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Theo Epstein once built, but has since torn down, the world champion Red Sox.

Epstein elected to make no deals at the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline, figuring the talent he had could keep the Red Sox in contention. Alas, young pitching talent such as Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen started tiring and growing ineffective seemingly as soon as the deadline passed.

Injuries hit harder post-deadline, too: catcher Jason Varitek, who has been out since deadline day (he might be back by Sept. 1), and left fielder Manny Ramirez, who is missing time while getting his ailing left knee examined. And most scary for the Red Sox, on both a team and human level, is slugger David Ortiz’s recurring irregular heartbeat, which put him in the hospital this week. He could be back soon, sidelined for the rest of the year, or done with his career — right now, nobody knows.

The result is, the Boston Red Sox field lineups these days that look more like the Pawtucket Red Sox. Against Oakland Monday, one-third of the batting order consisted of players who had just come to Boston in the last two weeks, and not because a pennant-contending team stacked up on talent. The lineup included Eric Hinske, dumped by Toronto, and Pawtucket call-ups Carlos Pena (dumped by Detroit) and Dustin Pedroia.

The starting pitcher, Kason Gabbard, had just celebrated his one-month anniversary in the big leagues. No wonder Boston has scored exactly one run in its first two games of the Oakland series.

If Epstein is to take credit for the building the 2004 champions, he must take blame for what has happened in 2006. Sure, he can’t control the injuries, but he’s made some assumptions — I have enough starting pitching, my young players are ready — that just haven’t panned out. His team is ninth in batting average and 11th in ERA (though first in fielding) — it’s a wonder the Red Sox are still over .500 with those numbers.

Epstein’s apparent desire to dump Wells (not a problem in and of itself, given his performance this year) for a younger player should tell Red Sox fans that another Series run isn’t happening anytime soon. Maybe the youngsters that struggled this year will get things together next year.

But the primes of their careers are years away — if they come at all.

Epstein didn’t suddenly get dumb, but his deals are making a monkey out of him. At this rate, Red Sox fans had better start preparing for the possibility of the next Series title coming, say, in 2090. 2004! 2004!

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