RRosternomics
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Brewers MIL

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GM: Harry Dalton

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 0.79× league · TAB +2.4
+2.4TAB — talent above budget12th/26
+8.1WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)6th/26
5.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars21st/26
-3.9dead WAR — sub-replacement drag11th/26
27%dead money %9th/26
0.537win %8th/26
33.8roster fWAR14th/26
+1surplus $M (value vs cost)8th/26
$9Mpayroll $M21st/26

Roster

CFRobin Yount 158GMike Felder 11GDarryl Hamilton 6G
LFJeffrey Leonard 134GRob Deer 54GJim Adduci 16G
RFRob Deer 79GGlenn Braggs 54GMike Young 40G
SSDale Sveum 127GGary Sheffield 24GJuan Castillo 13G
2BJim Gantner 154GJuan Castillo 18GSteve Kiefer 4G
3BPaul Molitor 105GB.J. Surhoff 31GJuan Castillo 17G
1BGreg Brock 114GJoey Meyer 33GBilly Jo Robidoux 30G
STARTERSTeddy Higuera 5.9WARChris Bosio 3.0WARDon August 1.7WARMike Birkbeck 1.7WARBill Wegman 1.4WAR
CB.J. Surhoff 106GCharlie O'Brien 40GBill Schroeder 30G
DHJoey Meyer 65GPaul Molitor 49GGlenn Braggs 18G
BULLPEN★ Dan Plesac 30svChuck Crim 0hPaul Mirabella 0hOdell Jones 0hMark Clear 0hDave Stapleton 0hMark Knudson 0h
CB.J. Surhoff 106 · Charlie O'Brien 40 · Bill Schroeder 30
1BGreg Brock 114 · Joey Meyer 33 · Billy Jo Robidoux 30
2BJim Gantner 154 · Juan Castillo 18 · Steve Kiefer 4
3BPaul Molitor 105 · B.J. Surhoff 31 · Juan Castillo 17
SSDale Sveum 127 · Gary Sheffield 24 · Juan Castillo 13
LFJeffrey Leonard 134 · Rob Deer 54 · Jim Adduci 16
CFRobin Yount 158 · Mike Felder 11 · Darryl Hamilton 6
RFRob Deer 79 · Glenn Braggs 54 · Mike Young 40
DHJoey Meyer 65 · Paul Molitor 49 · Glenn Braggs 18
SPTeddy Higuera 5.9 · Chris Bosio 3.0 · Don August 1.7 · Mike Birkbeck 1.7 · Bill Wegman 1.4
BP★ Dan Plesac 30 · Chuck Crim 0 · Paul Mirabella 0 · Odell Jones 0 · Mark Clear 0 · Dave Stapleton 0 · Mark Knudson 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.

1988 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Teddy Higuera 30 arb 315.9 1.0 +0.8
Robin Yount 32 FA-elig 1625.5 1.1 +0.6
Paul Molitor 31 FA-elig 1545.3 1.4 +0.3
Chris Bosio 25 pre-arb 383.0 0.1 +0.8
Rob Deer 27 arb 1352.5 0.5 +0.3
Jim Gantner 35 FA-elig 1552.0 0.9 -0.3
Dan Plesac 26 pre-arb 501.9 0.3 +0.3
Mike Birkbeck 27 pre-arb 231.7 0.1 +0.5
Don August 24 pre-arb 241.7 0.1 +0.5
Bill Wegman 25 arb 331.4 0.2 +0.3
Glenn Braggs 25 pre-arb 721.1 0.1 +0.2
Tom Filer 31 – 191.1 – –
B.J. Surhoff 23 pre-arb 1390.8 0.1 +0.1
Dale Sveum 24 pre-arb 1290.7 0.2 +0.0
Greg Brock 31 FA-elig 1150.6 0.6 -0.4
Paul Mirabella 34 FA-elig 380.5 0.1 +0.1
Joey Meyer 26 pre-arb 1030.5 0.1 +0.1
Juan Nieves 23 pre-arb 250.5 0.2 -0.0
Steve Kiefer 27 – 70.2 – –
Odell Jones 35 FA-elig 280.2 0.1 -0.0
Chuck Crim 26 pre-arb 700.2 0.1 -0.0
Charlie O'Brien 28 arb 400.2 0.1 -0.0
Mark Knudson 27 – 50.1 – –
Gary Sheffield 19 – 240.0 – –
Jim Adduci 28 arb 44-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Juan Castillo 26 pre-arb 54-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Darryl Hamilton 23 – 44-0.1 – –
Dave Stapleton 26 pre-arb 6-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Ernest Riles↔ SFG 27 arb 41-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Bill Schroeder 29 arb 41-0.2 0.4 -0.4
Mark Clear 32 FA-elig 25-0.2 0.5 -0.6
Mike Young↔ PHI 28 FA-elig 8-0.3 0.0 -0.1
Billy Jo Robidoux 24 – 33-0.4 – –
Mike Felder 26 arb 50-0.9 0.1 -0.4
Jeffrey Leonard↔ SFG 32 FA-elig 94-1.2 0.6 -1.0

Key additions (new vs 1987)

PlayerfWAR
Don August1.7
Tom Filer1.1
Joey Meyer0.5
Odell Jones0.2
Gary Sheffield0.0
Jim Adduci-0.0

Key subtractions (gone from 1987)

Player1987 fWAR
Len Barker0.3
John Henry Johnson0.2
Jay Aldrich-0.0
Steve Stanicek-0.0
Alex Madrid-0.1
Rick Manning-0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

1988 payroll
$9.3M

What the front office was committed to as of 1988, 1988–1994. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Paul Molitor3110.000$1.4M$2.1M$2.6M$3.2M$3.5MFREE AGENT
Robin Yount3214.000$1.1M$1.1M$3.2M$3.2M$3.2M$2.7MFREE AGENT
Jim Gantner3512.000$938k$900k$700k$1.0M$1.1MFREE AGENT
Jeffrey Leonard3211.000$613kFREE AGENT
Greg Brock316.000$600k$700k$788k$938kFREE AGENT
Mark Clear329.000$535kFREE AGENT
Paul Mirabella3410.000$105k$230k$230kFREE AGENT
Odell Jones3513.000$90kFREE AGENT
Mike Young286.000$38kFREE AGENT
Tom Filer316.000—$125k$255kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Teddy Higuera303.000$1.0MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rob Deer274.000$460kARB 3FREE AGENT
Bill Schroeder295.000$372kFREE AGENT
Bill Wegman253.000$175kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Felder263.000$102kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ernest Riles273.000$85kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Adduci285.000$72kFREE AGENT
Charlie O'Brien283.000$70kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Kiefer274.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Knudson273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (15)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Dan Plesac262.000$275kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Nieves232.000$195kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dale Sveum242.000$185kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
B.J. Surhoff231.000$122kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Glenn Braggs252.000$122kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Bosio252.000$107kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chuck Crim261.000$101kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Juan Castillo262.000$90kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Birkbeck272.000$70kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Stapleton261.000$65kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Don August240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joey Meyer260.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Darryl Hamilton230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Billy Jo Robidoux24–—
Gary Sheffield190.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Brewers 1988; 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.