RRosternomics
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Giants SFG

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GM: Al Rosen

Overview

CONTEND ↘ cooling
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.05× league · TAB +6.8
+6.8TAB — talent above budget6th/26
+0.5WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)15th/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars11th/26
-1.4dead WAR — sub-replacement drag2nd/26
36%dead money %15th/26
0.512win %14th/26
41.6roster fWAR5th/26
+0surplus $M (value vs cost)11th/26
$12Mpayroll $M14th/26

Roster

CFBrett Butler 155GDonell Nixon 15GJoel Youngblood 9G
LFMike Aldrete 83GKevin Mitchell 40GDonell Nixon 32G
RFCandy Maldonado 139GMike Aldrete 40GJoel Youngblood 18G
SSJose Uribe 140GErnest Riles 25GMatt Williams 14G
2BRobby Thompson 134GChris Speier 45GErnest Riles 17G
3BKevin Mitchell 102GErnest Riles 58GMatt Williams 43G
1BWill Clark 158GMike Aldrete 10GFrancisco Melendez 6G
STARTERSRick Reuschel 3.7WARKelly Downs 3.2WARDon Robinson 3.0WARMichael LaCoss 1.9WARMike Krukow 1.0WAR
CBob Melvin 89GBob Brenly 69GKirt Manwaring 40G
BULLPEN★ Scott Garrelts 13svCraig Lefferts 0hJoe Price 0hRandy Bockus 0hRoger Samuels 0hLary Sorensen 0hJeff Brantley 0hRon Davis 0h
CBob Melvin 89 · Bob Brenly 69 · Kirt Manwaring 40
1BWill Clark 158 · Mike Aldrete 10 · Francisco Melendez 6
2BRobby Thompson 134 · Chris Speier 45 · Ernest Riles 17
3BKevin Mitchell 102 · Ernest Riles 58 · Matt Williams 43
SSJose Uribe 140 · Ernest Riles 25 · Matt Williams 14
LFMike Aldrete 83 · Kevin Mitchell 40 · Donell Nixon 32
CFBrett Butler 155 · Donell Nixon 15 · Joel Youngblood 9
RFCandy Maldonado 139 · Mike Aldrete 40 · Joel Youngblood 18
SPRick Reuschel 3.7 · Kelly Downs 3.2 · Don Robinson 3.0 · Michael LaCoss 1.9 · Mike Krukow 1.0
BP★ Scott Garrelts 13 · Craig Lefferts 0 · Joe Price 0 · Randy Bockus 0 · Roger Samuels 0 · Lary Sorensen 0 · Jeff Brantley 0 · Ron Davis 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.

1988 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Brett Butler 31 FA-elig 1575.8 0.9 +0.9
Will Clark 24 pre-arb 1625.7 0.3 +1.5
Rick Reuschel 39 FA-elig 363.7 0.8 +0.4
Kelly Downs 27 pre-arb 273.2 0.2 +0.8
Don Robinson 31 FA-elig 523.0 0.9 +0.0
Kevin Mitchell 26 arb 1482.6 0.2 +0.6
Robby Thompson 26 pre-arb 1382.5 0.2 +0.6
Michael LaCoss 32 FA-elig 191.9 0.5 +0.1
Ernest Riles↔ MIL 27 arb 791.8 0.2 +0.4
Mike Aldrete 27 pre-arb 1391.6 0.2 +0.4
Scott Garrelts 26 FA-elig 651.2 0.6 -0.2
Chris Speier 38 FA-elig 821.2 0.4 -0.0
Bob Melvin 26 arb 921.0 0.1 +0.2
Mike Krukow 36 FA-elig 201.0 0.9 -0.6
Donell Nixon 26 pre-arb 591.0 0.1 +0.2
Jose Uribe 29 arb 1411.0 0.5 -0.2
Atlee Hammaker 30 FA-elig 430.8 0.8 -0.5
Matt Williams 22 pre-arb 520.5 0.1 +0.1
Terry Mulholland 25 pre-arb 90.5 0.1 +0.1
Craig Lefferts 30 arb 640.5 0.6 -0.4
Trevor Wilson 22 – 40.5 – –
Candy Maldonado 27 FA-elig 1420.4 0.8 -0.6
Dennis Cook 25 – 40.3 – –
Dave Dravecky 32 FA-elig 70.3 0.7 -0.6
Kirt Manwaring 22 – 400.2 – –
Lary Sorensen 32 FA-elig 120.2 0.1 -0.0
Rusty Tillman 27 – 40.2 – –
Joel Youngblood 36 FA-elig 830.2 0.3 -0.3
Joe Price 31 FA-elig 380.1 0.3 -0.3
Angel Escobar 23 – 30.0 – –
Jeff Brantley 24 pre-arb 90.0 0.1 -0.1
Jeffrey Leonard↔ MIL 32 FA-elig 44-0.0 0.3 -0.3
Randy Bockus 27 – 20-0.0 – –
Tony Perezchica 22 – 7-0.0 – –
Mark Wasinger 26 – 3-0.0 – –
Jessie Reid 26 – 2-0.0 – –
Harry Spilman↔ HOU 33 FA-elig 40-0.1 0.2 -0.2
Francisco Melendez 24 arb 23-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Phil Garner 39 FA-elig 15-0.1 0.4 -0.4
Roger Samuels 27 pre-arb 15-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Charlie Hayes 23 – 7-0.2 – –
Ron Davis 32 – 9-0.3 – –
Bob Brenly 34 FA-elig 73-0.3 0.6 -0.7

Key additions (new vs 1987)

PlayerfWAR
Brett Butler5.8
Ernest Riles1.8
Donell Nixon1.0
Terry Mulholland0.5
Trevor Wilson0.5
Dennis Cook0.3

Key subtractions (gone from 1987)

Player1987 fWAR
Chili Davis1.6
Eddie Milner0.8
Mark Davis0.7
Jim Gott0.6
Mark Grant0.4
Keith Comstock0.4

Current & Historical Payroll

1988 payroll
$12.3M

What the front office was committed to as of 1988, 1988–1994. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Brett Butler317.000$900k$900k$1.1MFREE AGENT
Mike Krukow3612.000$900k$875kFREE AGENT
Don Robinson3110.000$900k$900k$950k$2.5MFREE AGENT
Rick Reuschel3916.000$800k$1.2M$1.0M$1.4MFREE AGENT
Atlee Hammaker307.000$750k$983k$570kFREE AGENT
Candy Maldonado277.000$750k$900kFREE AGENT
Dave Dravecky326.000$700k$750kFREE AGENT
Scott Garrelts266.000$625k$706k$1.4M$2.4MFREE AGENT
Bob Brenly347.000$600k$544kFREE AGENT
Michael LaCoss3210.000$500k$1.1M$1.1M$1.4MFREE AGENT
Chris Speier3817.000$400k$425kFREE AGENT
Phil Garner3915.000$375kFREE AGENT
Joel Youngblood3612.000$320kFREE AGENT
Joe Price318.000$300k$55kFREE AGENT
Jeffrey Leonard3211.000$287kFREE AGENT
Harry Spilman3310.000$191kFREE AGENT
Lary Sorensen3211.000$100kFREE AGENT
Ron Davis3210.000—FREE AGENT
Rusty Tillman276.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (6)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Craig Lefferts305.000$575kFREE AGENT
Jose Uribe294.000$535kARB 3FREE AGENT
Kevin Mitchell264.000$238kARB 3FREE AGENT
Ernest Riles273.000$165kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Melvin263.000$145kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Francisco Melendez244.000$70kARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1988198919901991199219931994
Will Clark242.000$320kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Robby Thompson262.000$232kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kelly Downs272.000$160kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Aldrete272.000$160kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Matt Williams221.000$75kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Donell Nixon261.000$72kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Mulholland252.000$70kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jeff Brantley240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Roger Samuels270.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy Bockus27–—
Dennis Cook250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Angel Escobar23–—
Charlie Hayes230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kirt Manwaring221.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tony Perezchica220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jessie Reid26–—
Mark Wasinger26–—
Trevor Wilson220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Giants 1988; 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.