Rosternomics
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Brewers MIL

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GM: Douglas Melvin (since 2003)

2008 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+8.3
WAB — wins above budget
+5.1
TAB — roster Talent above budget
90–72 (0.556)
record · made playoffs
+0M
surplus $M (value/$)
39.1
roster fWAR
$85.3M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
CC Sabathia↔ CLE 27 FA-elig 17 5.0 5.3 +5.9
Ryan Braun 24 pre-arb 151 4.5 0.5 +9.8
Ben Sheets 29 FA-elig 31 4.3 12.1 -2.3
J.J. Hardy 25 arb 146 4.0 2.6 +6.4
Mike Cameron 35 FA-elig 120 4.0 6.2 +2.8
Manny Parra 25 pre-arb 32 2.8 0.4 +5.9
Rickie Weeks Jr. 25 arb 129 2.0 1.1 +3.5
Jason Kendall 34 FA-elig 151 1.7 4.2 -0.5
Gabe Kapler 32 FA-elig 96 1.7 0.8 +3.0
Prince Fielder 24 arb 159 1.3 0.7 +2.2
Russell Branyan 32 – 50 1.3 – –
Ray Durham↔ SFG 36 FA-elig 41 1.1 2.4 +0.1
Dave Bush 28 arb 32 1.0 2.5 -0.4
Seth McClung 27 arb 37 0.9 0.8 +1.4
Corey Hart 26 arb 157 0.8 0.4 +1.3
Craig Counsell 37 FA-elig 110 0.7 2.8 -1.2
Bill Hall 28 FA-elig 128 0.7 4.9 -3.4
Carlos Villanueva 24 pre-arb 47 0.7 0.4 +1.1
Yovani Gallardo 22 pre-arb 4 0.4 0.4 +0.5
Mike Rivera 31 FA-elig 21 0.4 0.4 +0.5
Brian Shouse 39 FA-elig 69 0.4 2.0 -1.1
Gabe Gross↔ TBR 28 arb 16 0.4 0.0 +0.8
Salomon Torres 36 FA-elig 71 0.3 3.3 -2.6
Todd Coffey↔ CIN 27 arb 9 0.2 0.3 +0.2
Julian Tavarez↔ ATL 35 FA-elig 7 0.1 0.5 -0.2
Mitch Stetter 27 – 30 0.1 – –
Tony Gwynn Jr. 25 pre-arb 29 0.1 0.4 -0.2
Alcides Escobar 21 – 9 0.1 – –
Guillermo Mota 34 FA-elig 58 0.1 3.2 -3.0
Brad Nelson 25 – 9 0.1 – –
Mat Gamel 22 – 2 0.1 – –
Mark DiFelice 31 – 15 0.0 – –
Jeff Suppan 33 FA-elig 33 0.0 8.2 -8.2
Zach Jackson↔ CLE 25 – 2 0.0 – –
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 – –
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 -12.0

44 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 32 of them (73%). Players without a salary show "–" — no single historical salary source is fully complete (especially 2020–2022).

WAR = FanGraphs (fWAR). Green = produced more value than paid (bargain); red = paid more than produced. Service: pre-arb (<3 yr) / arb (3–6) / FA-eligible (6+). Click headers to sort.

History: front-office performance & develop-vs-buy (1985–2024)

Trade ledger (realized WAR, all-time)

Best acquisitions
PlayerYearWAR for MIL
Christian Yelich201828.6
Freddy Peralta201517.3
Jeromy Burnitz199617.1
William Contreras202216.4
José Valentín19929.9
Josh Hader20158.8
Chris Capuano20038.5
Rob Deer19857.9
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Michael Brantley200820.0
Kevin Bass198217.5
José Valentín200017.3
Drew Rasmussen20219.1
Danny Darwin19868.0
Brett Lawrie20107.7
Khris Davis20167.4
Fernando Viña19996.7
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.