RRosternomics
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Dodgers LAD

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GM: Ned Colletti

Overview

FORCED-SPEND ↘ cooling
expensive & losing · year 2 in this regime · payroll 1.28× league · TAB -1.0
-1.0TAB — talent above budget17th/30
-1.1WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)18th/30
9.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars5th/30
-6.0dead WAR — sub-replacement drag21st/30
58%dead money %26th/30
0.519win %15th/30
36.2roster fWAR12th/30
-26surplus $M (value vs cost)23rd/30
$112Mpayroll $M8th/30

2008: made playoffs · 84–78. Ranks are vs the 30 teams that season.

Roster

CFMatt Kemp 101GAndruw Jones 66GJuan Pierre 18G
LFManny Ramirez 119GJuan Pierre 84GAndre Ethier 41G
RFAndre Ethier 109GMatt Kemp 63GDelwyn Young 11G
SSAngel Berroa 79GRafael Furcal 36GChin-Lung Hu 35G
2BJeff Kent 116GPablo Ozuna 37GLuis Maza 35G
3BCasey Blake 133GBlake DeWitt 95GPablo Ozuna 17G
1BJames Loney 158GCasey Blake 29GNomar Garciaparra 8G
STARTERSDerek Lowe 4.2WARChad Billingsley 3.7WARHiroki Kuroda 3.4WARClayton Kershaw 1.0WARGreg Maddux 0.4WAR
CRussell Martin 149GDanny Ardoin 24GGary Bennett 10G
DHMark Sweeney 2GAndruw Jones 1GRussell Martin 1G
BULLPEN★ Takashi Saito 18svJonathan Broxton 13hJoe Beimel 12hHung-Chih Kuo 12hCory Wade 8hScott Proctor 2hRamon Troncoso 2hJason Johnson 1h
CRussell Martin 149 · Danny Ardoin 24 · Gary Bennett 10
1BJames Loney 158 · Casey Blake 29 · Nomar Garciaparra 8
2BJeff Kent 116 · Pablo Ozuna 37 · Luis Maza 35
3BCasey Blake 133 · Blake DeWitt 95 · Pablo Ozuna 17
SSAngel Berroa 79 · Rafael Furcal 36 · Chin-Lung Hu 35
LFManny Ramirez 119 · Juan Pierre 84 · Andre Ethier 41
CFMatt Kemp 101 · Andruw Jones 66 · Juan Pierre 18
RFAndre Ethier 109 · Matt Kemp 63 · Delwyn Young 11
DHMark Sweeney 2 · Andruw Jones 1 · Russell Martin 1
SPDerek Lowe 4.2 · Chad Billingsley 3.7 · Hiroki Kuroda 3.4 · Clayton Kershaw 1.0 · Greg Maddux 0.4
BP★ Takashi Saito 18 · Jonathan Broxton 13 · Joe Beimel 12 · Hung-Chih Kuo 12 · Cory Wade 8 · Scott Proctor 2 · Ramon Troncoso 2 · Jason Johnson 1

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.

2008 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Russell Martin 25 pre-arb 1557.3 0.5 +16.1
Derek Lowe 35 FA-elig 344.2 10.0 -0.4
Chad Billingsley 23 pre-arb 353.7 0.4 +7.9
Hiroki Kuroda 33 pre-arb 313.4 7.4 +0.3
Andre Ethier 26 pre-arb 1413.4 0.4 +7.2
Matt Kemp 23 pre-arb 1553.3 0.4 +7.2
Manny Ramirez↔ BOS 36 FA-elig 533.0 6.6 +0.2
Hung-Chih Kuo 26 arb 422.2 0.4 +4.7
Jonathan Broxton 24 arb 702.0 0.5 +4.2
Rafael Furcal 30 FA-elig 362.0 15.7 -11.2
Takashi Saito 38 pre-arb 451.6 2.0 +1.6
Blake DeWitt 22 pre-arb 1171.6 0.4 +3.2
Clayton Kershaw 20 – 221.0 0.2 +2.0
Casey Blake↔ CLE 34 FA-elig 580.9 2.3 -0.4
Joe Beimel 31 FA-elig 710.5 1.9 -0.8
Ramon Troncoso 25 pre-arb 320.4 0.4 +0.5
Greg Maddux↔ SDP 42 FA-elig 70.4 2.1 -1.2
Cory Wade 25 – 550.4 – –
Jeff Kent 40 FA-elig 1210.3 9.0 -8.3
Eric Stults 28 – 90.3 0.4 +0.2
Nomar Garciaparra 34 FA-elig 550.2 9.5 -9.1
Danny Ardoin 33 – 240.2 – –
Esteban Loaiza↔ CHW 36 FA-elig 70.1 5.2 -4.9
Chan Ho Park 35 – 550.1 – –
James McDonald 23 – 40.1 – –
Terry Tiffee 29 – 60.0 – –
Jason Repko 27 – 220.0 – –
Tanyon Sturtze 37 – 30.0 – –
Yhency Brazoban 27 – 2-0.0 – –
Juan Pierre 30 FA-elig 119-0.0 8.0 -8.0
Brad Penny 30 FA-elig 19-0.0 9.2 -9.3
Gary Bennett 36 FA-elig 10-0.1 0.8 -1.0
Delwyn Young 26 pre-arb 83-0.1 0.4 -0.6
A.J. Ellis 27 – 4-0.1 – –
Brian Falkenborg↔ SDP 30 – 16-0.1 – –
Scott Proctor 31 arb 41-0.2 1.1 -1.5
Scott Elbert 22 – 10-0.2 – –
Pablo Ozuna↔ CHW 33 FA-elig 36-0.3 0.6 -1.3
Andy LaRoche↔ PIT 24 pre-arb 27-0.3 0.1 -0.9
Jason Johnson 34 – 16-0.3 – –
James Loney 24 pre-arb 161-0.4 0.4 -1.4
Luis Maza 28 – 45-0.5 – –
Chin-Lung Hu 24 pre-arb 65-0.6 0.4 -1.7
Mark Sweeney 38 FA-elig 98-0.8 0.6 -2.4
Angel Berroa 30 – 84-0.9 – –
Andruw Jones 31 FA-elig 75-1.1 14.7 -17.3

Key additions (new vs 2007)

PlayerfWAR
Hiroki Kuroda3.4
Manny Ramirez3.0
Blake DeWitt1.6
Clayton Kershaw1.0
Casey Blake0.9
Ramon Troncoso0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 2007)

Player2007 fWAR
Randy Wolf1.7
Mark Hendrickson1.4
Wilson Betemit0.9
Tony Abreu0.6
Luis Gonzalez0.6
Brett Tomko0.5

Current & Historical Payroll

2008 payroll
$112.2M

What the front office was committed to as of 2008, 2008–2014. 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 (21)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
Rafael Furcal308.000$15.7M$7.5M$9.5M$7.5MFREE AGENT
Andruw Jones3112.000$14.7MFREE AGENT
Derek Lowe3511.000$10.0MFREE AGENT
Nomar Garciaparra3412.000$9.5MFREE AGENT
Brad Penny308.000$9.2MFREE AGENT
Jeff Kent4016.000$9.0MFREE AGENT
Juan Pierre308.000$8.0M$10.0MFREE AGENT
Manny Ramirez3615.000$6.6M$23.9M$13.7MFREE AGENT
Esteban Loaiza3613.000$5.2MFREE AGENT
Casey Blake349.000$2.3M$5.0M$6.2M$5.5MFREE AGENT
Greg Maddux4222.000$2.1MFREE AGENT
Joe Beimel317.000$1.9MFREE AGENT
Gary Bennett3613.000$825kFREE AGENT
Mark Sweeney3813.000$600kFREE AGENT
Pablo Ozuna338.000$556kFREE AGENT
Jason Johnson3411.000—FREE AGENT
Chan Ho Park3514.000—FREE AGENT
Tanyon Sturtze3713.000—FREE AGENT
Danny Ardoin338.000—FREE AGENT
Brian Falkenborg309.000—FREE AGENT
Angel Berroa307.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (5)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
Scott Proctor314.000$1.1MARB 3FREE AGENT
Jonathan Broxton243.000$454kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Hung-Chih Kuo263.000$392kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Yhency Brazoban274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Repko273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (20)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
Hiroki Kuroda330.000$7.4MPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Takashi Saito382.000$2.0MARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Russell Martin252.000$500kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andre Ethier262.000$424kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chad Billingsley232.000$415kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
James Loney242.000$411kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Kemp232.000$406kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Delwyn Young262.000$391kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chin-Lung Hu241.000$390kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Stults282.000$390kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ramon Troncoso250.000$390kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Blake DeWitt220.000$390kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Clayton Kershaw200.000$224kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Andy LaRoche241.000$139kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Tiffee29–—
Luis Maza28–—
A.J. Ellis270.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Elbert220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
James McDonald230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Cory Wade250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Dodgers 2008; 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.