RRosternomics
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Astros HOU

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GM: Gerry Hunsicker

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.92× league · TAB -1.5
-1.5TAB — talent above budget17th/30
-8.8WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)25th/30
6.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars14th/30
-6.1dead WAR — sub-replacement drag21st/30
26%dead money %15th/30
0.444win %23rd/30
31.7roster fWAR18th/30
-11surplus $M (value vs cost)17th/30
$50Mpayroll $M18th/30

Roster

CFRichard Hidalgo 125GGlen Barker 63GRoger Cedeno 29G
LFMoises Alou 59GDaryle Ward 43GLance Berkman 40G
RFMoises Alou 64GLance Berkman 63GRichard Hidalgo 37G
SSTim Bogar 95GJulio Lugo 60GBill Spiers 27G
2BCraig Biggio 100GJulio Lugo 45GBill Spiers 26G
3BChris Truby 74GKen Caminiti 58GBill Spiers 51G
1BJeff Bagwell 158GDaryle Ward 19GLance Berkman 2G
STARTERSChris Holt 3.1WARShane Reynolds 1.8WARScott Elarton 1.7WARWade Miller 1.4WARTony McKnight 0.4WAR
CMitch Meluskey 103GTony Eusebio 68GRaúl Chávez 14G
DHDaryle Ward 4GMoises Alou 1GJeff Bagwell 1G
BULLPEN★ Billy Wagner 6svMarc Valdes 8hWayne Franklin 8hJoe Slusarski 7hJose Cabrera 5hJay Powell 5hYorkis Perez 3hMike Maddux 2h
CMitch Meluskey 103 · Tony Eusebio 68 · Raúl Chávez 14
1BJeff Bagwell 158 · Daryle Ward 19 · Lance Berkman 2
2BCraig Biggio 100 · Julio Lugo 45 · Bill Spiers 26
3BChris Truby 74 · Ken Caminiti 58 · Bill Spiers 51
SSTim Bogar 95 · Julio Lugo 60 · Bill Spiers 27
LFMoises Alou 59 · Daryle Ward 43 · Lance Berkman 40
CFRichard Hidalgo 125 · Glen Barker 63 · Roger Cedeno 29
RFMoises Alou 64 · Lance Berkman 63 · Richard Hidalgo 37
DHDaryle Ward 4 · Moises Alou 1 · Jeff Bagwell 1
SPChris Holt 3.1 · Shane Reynolds 1.8 · Scott Elarton 1.7 · Wade Miller 1.4 · Tony McKnight 0.4
BP★ Billy Wagner 6 · Marc Valdes 8 · Wayne Franklin 8 · Joe Slusarski 7 · Jose Cabrera 5 · Jay Powell 5 · Yorkis Perez 3 · Mike Maddux 2

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.

2000 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Richard Hidalgo 25 arb 1537.3 0.3 +10.0
Jeff Bagwell 32 FA-elig 1595.9 6.5 +1.9
Moises Alou 33 FA-elig 1263.2 5.2 -0.8
Chris Holt 28 arb 343.1 1.0 +3.4
Lance Berkman 24 – 1142.4 – –
Mitch Meluskey 26 pre-arb 1172.3 0.2 +3.0
Shane Reynolds 32 FA-elig 221.8 6.7 -4.1
Ken Caminiti 37 FA-elig 591.8 4.5 -2.0
Scott Elarton 24 pre-arb 301.7 0.3 +2.1
Bill Spiers 34 FA-elig 1241.5 1.7 +0.5
Craig Biggio 34 FA-elig 1011.5 6.8 -4.6
Wade Miller 23 – 161.4 – –
Tony Eusebio 33 FA-elig 740.9 1.1 +0.2
Joe Slusarski 33 – 540.8 – –
Roger Cedeno 25 arb 740.6 2.4 -1.6
Marc Valdes 28 – 530.5 – –
Tony McKnight 23 – 60.4 – –
Octavio Dotel 26 pre-arb 500.4 0.2 +0.3
Chris Truby 26 – 780.3 – –
Jay Powell 28 arb 300.1 1.2 -1.1
Wayne Franklin 26 – 250.1 – –
Julio Lugo 24 – 1160.0 – –
Jose Cabrera 28 arb 520.0 0.3 -0.2
Glen Barker 29 pre-arb 84-0.0 0.3 -0.3
Frank Charles 31 – 4-0.0 – –
Paul Bako↔ ATL 28 pre-arb 1-0.0 0.0 -0.1
Raul Chavez 27 – 14-0.1 – –
Keith Ginter 24 – 5-0.1 – –
Dwight Gooden↔ NYY 35 FA-elig 1-0.1 0.0 -0.1
Eddie Zosky 32 – 4-0.1 – –
Yorkis Perez 32 FA-elig 33-0.1 0.5 -0.7
Morgan Ensberg 24 – 4-0.1 – –
Kip Gross 35 – 2-0.1 – –
Rusty Meacham 32 – 5-0.2 – –
Jose Lima 27 FA-elig 33-0.2 5.0 -5.3
Scott Linebrink↔ SFG 23 – 8-0.2 – –
Brian Powell 26 – 9-0.2 – –
Tripp Cromer III 32 – 9-0.2 – –
Daryle Ward 25 pre-arb 119-0.2 0.2 -0.6
Jason Green 25 – 14-0.3 – –
Mike Maddux 38 FA-elig 21-0.3 0.3 -0.8
Doug Henry↔ SFG 36 FA-elig 45-0.4 0.5 -1.0
Billy Wagner 28 arb 28-0.4 3.2 -3.8
Russ Johnson↔ TBR 27 arb 26-0.7 0.1 -1.1
Matt Mieske↔ ARI 32 FA-elig 62-1.0 0.6 -2.0
Tim Bogar 33 FA-elig 110-1.1 0.7 -2.2

Key additions (new vs 1999)

PlayerfWAR
Moises Alou3.2
Roger Cedeno0.6
Marc Valdes0.5
Tony McKnight0.4
Octavio Dotel0.4
Chris Truby0.3

Key subtractions (gone from 1999)

Player1999 fWAR
Mike Hampton6.2
Carl Everett5.9
Sean Bergman1.1
Stan Javier0.6
Brian Williams0.3
Jack Howell0.3

Current & Historical Payroll

2000 payroll
$49.9M

What the front office was committed to as of 2000, 2000–2006. 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 (19)

PlayerAgeSvc2000200120022003200420052006
Craig Biggio3412.000$6.8M$7.8M$8.8M$9.8M$3.0M$3.0M$4.0M
Shane Reynolds328.000$6.7M$7.2M$7.7MFREE AGENT
Jeff Bagwell329.000$6.5M$6.5M$11.0M$13.0M$16.0M$18.0MFREE AGENT
Moises Alou3310.000$5.2M$5.2MFREE AGENT
Jose Lima276.000$5.0M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Ken Caminiti3713.000$4.5MFREE AGENT
Bill Spiers3411.000$1.7M$1.7MFREE AGENT
Tony Eusebio339.000$1.1M$1.3MFREE AGENT
Tim Bogar337.000$700kFREE AGENT
Matt Mieske327.000$595kFREE AGENT
Doug Henry369.000$500kFREE AGENT
Yorkis Perez329.000$500kFREE AGENT
Mike Maddux3814.000$350kFREE AGENT
Dwight Gooden3516.000$19kFREE AGENT
Tripp Cromer III327.000—FREE AGENT
Kip Gross3510.000—FREE AGENT
Rusty Meacham329.000—FREE AGENT
Joe Slusarski339.000—$240kFREE AGENT
Eddie Zosky329.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (9)

PlayerAgeSvc2000200120022003200420052006
Billy Wagner285.000$3.2MFREE AGENT
Roger Cedeno255.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
Jay Powell285.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Chris Holt284.000$1.0MARB 3FREE AGENT
Richard Hidalgo253.000$330kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Cabrera283.000$252kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Russ Johnson273.000$68kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Raul Chavez274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Marc Valdes285.000—FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (18)

PlayerAgeSvc2000200120022003200420052006
Scott Elarton242.000$300kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Glen Barker291.000$255kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Octavio Dotel261.000$240kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Daryle Ward252.000$238kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mitch Meluskey262.000$215kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Bako282.000$3kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Julio Lugo240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony McKnight23–—
Wade Miller231.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Powell262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Truby260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lance Berkman241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Wayne Franklin260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Green25–—
Scott Linebrink230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Frank Charles31–—
Keith Ginter240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Morgan Ensberg240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Astros 2000; 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.