You've heard of the Mendoza Line, baseball's catch phrase for hitting futility? Introducing the Manzanillo Line, in honor of Reds reliever Josias Manzanillo.

After an encouraging March, Manzanillo's April pitches have been pulped like orange juice: an 11.17 ERA, nine earned runs in his last four innings.

You've breached the Mendoza Line when you're batting less than .200. You've passed the Manzanillo Line when:

• The equipment guy asks if you want a steel cage in front of the mound when you start the bottom of the fourth.

• Your earned run average would look great as a gymnastics score - Mary Lou just nailed a 9.95 on the uneven bars!

• You're warming up and you notice the guys in the opposing dugout, high-fiving and boogaloo-ing like New Year's Eve.

• The other team's fans start chanting, "We want Josias! We want Josias!"

It's not just Josias. Jimmy Haynes went on the disabled list with back spasms, a 12.74 ERA and a strained neck from turning around to watch all those home run balls he's serving up. The pitchers are last in the NL in ERA, last in walks allowed and 15th in strikeouts. They're fooling fewer people than the Iraqi information minister.

The hitters are second in strikeouts and last in stolen bases. The fielders lead the league in errors. To them, the ball is a grenade.

And you want to fire the manager?

Go ahead.

Then what?

If it's just Bob Boone you're firing, what are the parameters for hiring his replacement? Do you spend money, make a splash and see if Bobby Valentine's interested? Do you save money and hire minor-league lifer and current Louisville Bats manager Dave Miley?

Does Jim Bowden push for Tim Naehring, thereby eliminating a likely competitor for Bowden's job? Like Boone, Bowden is in the last year of his contract.

If you fire Boone and Bowden, who's left to do any smart hiring? The suits on Fourth Street know a lot about business, not much about baseball. Do they take the needed plunge and spend a few million on a proven baseball executive, make him club president and give him total day-to-day authority?

Or do they keep John Allen?

See what I mean? Firing Bob Boone is putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound.

Perception is a problem with Boone. When a team is playing poorly, the public wants something more from the man in charge than a verbal shoulder shrug. This is something Dick LeBeau never understood. Boone is LeBeau in pinstripes.

Danny Graves gets hammered, Boone says he's encouraged by how Graves threw. Felipe Lopez doesn't run hard to first base, he's in the lineup the next day. Manzanillo caps another disaster by striking out Sammy Sosa, then mouths off to Sammy and gestures at the Cubs slugger, as if Josias has just done something great. Pros don't act this way. Boone, a consummate pro as a player, should let his would-be pros know about it.

These are minor points. The big picture is this: a club with little cash, hamstrung by three contracts (Junior Griffey, Barry Larkin, Sean Casey) from making any season-changing moves, headed by an honorable CEO, Carl Lindner, who doesn't have the time, the energy, the expertise or, perhaps, the enthusiasm to take an active role in righting the floundering ship.

None of which has much to do with Bob Boone.

If you're waiting for the cavalry, it's probably not coming. If it is, it could look like Chris Reitsma. Which might not be what you had in mind. Big changes are needed, though. Sooner or later, we'll see how smart ownership really is.

Meantime, bleacher seats are still available at Pretty Good American Ball Park. They're $10 at the box office, $8 if you stay for the game.

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E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com