RRosternomics
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Brewers MIL

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GM: Harry Dalton

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 0.66× league · TAB +8.6
+8.6TAB — talent above budget7th/26
+14.5WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)1st/26
10.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars1st/26
-4.3dead WAR — sub-replacement drag16th/26
38%dead money %18th/26
0.562win %5th/26
37.7roster fWAR6th/26
+4surplus $M (value vs cost)3rd/26
$7Mpayroll $M23rd/26

Roster

CFRobin Yount 150GMike Felder 22GRick Manning 8G
LFRob Deer 98GMike Felder 80GRick Manning 21G
RFGlenn Braggs 123GRick Manning 51GRob Deer 29G
SSDale Sveum 142GErnest Riles 21GJuan Castillo 13G
2BJuan Castillo 98GJim Gantner 57GPaul Molitor 19G
3BErnest Riles 65GPaul Molitor 41GJim Gantner 38G
1BGreg Brock 141GJim Paciorek 21GRob Deer 12G
STARTERSTeddy Higuera 6.7WARChris Bosio 3.7WARJuan Nieves 2.5WARBill Wegman 2.4WARMark Knudson 0.8WAR
CB.J. Surhoff 98GBill Schroeder 67GCharlie O'Brien 10G
DHCecil Cooper 62GPaul Molitor 58GBilly Jo Robidoux 10G
BULLPEN★ Dan Plesac 23svMark Clear 0hJay Aldrich 0hPaul Mirabella 0hRay Burris 0hJohn Henry Johnson 0hDave Stapleton 0hMark Ciardi 0h
CB.J. Surhoff 98 · Bill Schroeder 67 · Charlie O'Brien 10
1BGreg Brock 141 · Jim Paciorek 21 · Rob Deer 12
2BJuan Castillo 98 · Jim Gantner 57 · Paul Molitor 19
3BErnest Riles 65 · Paul Molitor 41 · Jim Gantner 38
SSDale Sveum 142 · Ernest Riles 21 · Juan Castillo 13
LFRob Deer 98 · Mike Felder 80 · Rick Manning 21
CFRobin Yount 150 · Mike Felder 22 · Rick Manning 8
RFGlenn Braggs 123 · Rick Manning 51 · Rob Deer 29
DHCecil Cooper 62 · Paul Molitor 58 · Billy Jo Robidoux 10
SPTeddy Higuera 6.7 · Chris Bosio 3.7 · Juan Nieves 2.5 · Bill Wegman 2.4 · Mark Knudson 0.8
BP★ Dan Plesac 23 · Mark Clear 0 · Jay Aldrich 0 · Paul Mirabella 0 · Ray Burris 0 · John Henry Johnson 0 · Dave Stapleton 0 · Mark Ciardi 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.

1987 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Teddy Higuera 29 pre-arb 356.7 0.3 +1.6
Paul Molitor 30 FA-elig 1186.0 1.3 +0.5
Chris Bosio 24 pre-arb 463.7 0.1 +1.0
Robin Yount 31 FA-elig 1583.2 1.1 -0.2
Juan Nieves 22 pre-arb 342.5 0.1 +0.6
B.J. Surhoff 22 pre-arb 1152.4 0.1 +0.6
Bill Wegman 24 pre-arb 342.4 0.1 +0.6
Bill Schroeder 28 arb 752.3 0.2 +0.5
Dan Plesac 25 pre-arb 572.3 0.2 +0.5
Rob Deer 26 arb 1342.2 0.2 +0.4
Greg Brock 30 arb 1411.7 0.4 +0.1
Glenn Braggs 24 pre-arb 1321.4 0.1 +0.3
Mark Knudson 26 pre-arb 150.8 0.1 +0.2
Dale Sveum 23 pre-arb 1530.8 0.1 +0.1
Chuck Crim 25 pre-arb 530.6 0.1 +0.1
Mike Felder 25 pre-arb 1080.6 0.1 +0.1
Dave Stapleton 25 – 40.5 – –
Jim Gantner 34 FA-elig 810.4 0.4 -0.3
Paul Mirabella 33 – 290.4 – –
Charlie O'Brien 27 – 100.4 – –
Len Barker 31 FA-elig 110.3 0.1 +0.0
John Henry Johnson 30 – 100.2 – –
Mike Birkbeck 26 pre-arb 100.1 0.1 -0.0
Mark Clear 31 FA-elig 580.1 0.7 -0.7
Jay Aldrich 26 pre-arb 31-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Steve Stanicek 26 – 4-0.0 – –
Alex Madrid 24 – 3-0.1 – –
Rick Manning 32 FA-elig 97-0.2 0.6 -0.6
Ray Burris 36 FA-elig 10-0.2 0.1 -0.2
Brad Komminsk 26 – 7-0.3 – –
Ernest Riles 26 pre-arb 83-0.3 0.2 -0.2
Mark Ciardi 25 – 4-0.3 – –
Jim Paciorek 27 – 48-0.4 – –
Juan Castillo 25 pre-arb 116-0.5 0.1 -0.2
Steve Kiefer 26 – 28-0.6 – –
Billy Jo Robidoux 23 – 23-0.7 – –
Cecil Cooper 37 FA-elig 63-0.8 0.5 -0.7

Key additions (new vs 1986)

PlayerfWAR
B.J. Surhoff2.4
Greg Brock1.7
Chuck Crim0.6
Dave Stapleton0.5
Paul Mirabella0.4
Charlie O'Brien0.4

Key subtractions (gone from 1986)

Player1986 fWAR
Tim Leary2.5
Danny Darwin1.9
Rick Cerone1.4
Charlie Moore1.2
Ben Oglivie0.4
Pete Vuckovich0.3

Current & Historical Payroll

1987 payroll
$7.1M

What the front office was committed to as of 1987, 1987–1993. 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 (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Paul Molitor309.000$1.3M$1.4M$2.1M$2.6M$3.2M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Robin Yount3113.000$1.1M$1.1M$1.1M$3.2M$3.2M$3.2M$2.7M
Mark Clear318.000$685k$535kFREE AGENT
Rick Manning3212.000$560kFREE AGENT
Cecil Cooper3716.000$493kFREE AGENT
Jim Gantner3411.000$375k$938k$900k$700k$1.0M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Ray Burris3614.000$100kFREE AGENT
Len Barker3111.000$72kFREE AGENT
John Henry Johnson309.000—FREE AGENT
Paul Mirabella339.000—$105k$230k$230kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (5)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Greg Brock305.000$405kFREE AGENT
Rob Deer263.000$225kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Schroeder284.000$185kARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Kiefer263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brad Komminsk264.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (22)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Teddy Higuera292.000$335kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dan Plesac251.000$180kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ernest Riles262.000$160kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Nieves221.000$115kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Wegman242.000$95kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dale Sveum231.000$92kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Castillo251.000$90kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Glenn Braggs241.000$80kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Felder252.000$75kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Birkbeck261.000$70kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Knudson262.000$70kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Bosio241.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jay Aldrich260.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chuck Crim250.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
B.J. Surhoff220.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Ciardi25–—
Alex Madrid24–—
Charlie O'Brien272.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Paciorek27–—
Billy Jo Robidoux23–—
Steve Stanicek26–—
Dave Stapleton250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Brewers 1987; 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.