Rosternomics
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Astros HOU

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GM: Gerry Hunsicker (since 1996)

1996 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+2.7
WAB — wins above budget
+1.8
TAB — roster Talent above budget
82–80 (0.506)
record
+2M
surplus $M (value/$)
33.5
roster fWAR
$26.7M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Jeff Bagwell 28 arb 162 7.7 4.9 +1.6
Shane Reynolds 28 arb 35 5.9 0.3 +4.7
Craig Biggio 30 FA-elig 162 4.8 2.1 +1.9
Darryl Kile 27 arb 37 3.7 1.2 +1.9
Mike Hampton 23 arb 29 2.9 0.3 +2.1
Derek Bell 27 arb 158 2.6 2.8 -0.6
Donne Wall 28 pre-arb 26 1.9 0.1 +1.5
Doug Drabek 33 FA-elig 32 1.7 5.0 -3.6
John Cangelosi 33 FA-elig 108 1.5 0.3 +1.0
Brian L. Hunter 25 pre-arb 132 1.0 0.2 +0.7
Sean Berry 30 FA-elig 132 1.0 1.0 -0.1
Derrick May 27 FA-elig 109 0.7 0.8 -0.2
Orlando Miller 27 pre-arb 139 0.6 0.2 +0.3
Tony Eusebio 29 arb 58 0.4 0.3 +0.1
Rick Wilkins↔ SFG 29 arb 84 0.3 1.0 -0.7
Kirt Manwaring↔ SFG 30 FA-elig 37 0.3 0.8 -0.6
Bill Spiers 30 FA-elig 122 0.3 0.4 -0.2
Dave Hajek 28 – 8 0.2 – –
James Mouton 27 pre-arb 122 0.2 0.2 -0.1
Billy Wagner 24 pre-arb 37 0.1 0.1 +0.0
Xavier Hernandez↔ CIN 30 FA-elig 58 0.1 0.6 -0.5
John Hudek 29 pre-arb 15 0.1 0.2 -0.1
Randy Knorr 27 arb 37 0.1 0.3 -0.2
Bobby Abreu 22 – 15 0.0 – –
Ray Montgomery 26 – 12 0.0 – –
Andujar Cedeno↔ DET 26 FA-elig 3 0.0 0.0 +0.0
Mark Small 28 pre-arb 16 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Chris Holt 24 – 4 -0.0 – –
Jerry Goff 32 – 1 -0.1 – –
Terry Clark↔ KCR 35 FA-elig 5 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Gregg Olson↔ DET 29 FA-elig 9 -0.1 0.1 -0.1
Dean Hartgraves↔ ATL 29 pre-arb 19 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
John Johnstone 27 – 9 -0.1 – –
Danny Darwin↔ PIT 40 FA-elig 15 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Ricky Gutierrez 26 arb 89 -0.3 0.2 -0.4
Mike Simms 29 FA-elig 49 -0.3 0.2 -0.4
Doug Brocail 29 arb 25 -0.3 0.2 -0.5
Greg Swindell↔ CLE 31 FA-elig 8 -0.4 1.7 -2.0
Todd Jones 28 arb 51 -0.4 0.3 -0.6
Jim Dougherty 28 – 12 -0.4 – –
Anthony Young 30 arb 28 -0.6 0.3 -0.8
Jeff Tabaka 32 pre-arb 18 -0.7 0.2 -0.7
Alvin Morman 27 pre-arb 53 -0.9 0.1 -0.9

43 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 36 of them (84%). Players without a salary show "–" — no single historical salary source is fully complete (especially 2020–2022).

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.