RRosternomics
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Cardinals STL

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GM: Dal Maxvill

Overview

CONTEND ↘ cooling
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.05× league · TAB +1.6
+1.6TAB — talent above budget10th/26
+12.5WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)5th/26
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars12th/26
-3.8dead WAR — sub-replacement drag13th/26
31%dead money %15th/26
0.586win %3rd/26
36.4roster fWAR9th/26
-1surplus $M (value vs cost)11th/26
$11Mpayroll $M14th/26

1987: won pennant · 95–67. Ranks are vs the 26 teams that season.

Roster

CFWillie McGee 152GJohn Morris 8GTito Landrum 7G
LFVince Coleman 150GCurt Ford 15GJosé Oquendo 8G
RFJohn Morris 68GCurt Ford 61GJim Lindeman 48G
SSOzzie Smith 158GJosé Oquendo 23GWillie McGee 1G
2BTom Herr 137GJosé Oquendo 32GRod Booker 17G
3BTerry Pendleton 158GDoug DeCinces 131GJosé Oquendo 8G
1BJack Clark 126GDan Driessen 21GJim Lindeman 20G
STARTERSBob Forsch 3.7WARJoe Magrane 3.1WARGreg Mathews 2.7WARDanny Cox 2.0WARJohn Tudor 1.0WAR
CTony Peña Sr. 112GSteve Lake 59GTom Pagnozzi 24G
BULLPEN★ Todd Worrell 33svBill Dawley 0hKen Dayley 0hSteve Peters 0hRay Soff 0hScott Terry 0hJosé Oquendo 0h
CTony Peña Sr. 112 · Steve Lake 59 · Tom Pagnozzi 24
1BJack Clark 126 · Dan Driessen 21 · Jim Lindeman 20
2BTom Herr 137 · José Oquendo 32 · Rod Booker 17
3BTerry Pendleton 158 · Doug DeCinces 131 · José Oquendo 8
SSOzzie Smith 158 · José Oquendo 23 · Willie McGee 1
LFVince Coleman 150 · Curt Ford 15 · José Oquendo 8
CFWillie McGee 152 · John Morris 8 · Tito Landrum 7
RFJohn Morris 68 · Curt Ford 61 · Jim Lindeman 48
SPBob Forsch 3.7 · Joe Magrane 3.1 · Greg Mathews 2.7 · Danny Cox 2.0 · John Tudor 1.0
BP★ Todd Worrell 33 · Bill Dawley 0 · Ken Dayley 0 · Steve Peters 0 · Ray Soff 0 · Scott Terry 0 · José Oquendo 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.

1987 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Ozzie Smith 32 FA-elig 1586.3 1.9 -0.1
Jack Clark 31 FA-elig 1315.7 1.3 +0.3
Bob Forsch 37 FA-elig 343.7 0.8 +0.3
Joe Magrane 22 pre-arb 283.1 0.1 +0.8
Terry Pendleton 26 arb 1592.7 0.2 +0.6
Greg Mathews 25 pre-arb 322.7 0.1 +0.7
Vince Coleman 25 pre-arb 1512.4 0.2 +0.5
Danny Cox 27 arb 322.0 0.6 -0.0
Todd Worrell 27 pre-arb 751.8 0.2 +0.3
Curt Ford 26 pre-arb 891.6 0.1 +0.4
José Oquendo 23 arb 1161.4 0.1 +0.3
Ken Dayley 28 arb 531.3 0.3 +0.0
Willie McGee 28 arb 1531.1 0.8 -0.5
John Tudor 33 FA-elig 171.0 1.1 -0.8
Lee Tunnell 26 arb 330.8 0.1 +0.2
Steve Lake 30 arb 740.6 0.1 +0.1
John Morris 26 pre-arb 1010.6 0.1 +0.1
Tom Herr 31 FA-elig 1410.4 0.9 -0.8
Tim Conroy 27 FA-elig 100.4 0.1 +0.0
Randy O'Neal↔ ATL 26 – 10.2 – –
Scott Terry 27 – 110.1 – –
Tom Pagnozzi 24 pre-arb 270.1 0.1 -0.0
Tito Landrum↔ LAD 32 FA-elig 300.1 0.0 +0.0
David Green 26 – 140.1 – –
Steve Peters 24 pre-arb 120.1 0.1 -0.0
Rod Booker 28 – 440.0 – –
Skeeter Barnes 30 – 4-0.0 – –
Doug DeCinces↔ ANA 36 FA-elig 4-0.1 0.0 -0.1
Pat Perry↔ CIN 28 pre-arb 45-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Dan Driessen 35 FA-elig 24-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Jim Lindeman 25 pre-arb 75-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Tom Lawless 30 arb 19-0.2 0.1 -0.2
Lance Johnson 23 pre-arb 33-0.2 0.1 -0.1
Dave LaPoint↔ CHW 27 FA-elig 6-0.2 0.0 -0.1
Ray Soff 28 – 12-0.2 – –
Mike Laga 27 – 17-0.4 – –
Ricky Horton 27 arb 68-0.5 0.4 -0.6
Bill Dawley 29 arb 60-0.6 0.3 -0.5
Tony Peña Sr. 30 FA-elig 116-0.8 1.2 -1.4

Key additions (new vs 1986)

PlayerfWAR
Joe Magrane3.1
Lee Tunnell0.8
Randy O'Neal0.2
Scott Terry0.1
Tom Pagnozzi0.1
David Green0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 1986)

Player1986 fWAR
Andy Van Slyke3.4
Michael LaValliere1.4
Mike Heath0.2
Jeff Lahti0.1
Bill Earley0.0
Alan Knicely0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1987 payroll
$11.3M

What the front office was committed to as of 1987, 1987–1993. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Ozzie Smith329.000$1.9M$2.3M$2.2M$2.0M$2.2M$2.0M$3.0M
Jack Clark3112.000$1.3MFREE AGENT
Tony Peña Sr.307.000$1.2M$1.1M$1.2MFREE AGENT
John Tudor338.000$1.1M$791kFREE AGENT$350k
Tom Herr318.000$925k$745kFREE AGENT
Bob Forsch3713.000$750k$335kFREE AGENT
Tim Conroy279.000$115kFREE AGENT
Dan Driessen3514.000$100kFREE AGENT
Doug DeCinces3614.000$31kFREE AGENT
Tito Landrum327.000$23kFREE AGENT
Dave LaPoint277.000$20kFREE AGENT
David Green266.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (13)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Willie McGee285.000$765kFREE AGENT
Danny Cox274.000$600kARB 3FREE AGENT
Ricky Horton273.000$410kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Dayley285.000$325kFREE AGENT
Bill Dawley294.000$275kARB 3FREE AGENT
Terry Pendleton263.000$210kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Lawless305.000$115kFREE AGENT
José Oquendo234.000$100kARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Lake304.000$95kARB 3FREE AGENT
Lee Tunnell265.000$62kFREE AGENT
Skeeter Barnes304.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Laga275.000—FREE AGENT
Randy O'Neal263.000—ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (14)

PlayerAgeSvc1987198819891990199119921993
Todd Worrell272.000$170kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Vince Coleman252.000$160kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Mathews251.000$100kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Curt Ford262.000$70kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Morris261.000$65kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Pat Perry282.000$63kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Lance Johnson230.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Pagnozzi240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Magrane220.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Steve Peters240.000$62kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jim Lindeman251.000$62kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rod Booker280.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ray Soff281.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Terry271.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Cardinals 1987; 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.