Theo Epstein on his experience, youth, and plans for 2003

Here is the meat of Theo Epstein's Zone interview last Monday afternoon 11.25.02 with Sean and Will McDonough (and Tim Fox).

Will was on his case about his years of experience from the get-go. Theo
went over his summer internships in Baltimore while at Yale, the move to San
Diego, getting involved with contracts, scouting, player evaluations, the
draft, driving to PCL games, and going to law law school while working
full-time for the Padres "what's wrong with a little Jewish boy going to
school at a nice Catholic law school?" :-).

Theo: "...drive up to LA and get the entire Pac-10, and San Diego high
school baseball... Orange County area baseball's great. I've had a chance to
see 10-15 picks in the first couple rounds just by scouting out the local
area, then going over to Arizona and scout over there as well. The scouts
are the ones you pay to make these decisions but by getting another look,
it's good not only for your own development, for me personally, in my
development as a scout and as an evaluator but it's a good second look, the
more looks you have, especially at high picks, the better off you are.

Sean: You've been asked about this a million times, some people are
questioning your age, some fans, media people have expressed concern.
Obviously you have a experience. Some fans would like their GM to have more
experience. You said you evaluated yourself, vis-a vie your readiness to
take on this job. What would you say to the fans who might have concerns
about your youth and relative lack of experience at least in terms of number
of years.

Theo: I guess I would say that baseball operations in the 21st century is a
little different than it used to be. There's a lot more that goes into the
game these days than strict talent evaluation and traditional scouting.
Branch Rickey said that there's no such thing as a good scout under the age
of 65, and I think in a lot of ways he's right, some of the better scouts
I've ever been around are 65 and older and have lifetimes of experience to
draw on. And we're going to lean on those people heavily here as well.

But at the same time, there's a really complicated landscape that we deal
with on a day-to-day basis, it involves multi-year player contracts, it
involves a complicated salary structure for 0-3 players, salary arbitration,
it involves talent that's available every day if we're prepared. There's a
large amount of information that we have to deal with from scouting reports
that are all computerized now to statistics that are obviously computerized.
It's a very complicated landscape so it takes a person who is comfortable
with all aspects of the job to be able to handle that. And a lot of times,
these days, in baseball front offices just by the nature of the work a lot
of the responsibilities tend to fall on young people. Young people are more
familiar with computers. Young people might tend to work longer hours. Young
people might tend to have tremendous energy. So there's a lot of good work
being done out there by young people. I'm not necessarily speaking about
myself, but just looking here at the Red Sox, we have a mix of older
employees and younger employees and it's an outstanding mix. We have great
veteran scouts with experience that would make Branch Rickey proud.

You know I was in here this weekend to talk to Larry about this job and we
had seven front office employees sitting here breaking down scouting
reports, redesigining our scouting software system, it was really
inspirational.

I would just say to put their trust in me. I have a lot of experience in
this game. I don't think I have all the answers. We're going to lean on the
right people. We're going to create a bit of a Yankee structure where I
might be the mediator and the leader of a baseball braintrust with decades
and decades of experience.

We know what we're doing. We're ready for this as an organization and good
things will follow.

Sean: What are the priorities as you go to work here. We spoke with Mike
earlier and he gave us a list of what he thinks the organization needs to
address. As you look at making the major league team better for next season,
what are you planning to do?

Theo: Just taking a short-term look, looking at the 2003 Red Sox, I think
the number one priority remains the bullpen. It was an area of weakness for
us in 2002. We addressed it in part, I think in hindsight, with the
acquisitions of Alan Embree and Bobby Howry.

In hindsight, perhaps we could have acted more quickly. Perhaps we could
have acted more strongly in that regard. Certainly the bullpen represents
and area where we can upgrade.

And the good thing is there are a lot of good available arms out there.
Building a major league bullpen is sort of an interesting process. It's not
necessarily the best names available, who are going to be the ones who help.
It's not necessarily the relievers who have track records of saving 40 games
a year. A lot of times you can find values in the market. Maybe starting
pitchers who have failed as starters but have really good arms (read: Rupe),
might just be looking for that break to break into the bullpen. You might
find some young pitchers to help out in the bullpen the way you saw with
Francisco Rodriguez in the World Series. You might some minor league free
agents, the Angels bullpen was full of them, with Brandon Donnelly and
Weber. We're looking at all those avenues to build the bullpen.

Beyond the bullpen, we'd like to add one more starting pitcher to improve
the rotation and to provide depth. And we'd like to add some on-base skills
a little bit to the line-up, a couple positions where we might be able to
upgrade either through trade or free agency.

Sean: ...thanks Theo, we're happy for you and we wish you good luck.

Theo: I appreciate it and I would just say guys that we're all in this thing
together here at the Red Sox. I think good things are ahead for us, so hang
with us, I think you'll be happy with what you see.