RRosternomics
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Cardinals STL

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GM: Walt Jocketty

Overview

CONTEND → steady
expensive & winning · year 6 in this regime · payroll 1.27× league · TAB +5.4
+5.4TAB — talent above budget9th/30
+14.9WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)3rd/30
8.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars7th/30
-3.4dead WAR — sub-replacement drag8th/30
14%dead money %3rd/30
0.617win %1st/30
42.7roster fWAR4th/30
-12surplus $M (value vs cost)19th/30
$92Mpayroll $M6th/30

2005: made playoffs · 100–62. Ranks are vs the 30 teams that season.

Roster

CFJim Edmonds 139GSo Taguchi 50GSkip Schumaker 4G
LFReggie Sanders 80GSo Taguchi 52GJohn Rodriguez 40G
RFLarry Walker 83GSo Taguchi 57GJohn Mabry 49G
SSDavid Eckstein 156GAbraham O. Nunez 21GHector Luna 6G
2BMark Grudzielanek 137GHector Luna 22GAbraham O. Nunez 22G
3BAbraham O. Nunez 98GScott Rolen 56GScott Seabol 20G
1BAlbert Pujols 157GJohn Mabry 14GScott Seabol 5G
STARTERSChris Carpenter 5.8WARMatt Morris 2.4WARJeff Suppan 2.2WARJason Marquis 2.0WARMark Mulder 1.9WAR
CYadier Molina 114GEinar Díaz 50GMike Mahoney 25G
DHLarry Walker 6GScott Seabol 3GReggie Sanders 1G
BULLPEN★ Jason Isringhausen 39svJulian Tavarez 32hRay King 16hAl Reyes 16hRandy Flores 11hBrad Thompson 7hCal Eldred 2hGabe White 0h
CYadier Molina 114 · Einar Díaz 50 · Mike Mahoney 25
1BAlbert Pujols 157 · John Mabry 14 · Scott Seabol 5
2BMark Grudzielanek 137 · Hector Luna 22 · Abraham O. Nunez 22
3BAbraham O. Nunez 98 · Scott Rolen 56 · Scott Seabol 20
SSDavid Eckstein 156 · Abraham O. Nunez 21 · Hector Luna 6
LFReggie Sanders 80 · So Taguchi 52 · John Rodriguez 40
CFJim Edmonds 139 · So Taguchi 50 · Skip Schumaker 4
RFLarry Walker 83 · So Taguchi 57 · John Mabry 49
DHLarry Walker 6 · Scott Seabol 3 · Reggie Sanders 1
SPChris Carpenter 5.8 · Matt Morris 2.4 · Jeff Suppan 2.2 · Jason Marquis 2.0 · Mark Mulder 1.9
BP★ Jason Isringhausen 39 · Julian Tavarez 32 · Ray King 16 · Al Reyes 16 · Randy Flores 11 · Brad Thompson 7 · Cal Eldred 2 · Gabe White 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.

2005 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Albert Pujols 25 arb 1617.7 11.0 +3.6
Jim Edmonds 35 FA-elig 1426.1 10.3 +1.2
Chris Carpenter 30 FA-elig 335.8 2.0 +9.0
Mark Grudzielanek 35 FA-elig 1372.8 1.0 +4.4
David Eckstein 30 arb 1582.5 2.3 +2.4
Matt Morris 30 FA-elig 312.4 2.5 +2.1
Larry Walker 38 FA-elig 1002.2 12.7 -8.6
Jeff Suppan 30 FA-elig 322.2 4.0 +0.1
Jason Marquis 26 arb 442.0 3.0 +0.8
Mark Mulder 27 arb 321.9 6.0 -2.5
Reggie Sanders 37 FA-elig 931.7 4.0 -0.9
So Taguchi 35 arb 1431.4 0.6 +2.0
Al Reyes 35 FA-elig 651.3 0.5 +1.9
Abraham O. Nunez 29 – 1391.2 – –
Yadier Molina 22 pre-arb 1141.1 0.3 +1.8
Scott Rolen 30 FA-elig 561.1 11.6 -9.6
Hector Luna 25 pre-arb 640.8 0.3 +1.1
Jason Isringhausen 32 FA-elig 630.7 7.0 -5.6
John Rodriguez 27 – 560.4 – –
Julian Tavarez 32 FA-elig 740.3 2.6 -2.0
Randy Flores 29 arb 500.3 0.3 +0.2
Cal Eldred 37 FA-elig 310.1 0.6 -0.4
John Gall 27 – 220.1 – –
Brad Thompson 23 – 410.1 – –
Tyler Johnson 24 – 50.0 – –
Anthony Reyes 23 – 40.0 – –
Bill Pulsipher 31 – 50.0 – –
Chris Duncan 24 – 90.0 – –
Gabe White 33 – 6-0.0 – –
Adam Wainwright 23 – 3-0.1 0.0 -0.2
Ray King 31 FA-elig 77-0.1 1.9 -2.0
John Mabry 34 FA-elig 112-0.1 0.7 -0.9
Jimmy Journell 27 – 5-0.1 – –
Kevin Jarvis 35 – 4-0.2 – –
Scott Seabol 30 – 59-0.2 – –
Skip Schumaker 25 – 27-0.3 0.3 -0.8
Carmen Cali 26 – 6-0.3 – –
Einar Díaz 32 FA-elig 58-0.5 0.6 -1.5
Mike Mahoney 32 – 26-0.5 – –
Roger Cedeno 30 FA-elig 37-1.0 5.5 -7.4

Key additions (new vs 2004)

PlayerfWAR
Mark Grudzielanek2.8
David Eckstein2.5
Mark Mulder1.9
Abraham O. Nunez1.2
John Rodriguez0.4
John Gall0.1

Key subtractions (gone from 2004)

Player2004 fWAR
Woody Williams3.1
Tony Womack2.8
Edgar Renteria2.0
Kiko Calero0.7
Ray Lankford0.6
Steve Kline0.6

Current & Historical Payroll

2005 payroll
$91.7M

What the front office was committed to as of 2005, 2005–2011. 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 (20)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Larry Walker3816.000$12.7MFREE AGENT
Scott Rolen309.000$11.6M$12.5M$12.3MFREE AGENT
Jim Edmonds3512.000$10.3M$12.1M$9.6MFREE AGENT
Jason Isringhausen3210.000$7.0M$8.8M$8.8M$8.0MFREE AGENT
Roger Cedeno3010.000$5.5MFREE AGENT
Jeff Suppan3010.000$4.0M$4.0MFREE AGENT$6.4M
Reggie Sanders3714.000$4.0MFREE AGENT
Julian Tavarez3212.000$2.6MFREE AGENT
Matt Morris308.000$2.5MFREE AGENT
Chris Carpenter308.000$2.0M$5.0M$8.5M$10.5M$13.3M$15.8M$14.3M
Ray King316.000$1.9MFREE AGENT
Mark Grudzielanek3510.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
John Mabry3411.000$725kFREE AGENT
Einar Díaz329.000$600kFREE AGENT
Cal Eldred3714.000$600kFREE AGENT
Al Reyes3510.000$450kFREE AGENT
Kevin Jarvis3511.000—FREE AGENT
Abraham O. Nunez298.000—FREE AGENT
Bill Pulsipher3110.000—FREE AGENT
Gabe White3311.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (7)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Albert Pujols254.000$11.0MARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Mulder275.000$6.0MFREE AGENT
Jason Marquis265.000$3.0MFREE AGENT
David Eckstein304.000$2.3MARB 3FREE AGENT
So Taguchi353.000$550kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Randy Flores293.000$320kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Scott Seabol304.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (13)

PlayerAgeSvc2005200620072008200920102011
Yadier Molina221.000$324kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Hector Luna251.000$320kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Skip Schumaker250.000$316kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Adam Wainwright230.000$47kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Mahoney32–—
Jimmy Journell27–—
Chris Duncan240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
John Gall27–—
John Rodriguez270.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tyler Johnson240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brad Thompson230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Carmen Cali26–—
Anthony Reyes230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Cardinals 2005; 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.