Oops - In Insulting Epstein, Callahan Proves Theo's Point

Gerry Callahan doesn't get it. On one hand, he rips the front office for not making any deadline deals (that, as everyone following the team knows, would have involved trading away some of their best young players, especially pitchers). Then, Callahan says that the current Red Sox team is getting old and many of those players can't wait until 2008 for the team to be competitive.

The names won't change next year and neither will the game plan. The only difference is that David Wells will be gone and Curt Schilling will be 40. ... From their basement offices, Epstein and his guys don't seem to notice that there's a window closing on this team. Its core is aging faster than Boy George. Jason Varitek will be 35 in April, which is 73 in catcher years. Manny Ramirez will be 35 in May. Tim Wakefield is 40. Mike Timlin is 40. Nixon probably will be gone in October, as will Mark Loretta and possibly Alex Gonzalez.

First of all -- Boy George????? What century is this?

Second of all, Gerry, you just proved Theo's plan is the correct one, even if you think you are arguing the opposite. It is a fact that a huge part of the current team is old -- three of the starting pitchers are over 40 -- or on the wrong side of 30. That's why Epstein refused to get rid of his promising young pitchers unless an amazing deal came along. And, of course, flat-out steals are hard to come by (though we'll all be saying Arroyo-for-Pena was a Brinks job soon enough).

[T]hey could have made some moves and filled some holes. They could have given Schilling and Co. a chance to get to the postseason and see what might happen. They chose not to. Don’t want to mortgage the future, you know. Remember Freddy Sanchez. And Jeff Bagwell.

Or Jonathan Papelbon. You don't think teams were asking about him last year? I sure wish Theo had traded him for a "name" slugger past his prime. We might have extended the agony of last year's ALDS against the White Sox to four games.

Pap would have been worth that, right, Gerry? After all, the window is closing for the vets.