RRosternomics
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Cardinals STL

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GM: John Mozeliak

Overview

CONTEND ↗ rising
expensive & winning · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.06× league · TAB +7.7
+7.7TAB — talent above budget6th/30
+3.3WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)11th/30
7.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars7th/30
-4.2dead WAR — sub-replacement drag10th/30
35%dead money %13th/30
0.531win %12th/30
42.6roster fWAR5th/30
+7surplus $M (value vs cost)6th/30
$93Mpayroll $M12th/30

Roster

CFRick Ankiel 89GSkip Schumaker 79GJoe Mather 15G
LFSkip Schumaker 56GChris Duncan 43GBrian Barton 36G
RFRyan Ludwick 124GSkip Schumaker 33GJoe Mather 15G
SSCésar Izturis 130GBrendan Ryan 40GAaron Miles 27G
2BFelipe López 101GAaron Miles 85GAdam Kennedy 84G
3BTroy Glaus 146GFelipe López 13GAaron Miles 11G
1BAlbert Pujols 144GChris Duncan 21GTroy Glaus 4G
STARTERSAdam Wainwright 3.0WARKyle Lohse 2.5WARBraden Looper 2.3WARTodd Wellemeyer 1.7WARBrad Thompson 0.6WAR
CYadier Molina 119GJason LaRue 57GMark Johnson 10G
DHNick Stavinoha 4GAlbert Pujols 3GChris Duncan 1G
BULLPEN★ Ryan Franklin 17svKyle McClellan 30hRon Villone 16hRuss Springer 15hRandy Flores 14hChris Perez 6hJason Isringhausen 2hKelvin Jimenez 0h
CYadier Molina 119 · Jason LaRue 57 · Mark Johnson 10
1BAlbert Pujols 144 · Chris Duncan 21 · Troy Glaus 4
2BFelipe López 101 · Aaron Miles 85 · Adam Kennedy 84
3BTroy Glaus 146 · Felipe López 13 · Aaron Miles 11
SSCésar Izturis 130 · Brendan Ryan 40 · Aaron Miles 27
LFSkip Schumaker 56 · Chris Duncan 43 · Brian Barton 36
CFRick Ankiel 89 · Skip Schumaker 79 · Joe Mather 15
RFRyan Ludwick 124 · Skip Schumaker 33 · Joe Mather 15
DHNick Stavinoha 4 · Albert Pujols 3 · Chris Duncan 1
SPAdam Wainwright 3.0 · Kyle Lohse 2.5 · Braden Looper 2.3 · Todd Wellemeyer 1.7 · Brad Thompson 0.6
BP★ Ryan Franklin 17 · Kyle McClellan 30 · Ron Villone 16 · Russ Springer 15 · Randy Flores 14 · Chris Perez 6 · Jason Isringhausen 2 · Kelvin Jimenez 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.

2008 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Albert Pujols 28 FA-elig 1488.7 13.9 +6.0
Ryan Ludwick 29 FA-elig 1525.3 0.4 +11.8
Troy Glaus 31 FA-elig 1514.8 12.5 -1.5
Yadier Molina 25 arb 1244.1 1.8 +7.4
Adam Wainwright 26 arb 253.0 0.7 +6.1
Kyle Lohse 29 FA-elig 332.5 4.2 +1.4
Braden Looper 33 FA-elig 422.3 5.5 -0.3
Skip Schumaker 28 arb 1531.8 0.4 +3.8
Felipe Lopez↔ WSN 28 FA-elig 431.7 1.5 +2.5
Todd Wellemeyer 29 arb 331.7 1.0 +2.8
Rick Ankiel 28 FA-elig 1201.7 0.9 +2.9
Aaron Miles 31 arb 1341.6 1.4 +2.2
Adam Kennedy 32 FA-elig 1151.4 3.5 -0.3
Cesar Izturis 28 FA-elig 1351.0 2.9 -0.6
Brian Barton 26 pre-arb 820.9 0.4 +1.8
Russ Springer 39 FA-elig 700.6 3.5 -2.0
Jason Motte 26 – 120.6 – –
Brad Thompson 26 arb 260.6 0.4 +1.0
Joe Mather 25 – 540.6 – –
Joel Pineiro 29 FA-elig 310.5 5.5 -4.3
Brendan Ryan 26 pre-arb 800.4 0.4 +0.6
Kyle McClellan 24 pre-arb 680.3 0.4 +0.3
Chris Carpenter 33 FA-elig 40.3 10.5 -9.9
Josh Kinney 29 pre-arb 70.1 0.4 -0.1
Mark Worrell 25 – 40.1 – –
Anthony Reyes↔ CLE 26 arb 100.0 0.2 -0.1
Mark Johnson 32 – 100.0 – –
Jason LaRue 34 FA-elig 61-0.0 0.8 -0.9
Mark Mulder 30 FA-elig 3-0.0 7.0 -7.1
Mike Parisi 25 – 12-0.1 – –
Chris Perez 22 – 41-0.1 – –
Brian Barden 27 – 9-0.1 – –
Ron Villone 38 FA-elig 74-0.2 0.6 -1.0
Rico Washington 30 pre-arb 14-0.2 0.4 -0.8
Randy Flores 32 FA-elig 43-0.3 1.0 -1.6
Josh Phelps 30 – 19-0.3 – –
Jaime García 21 – 10-0.3 – –
Jason Isringhausen 35 FA-elig 42-0.3 8.0 -8.7
Chris Duncan 27 arb 76-0.4 0.4 -1.3
Ryan Franklin 35 FA-elig 74-0.4 2.2 -3.1
Mitchell Boggs 24 – 8-0.5 – –
Kelvin Jimenez 27 – 15-0.6 – –
Nick Stavinoha 26 – 29-0.6 – –

Key additions (new vs 2007)

PlayerfWAR
Troy Glaus4.8
Kyle Lohse2.5
Felipe Lopez1.7
Cesar Izturis1.0
Brian Barton0.9
Jason Motte0.6

Key subtractions (gone from 2007)

Player2007 fWAR
Scott Rolen2.4
Kip Wells1.6
David Eckstein0.7
Troy Percival0.6
Jim Edmonds0.5
So Taguchi0.4

Current & Historical Payroll

2008 payroll
$92.8M

What the front office was committed to as of 2008, 2008–2014. 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)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
Albert Pujols287.000$13.9M$14.4M$14.6M$14.5MFREE AGENT
Troy Glaus3110.000$12.5M$12.1MFREE AGENT
Chris Carpenter3311.000$10.5M$13.3M$15.8M$14.3M$10.5MFREE AGENT
Jason Isringhausen3513.000$8.0MFREE AGENT
Mark Mulder308.000$7.0MFREE AGENT
Joel Pineiro298.000$5.5M$7.5MFREE AGENT
Braden Looper3310.000$5.5MFREE AGENT
Kyle Lohse297.000$4.2M$7.4M$9.2M$12.2M$11.9MFREE AGENT
Russ Springer3916.000$3.5MFREE AGENT
Adam Kennedy329.000$3.5MFREE AGENT
Cesar Izturis287.000$2.9MFREE AGENT
Ryan Franklin359.000$2.2M$2.5M$3.0M$3.2MFREE AGENT
Felipe Lopez287.000$1.5MFREE AGENT$965k
Randy Flores326.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Rick Ankiel289.000$900k$2.8MFREE AGENT
Jason LaRue349.000$850k$950k$950kFREE AGENT
Ron Villone3813.000$600kFREE AGENT
Ryan Ludwick296.000$411k$3.7M$3.1MFREE AGENT
Mark Johnson3210.000—FREE AGENT
Josh Phelps308.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (8)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
Yadier Molina254.000$1.8MARB 3FREE AGENT
Aaron Miles315.000$1.4MFREE AGENT
Todd Wellemeyer295.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Adam Wainwright263.000$688kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Chris Duncan273.000$439kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brad Thompson263.000$414kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Skip Schumaker283.000$396kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Anthony Reyes263.000$245kARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (15)

PlayerAgeSvc2008200920102011201220132014
Brendan Ryan261.000$393kPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Rico Washington300.000$390kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Josh Kinney292.000$390kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brian Barton260.000$390kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kyle McClellan240.000$390kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jason Motte260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Jaime García210.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mike Parisi25–—
Brian Barden271.000—Pre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Worrell25–—
Chris Perez220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Nick Stavinoha260.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Joe Mather250.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Kelvin Jimenez27–—
Mitchell Boggs240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Cardinals 2008; 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.