RRosternomics
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Brewers MIL

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GM: Douglas Melvin

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 5 in this regime · payroll 0.98× league · TAB +5.2
+5.2TAB — talent above budget8th/30
+8.4WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)8th/30
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars7th/30
-2.1dead WAR — sub-replacement drag4th/30
44%dead money %22nd/30
0.556win %6th/30
39.1roster fWAR8th/30
+0surplus $M (value vs cost)9th/30
$86Mpayroll $M15th/30

2008: made playoffs · 90–72. Ranks are vs the 30 teams that season.

Roster

CFMike Cameron 119GGabe Kapler 36GTony Gwynn Jr. 7G
LFRyan Braun 149GGabe Kapler 17GJoe Dillon 2G
RFCorey Hart 156GGabe Kapler 14GTony Gwynn Jr. 2G
SSJ.J. Hardy 145GCraig Counsell 24GAlcides Escobar 2G
2BRickie Weeks Jr. 120GRay Durham 95GCraig Counsell 19G
3BBill Hall 113GMike Lamb 56GCraig Counsell 38G
1BPrince Fielder 155GRussell Branyan 5GJoe Dillon 4G
STARTERSCC Sabathia 5.0WARBen Sheets 4.3WARManny Parra 2.8WARDave Bush 1.0WARSeth McClung 0.9WAR
CJason Kendall 149GMike Rivera 17G
DHPrince Fielder 4GRyan Braun 1GTony Gwynn Jr. 1G
BULLPEN★ Salomon Torres 28svBrian Shouse 15hGuillermo Mota 11hDavid Riske 11hEric Gagne 7hMitch Stetter 4hTodd Coffey 1hMark DiFelice 1h
CJason Kendall 149 · Mike Rivera 17
1BPrince Fielder 155 · Russell Branyan 5 · Joe Dillon 4
2BRickie Weeks Jr. 120 · Ray Durham 95 · Craig Counsell 19
3BBill Hall 113 · Mike Lamb 56 · Craig Counsell 38
SSJ.J. Hardy 145 · Craig Counsell 24 · Alcides Escobar 2
LFRyan Braun 149 · Gabe Kapler 17 · Joe Dillon 2
CFMike Cameron 119 · Gabe Kapler 36 · Tony Gwynn Jr. 7
RFCorey Hart 156 · Gabe Kapler 14 · Tony Gwynn Jr. 2
DHPrince Fielder 4 · Ryan Braun 1 · Tony Gwynn Jr. 1
SPCC Sabathia 5.0 · Ben Sheets 4.3 · Manny Parra 2.8 · Dave Bush 1.0 · Seth McClung 0.9
BP★ Salomon Torres 28 · Brian Shouse 15 · Guillermo Mota 11 · David Riske 11 · Eric Gagne 7 · Mitch Stetter 4 · Todd Coffey 1 · Mark DiFelice 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
CC Sabathia↔ CLE 27 FA-elig 175.0 5.3 +6.0
Ryan Braun 24 pre-arb 1514.5 0.5 +9.9
Ben Sheets 29 FA-elig 314.3 12.1 -2.2
J.J. Hardy 25 arb 1464.0 2.6 +6.5
Mike Cameron 35 FA-elig 1204.0 6.2 +2.9
Manny Parra 25 pre-arb 322.8 0.4 +5.9
Rickie Weeks Jr. 25 arb 1292.0 1.1 +3.5
Jason Kendall 34 FA-elig 1511.7 4.2 -0.4
Gabe Kapler 32 FA-elig 961.7 0.8 +3.0
Prince Fielder 24 arb 1591.3 0.7 +2.3
Russell Branyan 32 – 501.3 – –
Ray Durham↔ SFG 36 FA-elig 411.1 2.4 +0.1
Dave Bush 28 arb 321.0 2.5 -0.4
Seth McClung 27 arb 370.9 0.8 +1.4
Corey Hart 26 arb 1570.8 0.4 +1.3
Craig Counsell 37 FA-elig 1100.7 2.8 -1.1
Bill Hall 28 FA-elig 1280.7 4.9 -3.3
Carlos Villanueva 24 pre-arb 470.7 0.4 +1.1
Yovani Gallardo 22 pre-arb 40.4 0.4 +0.5
Mike Rivera 31 FA-elig 210.4 0.4 +0.5
Brian Shouse 39 FA-elig 690.4 2.0 -1.1
Gabe Gross↔ TBR 28 arb 160.4 0.0 +0.8
Salomon Torres 36 FA-elig 710.3 3.3 -2.6
Todd Coffey↔ CIN 27 arb 90.2 0.3 +0.2
Julian Tavarez↔ ATL 35 FA-elig 70.1 0.5 -0.2
Mitch Stetter 27 – 300.1 – –
Tony Gwynn Jr. 25 pre-arb 290.1 0.4 -0.2
Alcides Escobar 21 – 90.1 – –
Guillermo Mota 34 FA-elig 580.1 3.2 -3.0
Brad Nelson 25 – 90.1 – –
Mat Gamel 22 – 20.1 – –
Mark DiFelice 31 – 150.0 – –
Jeff Suppan 33 FA-elig 330.0 8.2 -8.2
Zach Jackson↔ CLE 25 – 20.0 – –
Joe Dillon 32 arb 56-0.0 0.4 -0.4
Vinny Rottino 28 – 1-0.0 – –
Hernan Iribarren 24 – 12-0.0 – –
Tim Dillard 24 – 13-0.1 – –
Angel Salome 22 – 3-0.1 – –
Mike Lamb↔ MIN 32 FA-elig 11-0.1 0.4 -0.6
Laynce Nix 27 – 10-0.1 0.5 -0.7
Derrick Turnbow 30 FA-elig 8-0.4 3.4 -4.2
David Riske 31 FA-elig 45-0.4 4.0 -5.0
Eric Gagne 32 FA-elig 50-0.9 10.0 -12.1

Key additions (new vs 2007)

PlayerfWAR
CC Sabathia5.0
Mike Cameron4.0
Jason Kendall1.7
Gabe Kapler1.7
Russell Branyan1.3
Ray Durham1.1

Key subtractions (gone from 2007)

Player2007 fWAR
Francisco Cordero2.4
Chris Capuano2.2
Geoff Jenkins1.2
Kevin Mench1.1
Tony Graffanino0.8
Matt Wise0.7

Current & Historical Payroll

2008 payroll
$85.8M

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 (19)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
Ben Sheets297.000$12.1MFREE AGENT
Eric Gagne329.000$10.0MFREE AGENT
Jeff Suppan3313.000$8.2M$12.8M$6.4MFREE AGENT
Mike Cameron3513.000$6.2M$10.0MFREE AGENT
CC Sabathia277.000$5.3MFREE AGENT
Bill Hall286.000$4.9M$4.8MFREE AGENT
Jason Kendall3412.000$4.2M$5.0MFREE AGENT
David Riske319.000$4.0M$4.2M$4.5MFREE AGENT
Derrick Turnbow308.000$3.4MFREE AGENT
Salomon Torres3615.000$3.3MFREE AGENT
Guillermo Mota349.000$3.2MFREE AGENT
Craig Counsell3713.000$2.8M$1.0M$2.1M$1.4MFREE AGENT
Ray Durham3613.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
Brian Shouse3915.000$2.0MFREE AGENT
Gabe Kapler3210.000$800kFREE AGENT
Julian Tavarez3515.000$518kFREE AGENT
Mike Lamb328.000$418kFREE AGENT
Mike Rivera317.000$395k$415kFREE AGENT
Russell Branyan3210.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (10)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
J.J. Hardy253.000$2.6MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Dave Bush284.000$2.5MARB 3FREE AGENT
Rickie Weeks Jr.255.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Seth McClung275.000$750kFREE AGENT
Prince Fielder243.000$670kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Laynce Nix275.000$475kFREE AGENT
Corey Hart264.000$444kARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Dillon323.000$393kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Coffey273.000$314kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Gabe Gross284.000$46kARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (15)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
Ryan Braun241.000$455kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Carlos Villanueva242.000$413kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Yovani Gallardo221.000$404kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Gwynn Jr.252.000$398kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Manny Parra251.000$392kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brad Nelson250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Zach Jackson252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark DiFelice310.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Alcides Escobar210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Angel Salome22–—
Mitch Stetter271.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mat Gamel220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Hernan Iribarren240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Vinny Rottino280.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Dillard240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

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