You say all those little deals leading up to the trading deadline by the Boston Red Sox add up to no big deal?

Fine. ‘Tis the Divine right of any fan who has lived through the portion of 85 years of “almost” that includes Bucky and Buckner.

But I beg to differ.

Let’s take a gander at the final totals from two months (and one frantic final week) of General Manager Theo Epstein’s first summer on baseball’s Wall Street.

Gains: Byung-Hyun Kim, Todd Jones, Gabe Kapler, Scott Sauerbeck, Scott Williamson, Jeff Suppan.

Losses: Shea Hillenbrand, Freddy Sanchez, Phil Dumatrait, player to the named later, cash.

Lost, then regained: Brandon Lyon, Anastacio Martinez.

Gained, then lost: Mike Gonzalez.

No, this wasn’t the equivalent of winning Powerball or getting in on the ground floor with Microsoft. What the Sox accomplished, however, were two things we weren’t accustomed to seeing during the Dan Duquette Error.

Uh, era.

1. They looked busy.

2. They got better.

Essentially, Epstein started a chess match with George Steinbrenner and the Evil Empire that was every ounce as entertaining as a four-game, weekend series in the Bronx.

And he accomplished what his predecessor, who was more likely to call one of his Rotisserie League pals or statistical guru Bill James when the Sox had a problem instead of a fellow GM who actually might have helped, could not.

He addressed frightening weaknesses and turned them into eye-opening strengths.

Boston’s atrocious bullpen, a gang of retreads and prospects who never met a lead they couldn’t give away, has been so thoroughly restocked that it’s almost scary. In the space of a month, the Sox went from lacking a closer to wielding three.

Thankfully, that won’t hasten a return to the dreaded bullpen by committee. Manager Grady Little makes it clear that the side-winding Kim is his fireman. Isn’t it comforting, though, that if Kim engages in a September swoon rivaling his World Series 2001 collapse with Arizona, Little could trot Williamson or even Jones out there in the ninth inning and place his faith in a proven commodity?

Add the crafty left-hander (aren’t all southpaws other than Randy Johnson “crafty?”) Sauerbeck to the mix and you’ve got a wealth of options fit to make Tony LaRussa and weekend Strat-O-Matic hounds drool.

Suppan probably was the best available hurler available on the July 31 deadline, which says more about the sorry state of Major League pitching than his ability.

On the down side, he’s a lifetime .500 guy. On the happy side, he’s reaching the age where young pitchers who once had great stuff but no clue finally “get it.” To wit, Suppan was 10-7 for a hideous team, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

If there’s a move that has the potential to become a remix of Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen, circa 1990, it’s the Suppan deal. Only if he blows out his elbow and second baseman Sanchez becomes the Second Coming of Joe Morgan, though.

Sending Sanchez packing is more of a risk than unloading Hillenbrand. True, one great game in Arlington does not a career make, but Bill Mueller has demonstrated himself to be at least a reasonable facsimile at third base.

Jones and Kapler, on the other hand, filled two needs and cost the Red Sox nothing. Other than the Kansas City Royals taking a flyer on Jose Lima, those are the shrewdest scrap-heap pickups of the season to date.

No doubt the Yankees also were busy, snagging Aaron Boone and David Dellucci and bidding farewell to Robin Ventura and Raul Mondesi in the final hours.

Sox sympathizers shouldn’t be shaking in their cleats at that. Moves to shore up the pinstripers’ pen, adding southpaw set-up man Gabe White after picking up 46-year-old Jesse Orosco and perennial head case Armando Benitez, don’t have me pulling out my hair, either.

For once, the Sox don’t look like they sat around twiddling their thumbs at baseball’s annual midsummer meat market.

That’s a pretty big deal in my book.

Kalle Oakes is sports editor. He can be reached by e-mail at .

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