RRosternomics
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Cardinals STL

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GM: Dal Maxvill

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 2 in this regime · payroll 1.15× league · TAB +1.9
+1.9TAB — talent above budget11th/26
-13.8WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)25th/26
9.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars1st/26
-3.2dead WAR — sub-replacement drag5th/26
42%dead money %19th/26
0.432win %24th/26
37.9roster fWAR8th/26
-3surplus $M (value vs cost)14th/26
$20Mpayroll $M10th/26

Roster

CFRay Lankford 35GFelix Jose 26GMilt Thompson 14G
LFVince Coleman 118GFelix Jose 27GBernard Gilkey 18G
RFMilt Thompson 96GFelix Jose 74GRex Hudler 27G
SSOzzie Smith 140GTim Jones 29GJosé Oquendo 4G
2BJosé Oquendo 150GTim Jones 19GGeronimo Pena 11G
3BTerry Pendleton 117GTodd Zeile 24GCraig Wilson 13G
1BPedro Guerrero 132GDave Collins 49GDenny Walling 15G
STARTERSJoe Magrane 3.4WARBob Tewksbury 3.1WARBryn Smith 2.9WARJose DeLeon 2.5WARJohn Tudor 2.3WAR
CTodd Zeile 105GTom Pagnozzi 63GRay Stephens 5G
BULLPEN★ Lee Smith 31svFrank DiPino 0hKen Dayley 0hTom Niedenfuer 0hScott Terry 0hRicky Horton 0hErnie Camacho 0hMike Perez 0h
CTodd Zeile 105 · Tom Pagnozzi 63 · Ray Stephens 5
1BPedro Guerrero 132 · Dave Collins 49 · Denny Walling 15
2BJosé Oquendo 150 · Tim Jones 19 · Geronimo Pena 11
3BTerry Pendleton 117 · Todd Zeile 24 · Craig Wilson 13
SSOzzie Smith 140 · Tim Jones 29 · José Oquendo 4
LFVince Coleman 118 · Felix Jose 27 · Bernard Gilkey 18
CFRay Lankford 35 · Felix Jose 26 · Milt Thompson 14
RFMilt Thompson 96 · Felix Jose 74 · Rex Hudler 27
SPJoe Magrane 3.4 · Bob Tewksbury 3.1 · Bryn Smith 2.9 · Jose DeLeon 2.5 · John Tudor 2.3
BP★ Lee Smith 31 · Frank DiPino 0 · Ken Dayley 0 · Tom Niedenfuer 0 · Scott Terry 0 · Ricky Horton 0 · Ernie Camacho 0 · Mike Perez 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.

1990 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Willie McGee↔ OAK 31 FA-elig 1254.2 1.2 +0.6
Joe Magrane 25 arb 313.4 0.3 +1.2
Vince Coleman 28 arb 1243.3 1.0 +0.5
Ozzie Smith 35 FA-elig 1433.1 2.0 -0.6
Bob Tewksbury 29 arb 283.1 0.1 +1.3
Bryn Smith 34 FA-elig 262.9 1.6 -0.3
Jose DeLeon 29 FA-elig 322.5 1.7 -0.5
Todd Zeile 24 pre-arb 1442.5 0.1 +1.0
John Tudor 36 FA-elig 252.3 0.3 +0.7
Lee Smith↔ BOS 32 FA-elig 532.0 1.0 -0.1
Tom Pagnozzi 27 arb 691.9 0.1 +0.8
Rex Hudler↔ WSN 29 FA-elig 891.9 0.1 +0.7
José Oquendo 26 FA-elig 1561.5 0.6 +0.1
Ken Hill 24 pre-arb 171.2 0.1 +0.4
Ray Lankford 23 pre-arb 390.8 0.1 +0.3
Bernard Gilkey 23 pre-arb 180.8 0.1 +0.3
Omar Olivares 22 pre-arb 90.7 0.1 +0.2
Milt Thompson 31 FA-elig 1350.5 0.9 -0.6
Ken Dayley 31 FA-elig 580.5 0.9 -0.7
Terry Pendleton 29 FA-elig 1210.4 1.9 -1.7
Greg Mathews 28 arb 120.4 0.1 +0.0
Felix Jose↔ OAK 25 pre-arb 250.3 0.0 +0.1
Pedro Guerrero 34 FA-elig 1360.3 2.1 -1.9
Tom Niedenfuer 30 – 520.3 – –
Mike Perez 25 pre-arb 130.2 0.1 -0.0
Stan Clarke 29 – 20.1 – –
Scott Terry 30 arb 500.0 0.4 -0.4
Tim Sherrill 24 pre-arb 80.0 0.1 -0.1
Frank DiPino 33 FA-elig 620.0 0.7 -0.6
Howard Hilton 26 pre-arb 2-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Rod Brewer 24 pre-arb 14-0.0 0.1 -0.1
Tim Jones 27 pre-arb 67-0.1 0.1 -0.1
John Costello↔ WSN 29 pre-arb 4-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Geronimo Pena 23 pre-arb 18-0.1 0.1 -0.1
Cris Carpenter 25 pre-arb 4-0.1 0.1 -0.2
Dave Collins 37 FA-elig 99-0.1 0.2 -0.3
Ernie Camacho↔ SFG 35 FA-elig 6-0.2 0.1 -0.2
Ray Stephens 27 pre-arb 5-0.2 0.1 -0.2
John Morris 29 arb 18-0.3 0.2 -0.3
Ricky Horton 30 FA-elig 32-0.3 0.1 -0.3
Craig Wilson 25 pre-arb 55-0.4 0.1 -0.3
Tom Brunansky↔ BOS 29 FA-elig 19-0.4 0.2 -0.4
Denny Walling 36 FA-elig 78-0.8 0.5 -0.9

Key additions (new vs 1989)

PlayerfWAR
Bryn Smith2.9
John Tudor2.3
Lee Smith2.0
Rex Hudler1.9
Ray Lankford0.8
Bernard Gilkey0.8

Key subtractions (gone from 1989)

Player1989 fWAR
Tony Peña Sr.1.8
Dan Quisenberry0.9
Ted Power0.9
Don Heinkel0.4
Todd Worrell0.0
Rod Booker-0.0

Current & Historical Payroll

1990 payroll
$19.6M

What the front office was committed to as of 1990, 1990–1996. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc1990199119921993199419951996
Pedro Guerrero3412.000$2.1M$2.3M$2.4MFREE AGENT
Ozzie Smith3512.000$2.0M$2.2M$2.0M$3.0M$3.0M$3.0M$3.5M
Terry Pendleton296.000$1.9MFREE AGENT
Jose DeLeon297.000$1.7M$2.4M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Bryn Smith349.000$1.6M$2.1M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Willie McGee318.000$1.2MFREE AGENT$600k
Lee Smith3210.000$994k$2.8M$2.8M$2.3MFREE AGENT
Ken Dayley318.000$925kFREE AGENT
Milt Thompson316.000$867k$1.5M$1.6MFREE AGENT
Frank DiPino339.000$650kFREE AGENT
José Oquendo267.000$575k$775k$2.0M$2.0M$2.1M$2.2MFREE AGENT
Denny Walling3615.000$500kFREE AGENT
John Tudor3611.000$350kFREE AGENT
Dave Collins3715.000$225kFREE AGENT
Tom Brunansky299.000$193kFREE AGENT
Rex Hudler296.000$129k$300k$400kFREE AGENT
Ricky Horton306.000$120kFREE AGENT
Ernie Camacho3510.000$64kFREE AGENT
Tom Niedenfuer309.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (7)

PlayerAgeSvc1990199119921993199419951996
Vince Coleman285.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Scott Terry304.000$370kARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Magrane253.000$300kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Morris294.000$208kARB 3FREE AGENT
Greg Mathews284.000$125kARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Tewksbury294.000$100kARB 3FREE AGENT
Tom Pagnozzi273.000$100kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (17)

PlayerAgeSvc1990199119921993199419951996
Tim Sherrill240.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Cris Carpenter252.000$100kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rod Brewer240.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ray Lankford230.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Omar Olivares220.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ken Hill242.000$100kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bernard Gilkey230.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Howard Hilton260.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Jones272.000$100kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Craig Wilson251.000$100kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ray Stephens270.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Geronimo Pena230.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Perez250.000$100kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Todd Zeile241.000$100kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Costello292.000$52kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Felix Jose252.000$20kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Stan Clarke29–—

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Cardinals 1990; 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.