RRosternomics
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Athletics OAK

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GM: Billy Beane

Overview

WINDOW ↘ cooling
cheap & winning · year 5 in this regime · payroll 0.74× league · TAB +4.5
+4.5TAB — talent above budget12th/30
+17.9WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)1st/30
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars12th/30
-5.6dead WAR — sub-replacement drag17th/30
50%dead money %28th/30
0.593win %4th/30
35.0roster fWAR14th/30
+6surplus $M (value vs cost)6th/30
$51Mpayroll $M21st/30

2003: made playoffs · 96–66. Ranks are vs the 30 teams that season.

Roster

CFChris Singleton 102GEric Byrnes 82GJose Guillen 5G
LFTerrence Long 75GEric Byrnes 44GBilly McMillon 35G
RFJose Guillen 96GTerrence Long 74GJermaine Dye 60G
SSMiguel Tejada 162GBobby Crosby 9GFrank Menechino 3G
2BMark Ellis 153GFrank Menechino 22GEsteban German 5G
3BEric Chavez 154GFrank Menechino 19GAdam Melhuse 2G
1BScott Hatteberg 128GErubiel Durazo 33GGraham Koonce 5G
STARTERSTim Hudson 5.9WARMark Mulder 4.5WARBarry Zito 4.3WARTed Lilly 3.0WARRich Harden 1.4WAR
CRamon Hernandez 139GAdam Melhuse 33GMark Johnson 13G
DHErubiel Durazo 120GScott Hatteberg 13GBilly McMillon 8G
BULLPEN★ Keith Foulke 43svChad Bradford 23hRicardo Rincon 13hJim Mecir 12hJeremy Fikac 2hSteve Sparks 0hMike Neu 0hChad Harville 0h
CRamon Hernandez 139 · Adam Melhuse 33 · Mark Johnson 13
1BScott Hatteberg 128 · Erubiel Durazo 33 · Graham Koonce 5
2BMark Ellis 153 · Frank Menechino 22 · Esteban German 5
3BEric Chavez 154 · Frank Menechino 19 · Adam Melhuse 2
SSMiguel Tejada 162 · Bobby Crosby 9 · Frank Menechino 3
LFTerrence Long 75 · Eric Byrnes 44 · Billy McMillon 35
CFChris Singleton 102 · Eric Byrnes 82 · Jose Guillen 5
RFJose Guillen 96 · Terrence Long 74 · Jermaine Dye 60
DHErubiel Durazo 120 · Scott Hatteberg 13 · Billy McMillon 8
SPTim Hudson 5.9 · Mark Mulder 4.5 · Barry Zito 4.3 · Ted Lilly 3.0 · Rich Harden 1.4
BP★ Keith Foulke 43 · Chad Bradford 23 · Ricardo Rincon 13 · Jim Mecir 12 · Jeremy Fikac 2 · Steve Sparks 0 · Mike Neu 0 · Chad Harville 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.

2003 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Tim Hudson 27 arb 345.9 2.7 +7.7
Mark Mulder 25 arb 264.5 2.6 +5.3
Barry Zito 25 arb 354.3 1.0 +6.7
Eric Chavez 25 arb 1564.1 3.7 +3.6
Miguel Tejada 29 FA-elig 1623.4 5.1 +0.8
Ramon Hernandez 27 arb 1403.3 1.9 +4.0
Ted Lilly 27 arb 323.0 0.3 +5.1
Keith Foulke 30 FA-elig 721.8 6.0 -2.9
Mark Ellis 26 pre-arb 1541.6 0.3 +2.6
Erubiel Durazo 29 arb 1541.6 1.1 +1.8
Eric Byrnes 27 arb 1211.5 0.3 +2.4
Rich Harden 21 – 151.4 – –
Adam Melhuse 31 – 400.9 – –
Billy McMillon 31 – 660.8 – –
Chad Bradford 28 arb 720.6 0.3 +0.7
Justin Duchscherer 25 – 40.5 – –
Jose Guillen↔ CIN 27 – 450.3 – –
Aaron Harang↔ CIN 25 – 70.3 – –
Ricardo Rincon 33 FA-elig 640.3 1.7 -1.2
Mike Wood 23 – 70.1 – –
Frank Menechino 32 arb 430.1 0.3 -0.2
Scott Hatteberg 33 FA-elig 1470.1 1.8 -1.6
John Halama 31 arb 350.1 0.8 -0.6
Jim Mecir 33 FA-elig 410.1 3.2 -3.1
Adam Piatt↔ TBR 27 arb 470.1 0.2 -0.2
Steve Sparks↔ DET 38 FA-elig 90.0 0.8 -0.7
Micah Bowie 28 arb 60.0 0.3 -0.2
Mike Neu 25 pre-arb 320.0 0.3 -0.3
Mike Edwards 26 – 4-0.0 – –
Dave McCarty↔ BOS 33 – 8-0.1 – –
Graham Koonce 28 – 6-0.1 – –
Mark Johnson 27 arb 13-0.1 0.5 -0.7
Jason Grabowski 27 – 8-0.1 – –
Esteban German 25 – 5-0.2 – –
Chad Harville 26 – 21-0.2 – –
Terrence Long 27 arb 140-0.3 2.2 -2.7
Chris Singleton 30 arb 120-0.5 1.2 -2.2
Bobby Crosby 23 – 11-0.5 – –
Jeremy Fikac 28 pre-arb 14-0.6 0.3 -1.4
Ron Gant 38 FA-elig 17-0.6 0.3 -1.4
Jermaine Dye 29 FA-elig 65-2.2 11.7 -15.6

Key additions (new vs 2002)

PlayerfWAR
Keith Foulke1.8
Erubiel Durazo1.6
Rich Harden1.4
Adam Melhuse0.9
Billy McMillon0.8
Justin Duchscherer0.5

Key subtractions (gone from 2002)

Player2002 fWAR
Cory Lidle3.7
John Mabry1.6
Billy Koch1.3
Ray Durham1.3
Greg Myers0.8
Olmedo Saenz0.7

Current & Historical Payroll

2003 payroll
$51.0M

What the front office was committed to as of 2003, 2003–2009. 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 (11)

PlayerAgeSvc2003200420052006200720082009
Jermaine Dye297.000$11.7M$11.7MFREE AGENT
Keith Foulke306.000$6.0MFREE AGENT$700k
Miguel Tejada296.000$5.1MFREE AGENT
Jim Mecir338.000$3.2M$3.3MFREE AGENT
Scott Hatteberg338.000$1.8M$2.3M$2.5MFREE AGENT
Ricardo Rincon336.000$1.7M$1.8M$1.9MFREE AGENT
Steve Sparks388.000$794kFREE AGENT
Ron Gant3816.000$350kFREE AGENT
Jose Guillen276.000—FREE AGENT
Dave McCarty3310.000—FREE AGENT
Billy McMillon317.000—$450kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (18)

PlayerAgeSvc2003200420052006200720082009
Eric Chavez255.000$3.7MFREE AGENT
Tim Hudson274.000$2.7MARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Mulder253.000$2.6MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terrence Long274.000$2.2MARB 3FREE AGENT
Ramon Hernandez274.000$1.9MARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Singleton304.000$1.2MARB 3FREE AGENT
Erubiel Durazo294.000$1.1MARB 3FREE AGENT
Barry Zito253.000$1.0MARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Halama315.000$750kFREE AGENT
Mark Johnson275.000$500kFREE AGENT
Ted Lilly274.000$335kARB 3FREE AGENT
Frank Menechino324.000$334kARB 3FREE AGENT
Chad Bradford285.000$331kFREE AGENT
Micah Bowie284.000$304kARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Byrnes273.000$300kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Adam Piatt273.000$248kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chad Harville264.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Adam Melhuse313.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (12)

PlayerAgeSvc2003200420052006200720082009
Jeremy Fikac282.000$316kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Ellis261.000$308kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Neu250.000$300kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Grabowski271.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Justin Duchscherer252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Esteban German251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Aaron Harang251.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Graham Koonce28–—
Rich Harden210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bobby Crosby230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Edwards26–—
Mike Wood230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Athletics 2003; 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.