Rosternomics
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Giants SFG

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GM: Brian Sabean (since 1997)

1997 roster — every player, value & surplus

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+8.0
WAB — wins above budget
+3.5
TAB — roster Talent above budget
90–72 (0.556)
record · made playoffs
-1M
surplus $M (value/$)
37.8
roster fWAR
$39.4M
payroll
PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Barry Bonds 32 FA-elig 159 8.9 8.7 +0.4
Jeff Kent 29 arb 155 4.1 2.6 +1.6
Stan Javier 33 FA-elig 142 3.7 1.4 +2.4
Shawn Estes 24 pre-arb 36 3.7 0.2 +3.6
J.T. Snow 29 arb 157 3.4 1.8 +1.7
Kirk Rueter 26 arb 32 3.0 0.3 +2.8
Bill Mueller 26 pre-arb 128 2.7 0.2 +2.6
Jose Vizcaino 29 FA-elig 151 2.1 2.8 -0.6
Brian Johnson↔ DET 29 arb 56 1.5 0.3 +1.2
Mark Gardner 35 FA-elig 32 1.2 0.9 +0.4
Rod Beck 28 FA-elig 73 1.1 3.2 -2.0
Rich Aurilia 25 pre-arb 46 0.9 0.2 +0.7
Roberto Hernandez↔ CHW 32 FA-elig 28 0.8 1.7 -0.9
Wilson Alvarez↔ CHW 27 FA-elig 11 0.6 1.6 -0.9
Rick Wilkins↔ SEA 30 FA-elig 66 0.6 1.9 -1.3
Darryl Hamilton 32 FA-elig 125 0.5 1.8 -1.2
Doug Henry 33 FA-elig 75 0.4 0.6 -0.1
Danny Darwin↔ CHW 41 FA-elig 10 0.4 0.2 +0.3
Glenallen Hill 32 FA-elig 128 0.4 1.7 -1.3
Terry Mulholland↔ CHC 34 FA-elig 15 0.3 0.9 -0.6
Damon Berryhill 33 FA-elig 73 0.2 0.5 -0.2
Osvaldo Fernandez 30 pre-arb 12 0.1 1.0 -0.8
Doug Creek 28 – 3 0.1 – –
Rich DeLucia↔ ANA 32 FA-elig 3 0.1 0.1 +0.0
John Johnstone↔ OAK 28 – 13 0.0 – –
Cory Bailey 26 arb 7 0.0 0.2 -0.1
Rich Rodriguez 34 FA-elig 71 -0.0 0.3 -0.3
Julian Tavarez 24 arb 89 -0.0 0.7 -0.7
Doug Mirabelli 26 – 6 -0.0 – –
Joe Roa 25 pre-arb 28 -0.0 0.1 -0.2
Wilson Delgado 24 pre-arb 8 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
LeJon Powell 23 pre-arb 27 -0.1 0.1 -0.2
Jacob Cruz 24 – 16 -0.1 – –
Rene Arocha 31 – 6 -0.2 – –
Mark Lewis 27 FA-elig 118 -0.2 1.7 -1.9
Marvin Benard 26 pre-arb 84 -0.2 0.2 -0.4
Pat Rapp↔ MIA 29 arb 8 -0.3 0.3 -0.6
Keith Foulke↔ CHW 24 pre-arb 11 -0.3 0.1 -0.3
Marcus Jensen↔ DET 24 pre-arb 30 -0.3 0.1 -0.4
William Van Landingham 26 arb 18 -0.3 0.3 -0.6
Dan Carlson 27 pre-arb 6 -0.3 0.1 -0.5
Jim Poole 31 FA-elig 63 -0.5 0.8 -1.4

42 players appeared (WAR is complete); salary & surplus are on record for 37 of them (88%). 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 SFG
Jeff Kent199630.9
Jason Schmidt200123.6
Rich Aurilia199419.8
Shawn Estes199514.8
Robb Nen199712.9
Liván Hernández199911.6
Mike Yastrzemski201911.3
Randy Winn200510.9
Ones that got away
PlayerYear tradedWAR elsewhere
Bryan Reynolds201820.0
Liván Hernández200317.2
Joe Nathan200314.1
Zack Wheeler201113.0
Francisco Liriano200312.5
John Burkett199411.0
Jack Clark198510.1
Rob Deer19857.9
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.