RRosternomics
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Brewers MIL

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GM: Dean Taylor

Overview

REBUILD ↘ cooling
cheap & losing · year 10 in this regime · payroll 0.66× league · TAB -14.8
-14.8TAB — talent above budget27th/30
-20.5WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)29th/30
4.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars23rd/30
-10.8dead WAR — sub-replacement drag28th/30
54%dead money %27th/30
0.346win %28th/30
14.2roster fWAR29th/30
-16surplus $M (value vs cost)19th/30
$43Mpayroll $M23rd/30

Roster

CFAlex Sanchez 86GJeffrey Hammonds 78GRyan Christenson 16G
LFGeoff Jenkins 66GMatt Stairs 35GRyan Thompson 34G
RFJeffrey Hammonds 55GMatt Stairs 51GJim Rushford 21G
SSJosé Hernández 149GBill Hall 13G
2BEric Young Sr. 123GRonnie Belliard 49G
3BRonnie Belliard 42GKeith Ginter 25GLenny Harris 14G
1BRichie Sexson 154GLenny Harris 12GMark Loretta 5G
STARTERSBen Sheets 3.5WARGlendon Rusch 2.3WARBen Diggins -0.2WARNick Neugebauer -0.4WARRuben Quevedo -0.5WAR
CPaul Bako 76GRobert Machado 69GJorge Fabregas 52G
DHLenny Harris 2GEric Young Sr. 2GMark Loretta 1G
BULLPEN★ Mike DeJean 27svLuis Vizcaino 19hRay King 15hValerio De Los Santos 6hMike Matthews 4hJayson Durocher 3hMike Buddie 2hTakahito Nomura 2h
CPaul Bako 76 · Robert Machado 69 · Jorge Fabregas 52
1BRichie Sexson 154 · Lenny Harris 12 · Mark Loretta 5
2BEric Young Sr. 123 · Ronnie Belliard 49
3BRonnie Belliard 42 · Keith Ginter 25 · Lenny Harris 14
SSJosé Hernández 149 · Bill Hall 13
LFGeoff Jenkins 66 · Matt Stairs 35 · Ryan Thompson 34
CFAlex Sanchez 86 · Jeffrey Hammonds 78 · Ryan Christenson 16
RFJeffrey Hammonds 55 · Matt Stairs 51 · Jim Rushford 21
DHLenny Harris 2 · Eric Young Sr. 2 · Mark Loretta 1
SPBen Sheets 3.5 · Glendon Rusch 2.3 · Ben Diggins -0.2 · Nick Neugebauer -0.4 · Ruben Quevedo -0.5
BP★ Mike DeJean 27 · Luis Vizcaino 19 · Ray King 15 · Valerio De Los Santos 6 · Mike Matthews 4 · Jayson Durocher 3 · Mike Buddie 2 · Takahito Nomura 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.

2002 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
José Hernández 32 FA-elig 1524.5 3.3 +4.3
Ben Sheets 23 pre-arb 343.5 0.3 +5.7
Richie Sexson 27 arb 1572.9 3.1 +1.8
Glendon Rusch 27 arb 372.3 2.8 +1.1
Matt Stairs 34 FA-elig 1071.7 0.5 +2.5
Luis Vizcaino 27 arb 761.5 0.2 +2.3
Eric Young Sr. 35 FA-elig 1381.0 2.0 -0.2
Alex Ochoa↔ ANA 30 FA-elig 851.0 1.9 -0.3
Geoff Jenkins 27 arb 670.9 3.2 -1.6
Lenny Harris 37 FA-elig 1220.8 1.1 +0.3
Alex Sanchez 25 pre-arb 1120.7 0.2 +1.1
Tyler Houston↔ LAD 31 FA-elig 760.7 1.1 +0.1
Ray King 28 arb 760.5 0.3 +0.6
Ryan Thompson 34 – 620.5 – –
Jayson Durocher 27 – 390.4 – –
Valerio De Los Santos 29 – 510.4 – –
Mike DeJean 31 arb 680.4 1.4 -0.7
Wayne Franklin 28 – 40.4 – –
Keith Ginter↔ HOU 26 – 210.3 – –
Mark Loretta↔ HOU 30 FA-elig 860.2 4.0 -3.7
Robert Machado↔ CHC 29 FA-elig 510.2 0.2 +0.1
Everett Stull 30 – 20.1 – –
Ryan Christenson 28 – 220.0 – –
Shane Nance 24 – 4-0.0 – –
Chad Fox 31 arb 3-0.0 1.2 -1.2
Jeffrey Hammonds 31 FA-elig 128-0.0 7.5 -7.5
David Pember 24 – 4-0.1 – –
Jamey Wright↔ STL 27 FA-elig 19-0.1 3.5 -3.7
Mike Matthews↔ STL 28 pre-arb 4-0.1 0.0 -0.2
Luis Lopez↔ BAL 31 FA-elig 6-0.1 0.1 -0.3
Mike Buddie 31 arb 25-0.2 0.2 -0.5
Matt Childers 23 – 8-0.2 – –
Bill Hall 22 – 19-0.2 – –
Brian Mallette 27 – 5-0.2 – –
Ben Diggins 23 – 5-0.2 – –
Marcus Jensen 29 – 16-0.3 – –
Jimmy Osting 25 – 3-0.3 – –
Izzy Alcantara 29 – 16-0.3 – –
Paul Bako 30 arb 87-0.4 0.8 -1.4
Jorge Fabregas↔ ANA 32 FA-elig 30-0.4 0.2 -0.9
Nick Neugebauer 21 pre-arb 12-0.4 0.2 -0.9
Andrew Lorraine 29 – 5-0.4 – –
Takahito Nomura 33 pre-arb 21-0.5 0.4 -1.2
Ruben Quevedo 23 pre-arb 26-0.5 0.3 -1.1
Nelson Figueroa 28 – 30-0.6 – –
Jim Rushford 28 – 23-1.0 – –
Raul Casanova↔ BAL 29 FA-elig 31-1.0 0.8 -2.6
Jose Cabrera 30 arb 50-1.1 0.7 -2.7
Ronnie Belliard 27 arb 104-2.1 1.6 -5.3

Key additions (new vs 2001)

PlayerfWAR
Glendon Rusch2.3
Matt Stairs1.7
Luis Vizcaino1.5
Eric Young Sr.1.0
Alex Ochoa1.0
Lenny Harris0.8

Key subtractions (gone from 2001)

Player2001 fWAR
Jeromy Burnitz3.0
Jimmy Haynes1.7
David Weathers0.9
Devon White0.8
Henry Blanco0.5
Lou Collier0.3

Current & Historical Payroll

2002 payroll
$43.2M

What the front office was committed to as of 2002, 2002–2008. 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 (16)

PlayerAgeSvc2002200320042005200620072008
Jeffrey Hammonds319.000$7.5M$6.4MFREE AGENT
Mark Loretta307.000$4.0MFREE AGENT
Jamey Wright276.000$3.5MFREE AGENT
José Hernández3211.000$3.3MFREE AGENT
Eric Young Sr.3510.000$2.0M$1.6MFREE AGENT
Alex Ochoa307.000$1.9MFREE AGENT
Tyler Houston316.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Lenny Harris3714.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Raul Casanova296.000$798kFREE AGENT
Matt Stairs3410.000$500kFREE AGENT
Jorge Fabregas328.000$231kFREE AGENT
Robert Machado296.000$194kFREE AGENT
Luis Lopez319.000$72kFREE AGENT
Marcus Jensen296.000—FREE AGENT
Andrew Lorraine298.000—FREE AGENT
Ryan Thompson3410.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (13)

PlayerAgeSvc2002200320042005200620072008
Geoff Jenkins274.000$3.2MARB 3FREE AGENT
Richie Sexson275.000$3.1MFREE AGENT
Glendon Rusch275.000$2.8MFREE AGENT
Ronnie Belliard274.000$1.6MARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike DeJean315.000$1.4MFREE AGENT
Chad Fox315.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Paul Bako304.000$750kARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Cabrera305.000$705kFREE AGENT
Ray King283.000$300kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Buddie314.000$218kARB 3FREE AGENT
Luis Vizcaino273.000$212kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ryan Christenson284.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Valerio De Los Santos294.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (20)

PlayerAgeSvc2002200320042005200620072008
Takahito Nomura330.000$430kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ben Sheets231.000$290kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ruben Quevedo232.000$252kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alex Sanchez251.000$202kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nick Neugebauer211.000$202kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Matthews282.000$26kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Everett Stull30–—
Nelson Figueroa282.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Izzy Alcantara292.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jimmy Osting25–—
Wayne Franklin282.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jayson Durocher270.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Keith Ginter262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Childers23–—
Bill Hall220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Mallette27–—
Shane Nance240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
David Pember24–—
Ben Diggins23–—
Jim Rushford28–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Brewers 2002; 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.