Organizational production

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Dan Duquette wouldn't say it when he was general manager of the Red Sox, but he'll say it now:

''You have to win every year in Boston. You have a farm system for one reason and that's to help you make trades for veteran players when they become available. There's no other way when you run the Red Sox."

Such was the modus operandi of the Duquette years. Pitching prospect Carl Pavano was dealt to bring Pedro Martínez to town. The Sox' farm system was regularly looted and Boston's 25-man roster usually included only one or two home-grown players.

Nothing new, really. Back in 1978 the Sox parted with prospects Mike Paxton, Ted Cox, and Bo Diaz (as well as veteran Rick Wise) to acquire an established starter named Dennis Eckersley. And you might remember that as recently as 2004 (a pretty good year for Boston baseball), Theo Epstein reluctantly parted with highly touted outfield prospect Matt Murton the day he dealt Nomar Garciaparra and brought in Orlando Cabrera, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Dave Roberts. Last winter Red Sox star prospect Hanley Ramírez was dealt to bring stud starter Josh Beckett to Boston.

But now Epstein, more powerful than any Boston GM since Dick O'Connell, is attempting to do what so many others could not: Maintain a farm system ripe with prospects who'll one day play for the Red Sox, while also trying to put together a team that'll win 95 games and make it to the postseason for the fourth straight year. And he's trying to do that with a team that is younger and better defensively than in recent years.

Look at what the Sox have done since the end of last season. Gone are Kevin Millar, Bill Mueller, Doug Mirabelli, John Olerud, and Edgar Renteria. The Sox have an entirely new infield that promises to be a friend to all pitchers. The new guys are good with the glove and the first base job has been turned over to a player (Kevin Youkilis) who was drafted and developed by the Sox. Meanwhile, the pitching staff has home-grown stud Jonathan Papelbon and soon-to-be-ready Craig Hansen and Jon Lester.

''I don't think there's a philosophical shift," insists Epstein. ''I think the last three years we've always been operating on two fronts: Winning now and building a farm system for the future. I think we've had some nice accomplishments on both fronts. I think what we're starting to see now is a bit of a collision -- synergy between the two where you see guys like Papelbon and Youkilis. You see guys come up through the farm system and start to get integrated into the big league team. Which is nice. That's what you're playing for.

''You don't have a farm system for the sake of having a successful minor league season. You do it so you can help the big league team either through players graduating from the farm system and coming up or through trades. And we're starting to see that process now and it's a testament to a lot of hard work from the guys in scouting and minor league development and [manager Terry Francona] and the major league staff's ability to integrate these guys in. So it's that time, and we hope that will mark our organization for years to come, that every year we have a couple of young players ready to come up and revitalize the big league team."

Francona, with a contract extension through 2008, is on board. He works closely with Epstein, agrees with the philosophy, and liked what he saw in Florida this spring. The 2006 Red Sox are not the same as the 2005 Sox and the manager hopes he can get his team to the playoffs with a little less struggle this time around.

''We hit the ball real well last year," says Francona. ''We wanted to try to make the team better and I think the best way we knew was not to get more offense and get bigger and slower, but it was to catch the ball and be more efficient. As much as we value outs offensively, you only get 27 and you don't want to give any away. It's the same thing defensively. You don't want to give away outs or give a team extra opportunities; it makes it hard to win. We won 95 games last year, but it was hard."

If that sounds like Epstein talking, it's not an accident. The GM emerged from the acrimonious winter more powerful than ever, and his voice is now the only voice.

''Our philosophy is that a run prevented is very valuable and a run scored is very valuable, too," says Epstein. ''They have equal value. Every year you have to look for ways to improve your club. If you're not very good defensively, that's a way you can improve. If you have a bad year offensively, maybe you want to focus on the offense. We believe in balance and we haven't been as good defensively as we want to be. We've addressed that through some midseason trades in the past, and I think this offseason there were ways to address that at a value and we did."

Sox CEO Larry Lucchino, who came out of the Yawkey Way winter wars with a little less power (and less bark), says, ''There's always the question of the aging of the team vs. younger players. It's certainly something we've especially focused on this year. Rebuilding is not a word I would use. We talk about balance between the future and the present. We talk about retooling. We talk about getting younger."

''It's not really a shift," adds owner John Henry (hmmm, he sounds like Theo, too). ''We talked about that in September and October of last year and Theo had very definite ideas that Larry and I both agreed with at the time."

''Every winter is different," says Epstein. ''We were ranked the 29th-best farm system last year and this year we were seventh [actually 21st and eighth, according to Baseball America]. When you have that kind of improvement in the farm system you have more quality prospects and you can deal from a position of strength. There were some needs on this club that had to be addressed. I think the key is that if you're going to move some of your better prospects, make sure you have other ones to back them up and make sure that you get something back that works not only for now, but for the future."

Development vs. acquisition is an age-old tug of war for the Sox. Go back 20 years to when Lou Gorman was GM. The Sox used four starting pitchers in the 1986 World Series -- Roger Clemens, Bruce Hurst, Oil Can Boyd, and Al Nipper. All four were drafted and developed by the Sox. When the Sox won the Series in 2004, they did it with Martínez, Derek Lowe, Tim Wakefield, and Curt Schilling as starters. Of the four, only Schilling was drafted by the Sox and he was traded (along with Brady Anderson) long before he made the big leagues in a 1988 deal that brought established starter Mike Boddicker to Boston. Boddicker became a postseason starter for the Sox that season.

Now the shift is back toward drafting and developing pitching, which explains why the Sox have gotten away from drafting high school hurlers. Eighteen-year-old pitchers are considered the riskiest draft picks.

''Our draft philosophy is defined by value in the draft," deadpans Epstein. ''We're not tied to any one demographic. We've drafted more college players than otherwise, but that's because a lot of teams were drafting high school players. Now that the pendulum has swung in the other direction back to college players, there's some value in high school players. I think you're seeing better balance. Analysis is different. With college players you have performance to go on. You have more of a track record. With high school players you're evaluating tools."

In fact, only 24 of Boston's 53 draft picks last year were from a four-year college.

None of the bosses will dispute the notion that operating a major league team in the Boston market is different than in most other places. You cannot charge the prices the Red Sox charge and then talk about a rebuilding season. Expectations are that the Red Sox will compete every year. They have the money. And the fans won't stand for second division.

''That's the artistry of managing a baseball team, knowing how much to devote to the present and how much to devote to the future," says Lucchino. ''It may be especially acute in Boston where fans have gotten used to winning and competing every year. We've won 95-plus games in the four years of our ownership and three years of postseason play. We understand there's an expectation.

''You're always operating in a gray world. We want to win now; our goal is to get to the playoffs every year but we're not going to sacrifice the future every year for the present. There has to be a balance and I think Theo has addressed that issue every year that he's been a general manager and we recognize that there's a special dynamic that takes place in Boston with the annual expectations, but the only way to run a franchise is with a long-term point of view."

Though he inherited a farm system that had been scorched to bedrock, Epstein cuts Duquette some slack.

''It's been a longstanding impediment for the Red Sox," says the GM. ''With the Red Sox there's been so much focus on winning and building an uber-team this year . . . so much focus on tomorrow's paper . . . so much focus on the Yankees. Some of that had to do with the timing of the end of the Yawkey regime. There's no doubt that we feel the only way to sustain success over a long period of time is to have a successful farm system. Ownership has given us a lot of resources and paid a lot of attention to it. Now we have two goals every year -- win at the major league level and build a better farm system. We evaluate ourselves on both of those goals every year.

In 2005, five of the Sox' six farm teams had winning records. Top prospects Papelbon, Hansen, Ramírez, Manny Delcarmen, Kelly Shoppach, Alejandro Machado, Abe Alvarez, and Cla Meredith all played for the big league club.

''We groom our prospects so that when they're ready, they're as prepared as possible," says Epstein. ''We try to make sure they've failed in the minor leagues. Sometimes that means pushing them a little. We make sure we choose the right guys to keep in terms of their mental makeup -- the guys who have a chance to adjust to the pressure of playing in Boston and are equipped mentally to handle that. Probably the most important thing is to build a big league team that can withstand the inevitable learning curve of a young player. We have enough depth and talent that we can take in a couple of guys a year so that we can withstand a couple of months or more of adjustment.

''We've always known what we've wanted. We want the farm system to produce a couple of young players per year and give us some chips to trade. It took us a while to get there. In presentation to the partners three years ago, I said we were three years away. Two years ago, I said we were two years away. Finally we're at a point where the farm system is going to start to pay dividends at the big league level."