Epstein shows he can field his position

Theo Epstein, fresh from posing with other Red Sox employees, including the uniformed types, for the annual organizational photo -- David Ortiz sat in the front row between CEO Larry Lucchino and Epstein -- staked a spot near a cluster of reporters in front of the Sox dugout and stopped.

If that didn't make his intentions clear, he eliminated any doubts after he was surrounded, as he obviously anticipated, by cameras, notebooks, and microphones.

``I'm here," he said, ``while we're losing. Fire away."

For the better part of 26 minutes yesterday afternoon, Epstein took on any and all comers, offering a lucid and expansive dissection of the state of the team dispassionately and with no hint of defensiveness.

The gist of his message? Despite a performance this weekend that Epstein termed the team's worst of the year, he has confidence in the way he put this club together, that it is too soon to write off this season, and that the commitment to some of the team's younger players will pay dividends in the future.

``I think it's important to look at the big picture," Epstein said. ``Anything you say at a time when you've played probably three of your worst games of the year can unfortunately be taken out of context. I prefer to take a broader look.

``We used the same principles this year that we did to win 95 plus games three years in a row and make the playoffs three years in a row.

``We maybe had a little bit less room for error this year. If a number of things went wrong, it was going to be a little bit more of a struggle for us, and it's proven to be a little bit more of a struggle.

``That doesn't mean we can't win, it doesn't mean we're giving up. Our goal is to put ourselves in a position to win 95 plus games and make the playoffs every single year and that's always been our goal for this year, for next year or the year after that, and we still have a chance to do it."

Why was the margin of error smaller this year? Epstein referenced injuries (Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield, David Wells), performances that fell below expectations, and the force-feeding of young players at a pace faster than anticipated.

``We feared this might happen, pitching-wise, when Wake went down," Epstein said.

``Yeah, we're thin and we're kind of walking a tightrope, we had some guys who were performing really well in July and haven't performed as well in August. That's kind of tipped the scales and exposed our lack of depth, but we've got to get better, find a way to get better."

Among those who have not pitched well of late, of course, is Josh Beckett, winner of just one of six starts since he struck a deal with the Sox on a new three-year, $30 million deal.

``It's all command for him, command and sometimes trying to throw harder in spots where a better located pitch might do," Epstein said. ``But he's going to be fine. It's frustrating for everybody because he can be so good, to see him struggle at all is frustrating.

``But taking the long view on this guy, he's going to be fine. Obviously now's the time when we need him more than ever, so it would be nice if it would happen sooner rather than later. But in the long view, this guy's going to make adjustments. He's going to be very, very good again."

Epstein spent a good portion of the time answering questions about the Sox vis a vis the Yankees, and how the Sox, while possessing ``tremendous resources," could not compete with the Yankees for certain players, like Bobby Abreu, when the luxury-tax consequences of acquiring Abreu would have made him a player worth more than $20 million.

He also noted that the Sox were forced to thrust Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen into roles greater than envisioned at the start of year because of the injury to Keith Foulke and other pitchers (read Julian Tavarez and Rudy Seanez) not performing as anticipated.

He also reiterated that the club had sought pitching help at the trading deadline and that the chances at this time of getting an impact pitcher were not good.

``Any time you're not winning, you're not happy with the way things have gone, you look for things you could have done differently," he said, ``but no, the process was good.

``We weren't going to be in a position to just bring in guys for the sake of bringing in guys. We wanted to find someone that was better than what we had.

``There are a lot of talented guys on this team who aren't pitching very well right now.

``We've got to find a way as an organization to turn that around."

The recent spate of criticism directed his way? That he shrugged off with a hint of sarcasm.

``Frankly, it makes my life a little easier," he said. ``When you're too popular, people want too much stuff from you."