFREE AGENT
Sid Bream3311.000$300kFREE AGENT
Milt Thompson3510.000$129k$525kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Steve Finley295.000$3.0MFREE AGENT
Jeff Bagwell263.000$2.5MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Gonzalez264.000$1.6MARB 3FREE AGENT
Darryl Kile253.000$478kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andujar Cedeno244.000$340kARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Servais273.000$280kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Williams253.000$195kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Donnels283.000$170kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Eusebio273.000$122kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Simms274.000$120kARB 3FREE AGENT
Eddie Taubensee253.000$21kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (11)

PlayerAgeSvc1994199519961997199819992000
Todd Jones261.000$146kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andy Stankiewicz292.000$138kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Shane Reynolds262.000$138kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Hampton211.000$129kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ross Powell261.000$112kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Hudek270.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian L. Hunter230.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Orlando Miller250.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roberto Petagine230.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
James Mouton250.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Veres270.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Astros 1994; 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.