RRosternomics
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Athletics OAK

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GM: Billy Beane

Overview

WINDOW ↗ rising
cheap & winning · year 4 in this regime · payroll 0.63× league · TAB +18.6
+18.6TAB — talent above budget1st/30
+27.0WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)1st/30
9.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars6th/30
-1.6dead WAR — sub-replacement drag2nd/30
30%dead money %15th/30
0.636win %2nd/30
47.2roster fWAR6th/30
+32surplus $M (value vs cost)1st/30
$42Mpayroll $M25th/30

2002: made playoffs · 103–59. Ranks are vs the 30 teams that season.

Roster

CFTerrence Long 162GEric Byrnes 10GMike Colangelo 1G
LFDavid Justice 53GEric Byrnes 52GAdam Piatt 40G
RFJermaine Dye 111GDavid Justice 23GEric Byrnes 22G
SSMiguel Tejada 162GMark Ellis 8GFrank Menechino 2G
2BRay Durham 103GMark Ellis 85GRandy Velarde 38G
3BEric Chavez 143GOlmedo Saenz 15GMark Ellis 7G
1BScott Hatteberg 91GJohn Mabry 51GOlmedo Saenz 34G
STARTERSTim Hudson 4.8WARBarry Zito 4.5WARMark Mulder 3.8WARCory Lidle 3.7WARAaron Harang 1.1WAR
CRamon Hernandez 135GGreg Myers 53GCody McKay 1G
DHRay Durham 43GScott Hatteberg 41GDavid Justice 36G
BULLPEN★ Billy Koch 44svRicardo Rincon 27hChad Bradford 24hJim Mecir 21hMike Venafro 15hJeff Tam 3hMike Magnante 3hMike Fyhrie 1h
CRamon Hernandez 135 · Greg Myers 53 · Cody McKay 1
1BScott Hatteberg 91 · John Mabry 51 · Olmedo Saenz 34
2BRay Durham 103 · Mark Ellis 85 · Randy Velarde 38
3BEric Chavez 143 · Olmedo Saenz 15 · Mark Ellis 7
SSMiguel Tejada 162 · Mark Ellis 8 · Frank Menechino 2
LFDavid Justice 53 · Eric Byrnes 52 · Adam Piatt 40
CFTerrence Long 162 · Eric Byrnes 10 · Mike Colangelo 1
RFJermaine Dye 111 · David Justice 23 · Eric Byrnes 22
DHRay Durham 43 · Scott Hatteberg 41 · David Justice 36
SPTim Hudson 4.8 · Barry Zito 4.5 · Mark Mulder 3.8 · Cory Lidle 3.7 · Aaron Harang 1.1
BP★ Billy Koch 44 · Ricardo Rincon 27 · Chad Bradford 24 · Jim Mecir 21 · Mike Venafro 15 · Jeff Tam 3 · Mike Magnante 3 · Mike Fyhrie 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.

2002 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Eric Chavez 24 arb 1535.7 2.1 +7.7
Tim Hudson 26 arb 344.8 0.9 +7.4
Miguel Tejada 28 arb 1624.5 3.6 +4.1
Barry Zito 24 pre-arb 354.5 0.3 +7.3
Mark Mulder 24 pre-arb 303.8 0.8 +5.8
Cory Lidle 30 arb 313.7 2.5 +3.8
Scott Hatteberg 32 FA-elig 1363.2 0.9 +4.6
Mark Ellis 25 – 982.7 – –
Chad Bradford 27 arb 752.0 0.2 +3.2
Ramon Hernandez 26 arb 1361.9 0.5 +2.7
John Mabry↔ PHI 31 FA-elig 891.6 0.4 +2.4
Billy Koch 27 arb 841.3 2.4 -0.1
Ray Durham↔ CHW 30 FA-elig 541.3 2.3 -0.1
Aaron Harang 24 – 161.1 – –
Greg Myers 36 FA-elig 650.8 0.8 +0.6
Ricardo Rincon↔ CLE 32 arb 250.8 0.5 +0.8
Jim Mecir 32 FA-elig 610.7 2.4 -1.1
Olmedo Saenz 31 FA-elig 680.7 0.8 +0.4
Mike Fyhrie 32 – 160.7 – –
Terrence Long 26 arb 1620.6 0.7 +0.3
David Justice 36 FA-elig 1180.6 7.0 -6.0
Frank Menechino 31 arb 380.5 0.3 +0.5
Adam Piatt 26 – 550.3 – –
Jeremy Giambi↔ PHI 27 arb 420.2 0.4 +0.0
Jermaine Dye 28 FA-elig 1310.2 7.2 -6.8
Jeff Tam 31 arb 400.2 0.7 -0.4
Jason Grabowski 26 – 40.2 – –
Ted Lilly↔ NYY 26 arb 60.1 0.1 +0.2
Mike Magnante 37 FA-elig 320.1 1.2 -1.1
Cody McKay 28 – 20.1 – –
Eric Byrnes 26 – 900.0 – –
Carlos Pena↔ DET 24 pre-arb 400.0 0.1 +0.0
Micah Bowie 27 – 130.0 – –
Randy Velarde 39 FA-elig 56-0.0 1.0 -1.0
Jose Flores 29 – 7-0.0 – –
Larry Sutton 32 – 7-0.1 – –
Erik Hiljus 29 arb 9-0.2 0.2 -0.6
Mike Colangelo 25 arb 20-0.3 0.3 -0.8
Mike Venafro 28 arb 47-0.3 0.8 -1.3
Mike Holtz↔ SDP 29 FA-elig 16-0.3 0.3 -0.8
Esteban German 24 – 9-0.3 – –

Key additions (new vs 2001)

PlayerfWAR
Scott Hatteberg3.2
Mark Ellis2.7
John Mabry1.6
Billy Koch1.3
Ray Durham1.3
Aaron Harang1.1

Key subtractions (gone from 2001)

Player2001 fWAR
Jason Giambi9.2
Johnny Damon1.9
Jason Isringhausen1.8
Mark Guthrie0.3
F.P. Santangelo0.2
Billy McMillon0.2

Current & Historical Payroll

2002 payroll
$41.7M

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 (12)

PlayerAgeSvc2002200320042005200620072008
Jermaine Dye286.000$7.2M$11.7M$11.7MFREE AGENT
David Justice3613.000$7.0MFREE AGENT
Jim Mecir327.000$2.4M$3.2M$3.3MFREE AGENT
Ray Durham307.000$2.3MFREE AGENT
Mike Magnante3711.000$1.2MFREE AGENT
Randy Velarde3915.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Scott Hatteberg327.000$900k$1.8M$2.3M$2.5MFREE AGENT
Olmedo Saenz318.000$800kFREE AGENT
Greg Myers3615.000$800kFREE AGENT
John Mabry318.000$405kFREE AGENT
Mike Holtz296.000$269kFREE AGENT
Mike Fyhrie326.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (18)

PlayerAgeSvc2002200320042005200620072008
Miguel Tejada285.000$3.6MFREE AGENT
Cory Lidle305.000$2.5MFREE AGENT
Billy Koch273.000$2.4MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Chavez244.000$2.1MARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Hudson263.000$875kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Venafro283.000$812kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Tam314.000$700kARB 3FREE AGENT
Terrence Long263.000$675kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ricardo Rincon325.000$528kFREE AGENT
Ramon Hernandez263.000$498kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeremy Giambi274.000$361kARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Colangelo253.000$300kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Frank Menechino313.000$295kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Erik Hiljus293.000$238kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chad Bradford274.000$235kARB 3FREE AGENT
Ted Lilly263.000$65kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Larry Sutton325.000—FREE AGENT
Micah Bowie273.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (11)

PlayerAgeSvc2002200320042005200620072008
Mark Mulder242.000$800kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Barry Zito242.000$295kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Carlos Pena241.000$70kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jose Flores29–—
Cody McKay280.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Adam Piatt262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Grabowski260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Byrnes262.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Esteban German240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Ellis250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Aaron Harang240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

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