RRosternomics
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Dodgers LAD

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GM: Kevin Malone

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 4 in this regime · payroll 1.56× league · TAB -5.0
-5.0TAB — talent above budget23rd/30
-10.7WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)27th/30
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars14th/30
-3.4dead WAR — sub-replacement drag8th/30
24%dead money %11th/30
0.475win %16th/30
34.7roster fWAR13th/30
-33surplus $M (value vs cost)28th/30
$76Mpayroll $M4th/30

Roster

CFDevon White 128GTodd Hollandsworth 34GTrenidad Hubbard 19G
LFGary Sheffield 145GTrenidad Hubbard 29GTodd Hollandsworth 27G
RFRaúl Mondesi 158GTodd Hollandsworth 9GTrenidad Hubbard 3G
SSMark Grudzielanek 119GJose Vizcaino 43GTripp Cromer III 9G
2BEric Young Sr. 116GCraig Counsell 50GJose Vizcaino 30G
3BAdrian Beltré 152GDave Hansen 13GJose Vizcaino 9G
1BEric Karros 151GDave Hansen 20GTodd Hollandsworth 13G
STARTERSKevin Brown 6.6WARDarren Dreifort 3.0WARIsmael Valdez 1.8WARChan Ho Park 1.2WAREric Gagne 0.6WAR
CTodd Hundley 108GAngel Pena 43GPaul Lo Duca 34G
DHGary Sheffield 3GDave Hansen 2GDevon White 1G
BULLPEN★ Jeff Shaw 34svAlan Mills 18hPedro Borbón 15hMike Maddux 10hOnan Masaoka 5hJamie Arnold 2hMatt Herges 1hDoug Bochtler 0h
CTodd Hundley 108 · Angel Pena 43 · Paul Lo Duca 34
1BEric Karros 151 · Dave Hansen 20 · Todd Hollandsworth 13
2BEric Young Sr. 116 · Craig Counsell 50 · Jose Vizcaino 30
3BAdrian Beltré 152 · Dave Hansen 13 · Jose Vizcaino 9
SSMark Grudzielanek 119 · Jose Vizcaino 43 · Tripp Cromer III 9
LFGary Sheffield 145 · Trenidad Hubbard 29 · Todd Hollandsworth 27
CFDevon White 128 · Todd Hollandsworth 34 · Trenidad Hubbard 19
RFRaúl Mondesi 158 · Todd Hollandsworth 9 · Trenidad Hubbard 3
DHGary Sheffield 3 · Dave Hansen 2 · Devon White 1
SPKevin Brown 6.6 · Darren Dreifort 3.0 · Ismael Valdez 1.8 · Chan Ho Park 1.2 · Eric Gagne 0.6
BP★ Jeff Shaw 34 · Alan Mills 18 · Pedro Borbón 15 · Mike Maddux 10 · Onan Masaoka 5 · Jamie Arnold 2 · Matt Herges 1 · Doug Bochtler 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.

1999 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Kevin Brown 34 FA-elig 356.6 10.7 -2.4
Eric Karros 31 FA-elig 1534.8 5.5 +0.6
Mark Grudzielanek 29 arb 1233.8 1.9 +2.9
Gary Sheffield 30 FA-elig 1523.6 10.0 -5.4
Adrian Beltré 20 pre-arb 1523.4 0.2 +4.1
Darren Dreifort 27 arb 303.0 1.9 +1.9
Raul Mondesi 28 FA-elig 1592.0 9.0 -6.4
Ismael Valdez 25 arb 321.8 4.3 -2.0
Eric Young Sr. 32 FA-elig 1191.8 4.5 -2.3
Chan Ho Park 26 arb 331.2 2.3 -0.8
Jeff Shaw 32 FA-elig 641.1 3.4 -2.0
Todd Hollandsworth 26 arb 920.9 0.8 +0.3
Dave Hansen 30 FA-elig 1000.8 0.5 +0.6
Eric Gagne 23 – 50.6 – –
Devon White 36 FA-elig 1340.5 2.5 -1.9
Craig Counsell↔ MIA 28 arb 500.4 0.1 +0.4
Mike Maddux↔ WSN 37 FA-elig 490.4 0.6 -0.1
Angel Pena 24 – 430.3 – –
Todd Hundley 30 FA-elig 1140.3 5.3 -5.0
Mike Judd 24 pre-arb 70.2 0.2 +0.0
Jose Vizcaino 31 FA-elig 940.2 3.0 -2.8
Jeff Williams 27 – 50.1 – –
Dave Mlicki↔ DET 31 FA-elig 20.1 0.1 +0.0
Antonio Osuna 26 arb 50.1 1.1 -0.9
Trenidad Hubbard 35 arb 820.0 0.3 -0.3
Paul Lo Duca 27 pre-arb 360.0 0.2 -0.2
Jacob Brumfield↔ TOR 34 FA-elig 18-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Jeff Kubenka 24 – 6-0.0 – –
Juan Castro 27 – 2-0.0 – –
Chance Sanford 27 – 5-0.0 – –
Brent Cookson 29 – 3-0.1 – –
Tripp Cromer III 31 FA-elig 33-0.1 0.3 -0.4
Pedro Borbon Jr. 31 FA-elig 70-0.1 0.4 -0.5
Rick Wilkins 32 FA-elig 3-0.1 0.4 -0.5
Jamie Arnold 25 – 36-0.1 – –
Matt Herges 29 pre-arb 17-0.1 0.2 -0.4
Doug Bochtler 28 – 12-0.2 – –
Mel Rojas↔ DET 32 FA-elig 5-0.2 1.8 -2.0
Onan Masaoka 21 pre-arb 54-0.2 0.2 -0.5
Robinson Checo 27 pre-arb 9-0.3 0.3 -0.7
Alex Cora 23 pre-arb 11-0.5 0.2 -0.8
Carlos Perez 28 arb 17-0.6 2.3 -3.1
Alan Mills 32 FA-elig 68-0.7 1.2 -2.1

Key additions (new vs 1998)

PlayerfWAR
Kevin Brown6.6
Dave Hansen0.8
Eric Gagne0.6
Devon White0.5
Craig Counsell0.4
Mike Maddux0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1998)

Player1998 fWAR
Ramon Martinez2.0
Brian Bohanon1.6
Matt Luke1.3
Charles Johnson1.1
Mike Piazza0.9
Hideo Nomo0.6

Current & Historical Payroll

1999 payroll
$75.9M

What the front office was committed to as of 1999, 1999–2005. 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 (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Kevin Brown3413.000$10.7M$15.7M$15.7M$15.7M$15.7MFREE AGENT
Gary Sheffield3011.000$10.0M$9.9M$9.9MFREE AGENT
Raul Mondesi286.000$9.0MFREE AGENT
Eric Karros318.000$5.5M$5.4M$7.5M$6.9MFREE AGENT
Todd Hundley309.000$5.3M$6.1MFREE AGENT$6.5M
Eric Young Sr.327.000$4.5MFREE AGENT
Jeff Shaw329.000$3.4M$5.4M$6.4MFREE AGENT
Jose Vizcaino3110.000$3.0M$2.3MFREE AGENT
Devon White3614.000$2.5M$4.0MFREE AGENT
Mel Rojas329.000$1.8MFREE AGENT
Alan Mills329.000$1.2M$1.3MFREE AGENT
Mike Maddux3713.000$564kFREE AGENT
Dave Hansen309.000$450k$475k$625k$675kFREE AGENT
Rick Wilkins328.000$410kFREE AGENT
Pedro Borbon Jr.317.000$375kFREE AGENT
Tripp Cromer III316.000$346kFREE AGENT
Dave Mlicki317.000$136kFREE AGENT
Jacob Brumfield347.000$87kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (12)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Ismael Valdez255.000$4.3MFREE AGENT
Carlos Perez284.000$2.3MARB 3FREE AGENT
Chan Ho Park265.000$2.3MFREE AGENT
Darren Dreifort275.000$1.9MFREE AGENT
Mark Grudzielanek294.000$1.9MARB 3FREE AGENT
Antonio Osuna264.000$1.1MARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Hollandsworth264.000$850kARB 3FREE AGENT
Trenidad Hubbard355.000$300kFREE AGENT
Craig Counsell284.000$141kARB 3FREE AGENT
Doug Bochtler284.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Castro274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brent Cookson294.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1999200020012002200320042005
Robinson Checo272.000$300kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Adrian Beltré201.000$220kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alex Cora231.000$210kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Judd242.000$205kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Herges290.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Paul Lo Duca271.000$200kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Onan Masaoka210.000$200kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chance Sanford27–—
Jeff Kubenka24–—
Angel Pena241.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jamie Arnold25–—
Eric Gagne230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Williams27–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Dodgers 1999; 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.