RRosternomics
𝕏

Astros HOU

‹ ›

GM: Bob Watson

Overview

WINDOW ↘ cooling
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.98× league · TAB +7.7
+7.7TAB — talent above budget7th/28
+3.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)9th/28
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars13th/28
-4.2dead WAR — sub-replacement drag9th/28
22%dead money %14th/28
0.528win %10th/28
37.1roster fWAR7th/28
+3surplus $M (value vs cost)8th/28
$33Mpayroll $M18th/28

Roster

CFBrian L. Hunter 74GJohn Cangelosi 32GDerek Bell 30G
LFDerrick May 75GJames Mouton 39GJohn Cangelosi 26G
RFDerek Bell 82GJames Mouton 37GMilt Thompson 21G
SSOrlando Miller 89GRicky Gutierrez 44GAndy Stankiewicz 14G
2BCraig Biggio 141GAndy Stankiewicz 6GCraig Shipley 4G
3BDave Magadan 100GCraig Shipley 65GPhil Nevin 16G
1BJeff Bagwell 114GMike Simms 25GDave Magadan 11G
STARTERSShane Reynolds 4.7WARDoug Drabek 3.1WARMike Hampton 2.4WARDarryl Kile 1.8WARGreg Swindell 1.5WAR
CTony Eusebio 103GRick Wilkins 62GPat Borders 56G
BULLPEN★ Mike Henneman 26svDave Veres 0hTodd Jones 0hJim Dougherty 0hDean Hartgraves 0hJeff Tabaka 0hPedro Martinez 0hJohn Hudek 0h
CTony Eusebio 103 · Rick Wilkins 62 · Pat Borders 56
1BJeff Bagwell 114 · Mike Simms 25 · Dave Magadan 11
2BCraig Biggio 141 · Andy Stankiewicz 6 · Craig Shipley 4
3BDave Magadan 100 · Craig Shipley 65 · Phil Nevin 16
SSOrlando Miller 89 · Ricky Gutierrez 44 · Andy Stankiewicz 14
LFDerrick May 75 · James Mouton 39 · John Cangelosi 26
CFBrian L. Hunter 74 · John Cangelosi 32 · Derek Bell 30
RFDerek Bell 82 · James Mouton 37 · Milt Thompson 21
SPShane Reynolds 4.7 · Doug Drabek 3.1 · Mike Hampton 2.4 · Darryl Kile 1.8 · Greg Swindell 1.5
BP★ Mike Henneman 26 · Dave Veres 0 · Todd Jones 0 · Jim Dougherty 0 · Dean Hartgraves 0 · Jeff Tabaka 0 · Pedro Martinez 0 · John Hudek 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.

1995 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Craig Biggio 29 FA-elig 1416.2 4.7 +1.2
Shane Reynolds 27 arb 314.7 0.2 +4.3
Jeff Bagwell 27 arb 1144.5 6.9 -2.5
Doug Drabek 32 FA-elig 333.1 5.0 -2.1
Tony Eusebio 28 arb 1132.4 0.2 +2.2
Mike Hampton 22 pre-arb 242.4 0.1 +2.1
John Cangelosi 32 FA-elig 902.0 0.2 +1.7
Dave Magadan 32 FA-elig 1271.9 0.4 +1.5
Derrick May↔ MIL 26 arb 781.9 0.3 +1.6
Derek Bell 26 arb 1121.8 1.4 +0.3
Darryl Kile 26 arb 251.8 1.3 +0.4
Dave Veres 28 pre-arb 721.7 0.1 +1.5
Brian L. Hunter 24 pre-arb 781.5 0.1 +1.4
Greg Swindell 30 FA-elig 341.5 4.5 -3.0
Mike Simms 28 arb 501.0 0.1 +0.8
John Hudek 28 pre-arb 190.5 0.2 +0.3
Mike Henneman↔ DET 33 FA-elig 210.5 2.0 -1.6
Todd Jones 27 pre-arb 680.4 0.2 +0.2
Rick Wilkins↔ CHC 28 arb 150.4 0.3 +0.0
Luis Gonzalez↔ CHC 27 arb 560.3 0.6 -0.3
Orlando Miller 26 pre-arb 920.3 0.1 +0.1
James Mouton 26 pre-arb 1040.2 0.1 +0.1
Jeff Tabaka↔ SDP 31 pre-arb 240.2 0.1 +0.1
Dean Hartgraves 28 pre-arb 400.2 0.1 +0.1
Scooter Tucker↔ CLE 28 arb 50.1 0.0 +0.1
Doug Brocail 28 arb 370.0 0.2 -0.2
Billy Wagner 23 pre-arb 10.0 0.1 -0.1
Dave Hajek 27 – 50.0 – –
Scott Servais↔ CHC 28 arb 28-0.0 0.1 -0.2
Jerry Goff 31 – 12-0.1 – –
Jim Dougherty 27 pre-arb 56-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Chris Donnels↔ BOS 29 arb 19-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Donne Wall 27 pre-arb 6-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Craig McMurtry 35 FA-elig 11-0.1 0.3 -0.4
Andy Stankiewicz 30 arb 43-0.1 0.1 -0.3
Phil Plantier↔ SDP 26 arb 22-0.2 0.6 -0.7
Milt Thompson 36 FA-elig 92-0.2 0.5 -0.7
Ross Powell↔ PIT 27 pre-arb 15-0.3 0.1 -0.3
Mike Brumley 32 – 18-0.3 – –
Pedro Martinez 26 pre-arb 25-0.4 0.2 -0.5
Craig Shipley 32 FA-elig 92-0.4 0.6 -0.9
Pat Borders↔ KCR 32 FA-elig 11-0.4 0.1 -0.5
Ricky Gutierrez 25 pre-arb 52-0.6 0.2 -0.8
Phil Nevin↔ DET 24 pre-arb 18-0.7 0.0 -0.7

Key additions (new vs 1994)

PlayerfWAR
John Cangelosi2.0
Dave Magadan1.9
Derrick May1.9
Derek Bell1.8
Mike Henneman0.5
Rick Wilkins0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1994)

Player1994 fWAR
Ken Caminiti3.9
Steve Finley2.3
Kevin Bass1.6
Andujar Cedeno0.5
Tom Edens0.4
Sid Bream0.4

Current & Historical Payroll

1995 payroll
$32.6M

What the front office was committed to as of 1995, 1995–2001. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1995199619971998199920002001
Doug Drabek329.000$5.0M$5.0MFREE AGENT
Craig Biggio297.000$4.7M$2.1M$6.3M$6.1M$6.1M$6.8M$7.8M
Greg Swindell309.000$4.5M$2.8MFREE AGENT
Mike Henneman338.000$2.0MFREE AGENT
Craig Shipley329.000$562kFREE AGENT
Milt Thompson3611.000$525kFREE AGENT
Dave Magadan329.000$360kFREE AGENT
Craig McMurtry3512.000$275kFREE AGENT
John Cangelosi3210.000$182k$280kFREE AGENT
Pat Borders327.000$54kFREE AGENT
Mike Brumley328.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (16)

PlayerAgeSvc1995199619971998199920002001
Jeff Bagwell274.000$6.9MARB 3FREE AGENT
Derek Bell264.000$1.4MARB 3FREE AGENT
Darryl Kile264.000$1.3MARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Gonzalez275.000$632kFREE AGENT
Phil Plantier265.000$579kFREE AGENT
Rick Wilkins284.000$340kARB 3FREE AGENT
Derrick May265.000$254kFREE AGENT
Shane Reynolds273.000$175kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Eusebio284.000$160kARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Brocail283.000$155kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andy Stankiewicz303.000$145kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Simms285.000$125kFREE AGENT
Scott Servais284.000$119kARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Donnels294.000$64kARB 3FREE AGENT
Scooter Tucker283.000$27kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jerry Goff315.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (17)

PlayerAgeSvc1995199619971998199920002001
Ricky Gutierrez252.000$210kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Hudek281.000$185kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pedro Martinez262.000$175kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Jones272.000$175kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
James Mouton261.000$145kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Orlando Miller261.000$140kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Hampton222.000$135kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Veres281.000$125kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dean Hartgraves280.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Dougherty270.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian L. Hunter241.000$109kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Billy Wagner230.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Donne Wall270.000$109kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Tabaka311.000$99kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ross Powell272.000$64kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Phil Nevin240.000$42kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Hajek27–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Astros 1995; 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.