RRosternomics
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Brewers MIL

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GM: Harry Dalton

Overview

FORCED-SPEND → steady
expensive & losing · year 1 in this regime · payroll 1.15× league · TAB -18.8
-18.8TAB — talent above budget25th/26
-12.3WAB — realized wins (TAB + luck)21st/26
3.0depth — 2+ WAR regulars23rd/26
-5.9dead WAR — sub-replacement drag21st/26
30%dead money %14th/26
0.441win %21st/26
17.0roster fWAR24th/26
-7surplus $M (value vs cost)25th/26
$11Mpayroll $M5th/26

Roster

CFRick Manning 57GRobin Yount 40GPaul Householder 32G
LFRobin Yount 69GBen Oglivie 48GRandy Ready 36G
RFPaul Householder 59GBen Oglivie 54GMark Brouhard 21G
SSErnest Riles 115GEd Romero 43GBrian Giles 20G
2BJim Gantner 124GEd Romero 31GBrian Giles 13G
3BPaul Molitor 135GJim Gantner 24GRandy Ready 7G
1BCecil Cooper 123GTed Simmons 28GCarlos Ponce 10G
STARTERSTeddy Higuera 3.0WARMoose Haas 2.1WARDanny Darwin 1.3WARRay Burris 0.8WARTim Leary 0.5WAR
CCharlie Moore 102GBill Schroeder 48GTed Simmons 15G
DHTed Simmons 99GCecil Cooper 30GRobin Yount 12G
BULLPEN★ Rollie Fingers 17svBob Gibson 0hBob McClure 0hRay Searage 0hPete Ladd 0hRick Waits 0hChuck Porter 0hJim Kern 0h
CCharlie Moore 102 · Bill Schroeder 48 · Ted Simmons 15
1BCecil Cooper 123 · Ted Simmons 28 · Carlos Ponce 10
2BJim Gantner 124 · Ed Romero 31 · Brian Giles 13
3BPaul Molitor 135 · Jim Gantner 24 · Randy Ready 7
SSErnest Riles 115 · Ed Romero 43 · Brian Giles 20
LFRobin Yount 69 · Ben Oglivie 48 · Randy Ready 36
CFRick Manning 57 · Robin Yount 40 · Paul Householder 32
RFPaul Householder 59 · Ben Oglivie 54 · Mark Brouhard 21
DHTed Simmons 99 · Cecil Cooper 30 · Robin Yount 12
SPTeddy Higuera 3.0 · Moose Haas 2.1 · Danny Darwin 1.3 · Ray Burris 0.8 · Tim Leary 0.5
BP★ Rollie Fingers 17 · Bob Gibson 0 · Bob McClure 0 · Ray Searage 0 · Pete Ladd 0 · Rick Waits 0 · Chuck Porter 0 · Jim Kern 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.

1985 roster — value & surplus

PlayerAgeServiceGfWARSalary $MSurplus $M
Paul Molitor 28 FA-elig 1403.5 0.9 -0.0
Teddy Higuera 27 pre-arb 323.0 0.1 +0.7
Moose Haas 29 FA-elig 272.1 0.7 -0.1
Cecil Cooper 35 FA-elig 1541.8 1.2 -0.7
Robin Yount 29 FA-elig 1221.6 1.0 -0.6
Jim Gantner 32 FA-elig 1431.5 0.7 -0.3
Ernest Riles 24 – 1161.4 – –
Danny Darwin 29 FA-elig 391.3 0.6 -0.2
Ted Simmons 35 FA-elig 1431.0 1.0 -0.7
Ben Oglivie 36 FA-elig 1011.0 0.6 -0.3
Paul Householder 26 arb 950.9 0.2 +0.0
Ray Burris 34 FA-elig 290.8 0.6 -0.4
Charlie Moore 32 FA-elig 1050.6 0.4 -0.2
Tim Leary 26 – 50.5 – –
Bill Schroeder 26 pre-arb 530.4 0.1 +0.0
Ray Searage 30 – 330.4 – –
Jaime Cocanower 28 – 240.2 – –
Chuck Porter 29 – 60.2 – –
Bob McClure 33 FA-elig 380.2 0.5 -0.4
Rick Waits 33 FA-elig 240.2 0.5 -0.4
Pete Ladd 28 – 290.1 – –
Pete Vuckovich 32 FA-elig 220.1 0.5 -0.5
Bill Wegman 22 – 30.1 – –
Randy Ready 25 – 480.0 – –
Billy Jo Robidoux 21 – 18-0.0 – –
Brian Giles 25 – 34-0.1 – –
Jim Kern 36 – 5-0.1 – –
Ed Romero 27 FA-elig 88-0.1 0.3 -0.3
Brad Lesley 26 – 5-0.2 – –
Doug Loman 27 – 24-0.2 – –
Bob Gibson 28 – 41-0.4 – –
Dion James 22 – 18-0.4 – –
Mike Felder 23 – 15-0.4 – –
Bobby Clark 30 – 29-0.5 – –
Dave Huppert 28 – 15-0.5 – –
Mark Brouhard 29 – 37-0.5 – –
Rollie Fingers 38 FA-elig 47-0.7 1.1 -1.3
Carlos Ponce 26 – 21-0.8 – –
Rick Manning 30 FA-elig 79-1.0 0.5 -0.8

Key additions (new vs 1984)

PlayerfWAR
Paul Molitor3.5
Teddy Higuera3.0
Moose Haas2.1
Cecil Cooper1.8
Robin Yount1.6
Jim Gantner1.5

Key subtractions (gone from 1984)

Player1984 fWAR
—

Current & Historical Payroll

1985 payroll
$11.3M

What the front office was committed to as of 1985, 1985–1991. 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 (18)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Cecil Cooper3514.000$1.2M$607k$493kFREE AGENT
Rollie Fingers3817.000$1.1MFREE AGENT
Robin Yount2911.000$1.0M$950k$1.1M$1.1M$1.1M$3.2M$3.2M
Ted Simmons3517.000$1.0MFREE AGENT
Paul Molitor287.000$950k$1.2M$1.3M$1.4M$2.1M$2.6M$3.2M
Jim Gantner329.000$688k$888k$375k$938k$900k$700k$1.0M
Moose Haas299.000$679kFREE AGENT
Ray Burris3412.000$581kFREE AGENT$100k
Danny Darwin297.000$565k$422kFREE AGENT
Ben Oglivie3614.000$560k$767kFREE AGENT
Pete Vuckovich3210.000$540kFREE AGENT
Rick Manning3010.000$510k$495k$560kFREE AGENT
Bob McClure3310.000$480k$390kFREE AGENT
Rick Waits3312.000$460kFREE AGENT
Charlie Moore3212.000$365k$402kFREE AGENT
Ed Romero278.000$290kFREE AGENT$46k
Jim Kern3611.000—FREE AGENT
Pete Ladd286.000—FREE AGENT

Arbitration-eligible (4)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Paul Householder265.000$215kFREE AGENT
Brian Giles254.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Tim Leary264.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ray Searage304.000—ARB 3FREE AGENT

Pre-arbitration (17)

PlayerAgeSvc1985198619871988198919901991
Bill Schroeder262.000$100kARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Teddy Higuera270.000$60kPre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Mark Brouhard29–—
Bobby Clark30–—
Jaime Cocanower28–—
Mike Felder230.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Bob Gibson28–—
Dave Huppert28–—
Dion James222.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Brad Lesley26–—
Doug Loman27–—
Carlos Ponce26–—
Chuck Porter29–—
Randy Ready252.000—ARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Ernest Riles240.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT
Billy Jo Robidoux21–—
Bill Wegman220.000—Pre-ArbPre-ArbARB 1ARB 2ARB 3FREE AGENT

Graphs

Every roster slot ranked best→worst by WAR. Bars = Brewers 1985; 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.