RRosternomics
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Athletics OAK

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GM: Billy Beane

Overview

WINDOW ↘ cooling
cheap & winning · year 6 in this regime · payroll 0.91× league · TAB +5.2
+5.2TAB — talent above budget11th/30
+10.3WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)4th/30
9.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars5th/30
-4.7dead WAR — sub-replacement drag15th/30
9%dead money %3rd/30
0.562win %9th/30
38.3roster fWAR13th/30
+6surplus $M (value vs cost)8th/30
$60Mpayroll $M15th/30

Roster

CFMark Kotsay 145GEric Byrnes 33GNick Swisher 1G
LFEric Byrnes 109GBobby Kielty 51GBilly McMillon 20G
RFJermaine Dye 134GBobby Kielty 21GEric Byrnes 20G
SSBobby Crosby 151GMarco Scutaro 16GRamon Castro 1G
2BMarco Scutaro 123GMark McLemore 47GEsteban German 10G
3BEric Chavez 125GMark McLemore 27GEsteban German 15G
1BScott Hatteberg 148GEric Karros 22GErubiel Durazo 4G
STARTERSTim Hudson 4.6WARRich Harden 4.1WARBarry Zito 3.0WARMark Mulder 2.4WARMark Redman 1.3WAR
CDamian Miller 109GAdam Melhuse 64GMike Rose 2G
DHErubiel Durazo 125GEric Karros 10GBobby Kielty 9G
BULLPEN★ Octavio Dotel 36svJim Mecir 21hRicardo Rincon 18hChad Bradford 14hJustin Duchscherer 6hJustin Lehr 5hChris Hammond 3hArthur Rhodes 3h
CDamian Miller 109 · Adam Melhuse 64 · Mike Rose 2
1BScott Hatteberg 148 · Eric Karros 22 · Erubiel Durazo 4
2BMarco Scutaro 123 · Mark McLemore 47 · Esteban German 10
3BEric Chavez 125 · Mark McLemore 27 · Esteban German 15
SSBobby Crosby 151 · Marco Scutaro 16 · Ramon Castro 1
LFEric Byrnes 109 · Bobby Kielty 51 · Billy McMillon 20
CFMark Kotsay 145 · Eric Byrnes 33 · Nick Swisher 1
RFJermaine Dye 134 · Bobby Kielty 21 · Eric Byrnes 20
DHErubiel Durazo 125 · Eric Karros 10 · Bobby Kielty 9
SPTim Hudson 4.6 · Rich Harden 4.1 · Barry Zito 3.0 · Mark Mulder 2.4 · Mark Redman 1.3
BP★ Octavio Dotel 36 · Jim Mecir 21 · Ricardo Rincon 18 · Chad Bradford 14 · Justin Duchscherer 6 · Justin Lehr 5 · Chris Hammond 3 · Arthur Rhodes 3

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.

2004 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Eric Chavez 26 FA-elig 1255.3 5.3 +3.8
Tim Hudson 28 arb 274.6 5.0 +2.9
Rich Harden 22 – 314.1 0.3 +6.7
Mark Kotsay 28 FA-elig 1484.0 5.5 +1.4
Eric Byrnes 28 arb 1433.6 0.3 +5.8
Erubiel Durazo 30 arb 1423.1 2.1 +3.2
Barry Zito 26 arb 343.0 3.0 +2.2
Bobby Crosby 24 pre-arb 1512.6 0.3 +4.2
Mark Mulder 26 arb 332.4 4.5 -0.3
Jermaine Dye 30 FA-elig 1371.8 11.7 -8.5
Damian Miller 34 FA-elig 1101.7 3.0 -0.1
Mark Redman 30 arb 321.3 2.0 +0.3
Scott Hatteberg 34 FA-elig 1521.2 2.3 -0.2
Adam Melhuse 32 arb 691.0 0.4 +1.3
Ricardo Rincon 34 FA-elig 670.9 1.8 -0.2
Octavio Dotel↔ HOU 30 arb 450.8 1.6 -0.2
Chris Hammond 38 FA-elig 410.6 2.4 -1.3
Jim Mecir 34 FA-elig 650.6 3.3 -2.3
Chad Bradford 29 FA-elig 680.1 1.0 -0.7
Joe Blanton 23 – 30.1 – –
Chad Harville↔ HOU 27 arb 30.0 0.0 -0.0
Bobby Kielty 27 arb 83-0.0 0.3 -0.4
Justin Duchscherer 26 arb 53-0.0 0.3 -0.3
Marco Scutaro 28 pre-arb 137-0.0 0.3 -0.4
Justin Lehr 26 – 27-0.0 – –
Mike Rose 27 – 2-0.0 – –
Nick Swisher 23 – 20-0.0 – –
Kirk Saarloos 25 – 6-0.1 – –
Ramon Castro 24 – 9-0.3 – –
Santiago Casilla 23 – 4-0.3 – –
Esteban German 26 pre-arb 31-0.3 0.3 -0.9
Mark McLemore 39 FA-elig 77-0.6 0.6 -1.6
Arthur Rhodes 34 FA-elig 37-0.6 1.8 -2.9
Billy McMillon 32 FA-elig 52-0.6 0.5 -1.5
Frank Menechino↔ TOR 33 arb 13-0.7 0.1 -1.3
Eric Karros 36 FA-elig 40-1.0 0.6 -2.2

Key additions (new vs 2003)

PlayerfWAR
Mark Kotsay4.0
Damian Miller1.7
Mark Redman1.3
Octavio Dotel0.8
Chris Hammond0.6
Joe Blanton0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 2003)

Player2003 fWAR
Miguel Tejada3.4
Ramon Hernandez3.3
Ted Lilly3.0
Keith Foulke1.8
Mark Ellis1.6
Jose Guillen0.3

Current & Historical Payroll

2004 payroll
$60.4M

What the front office was committed to as of 2004, 2004–2010. 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 (13)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Jermaine Dye308.000$11.7MFREE AGENT
Mark Kotsay287.000$5.5M$6.5M$7.0M$8.0MFREE AGENT
Eric Chavez266.000$5.3M$8.5M$9.5M$9.5M$11.5M$11.5M$12.5M
Jim Mecir349.000$3.3MFREE AGENT
Damian Miller347.000$3.0MFREE AGENT
Chris Hammond3814.000$2.4MFREE AGENT
Scott Hatteberg349.000$2.3M$2.5MFREE AGENT
Arthur Rhodes3413.000$1.8MFREE AGENT
Ricardo Rincon347.000$1.8M$1.9MFREE AGENT
Chad Bradford296.000$965kFREE AGENT
Mark McLemore3918.000$600kFREE AGENT
Eric Karros3613.000$550kFREE AGENT
Billy McMillon328.000$450kFREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (12)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Tim Hudson285.000$5.0MFREE AGENT
Mark Mulder264.000$4.5MARB 3FREE AGENT
Barry Zito264.000$3.0MARB 3FREE AGENT
Erubiel Durazo305.000$2.1MFREE AGENT
Mark Redman305.000$2.0MFREE AGENT
Octavio Dotel305.000$1.6MFREE AGENT
Adam Melhuse324.000$358kARB 3FREE AGENT
Bobby Kielty273.000$348kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Eric Byrnes284.000$328kARB 3FREE AGENT
Justin Duchscherer263.000$302kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Frank Menechino335.000$61kFREE AGENT
Chad Harville275.000$16kFREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (11)

PlayerAgeSvc2004200520062007200820092010
Rich Harden221.000$306kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Marco Scutaro282.000$302kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Esteban German262.000$301kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bobby Crosby241.000$300kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kirk Saarloos252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ramon Castro24–—
Mike Rose27–—
Joe Blanton230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Justin Lehr260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nick Swisher230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Santiago Casilla230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Athletics 2004; 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.