By Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The stats, the radar gun and the past were inconsequential. Mack Jenkins knew by sight and by the feel of catching the 31-year-old's pitches that he belonged somewhere other than the fly-at-dawn, play-by-night International League.

"I tell you what, you can't have a better attitude than this guy has had," the Triple-A Louisville coach said late last month. "He's here to work. He knows what it takes. ... This guy will find his way back to the big leagues."

The big leagues always have held a spot for one-time phenom Todd Van Poppel.

Once considered the best high school starting pitcher ever to enter the amateur draft, he was recalled by the Reds on Wednesday and assigned to a weary and worn bullpen.

Cincinnati had signed Van Poppel to a non-guaranteed minor-league contract after Texas released him June 4, hoping to rediscover for crumbs salary-wise the effective reliever that emerged during the 2000 and 2001 seasons with the Cubs.

The Reds are Van Poppel's eighth professional organization since the A's picked him in the first round of the 1990 draft.

"I've played a long time, 14 years," he said. "I think everybody thinks I'm real old, but I'm really not.

"But I am to the point now where I don't have that much time left to mess around. I'm not really a project anymore. It's time to get it done."

Thirteen teams passed on Van Poppel in 1990. The Reds, who had the seventh pick in the draft, chose catcher Dan Wilson.

"A lot of clubs didn't think they could sign (Van Poppel)," said Reds general manager Jim Bowden, who was an administrative assistant for scouting and player development with the club then.

"He was definitely one of the top three talents in the country on almost everybody's board."

The Athletics took Van Poppel at 14th overall and signed him to a major-league contract worth $1.2 million.

At 19 years old in September 1991, he made his major-league debut after just 32 games in the minors and has spent the past dozen years bouncing around the game.

"I've still got a few things to work on," said Van Poppel, who was 3-0 with one save and a 1.76 ERA at Louisville before his call-up. "Right now, the reason I'm still playing is I feel like I can still play.

"I'm very positive about how I'm throwing the ball and I'm very confident that I can ... help people out."

The practice of signing draftees to major-league contracts is not new, but it remains a scarcely used option for high schoolers.

It puts them on a fast track to the major leagues and often limits their development.

Van Poppel and Marlins pitcher Josh Beckett (second overall in 1999) remain the only two high school pitchers drafted in the first round who signed major-league contracts.

The Reds, in 2000, drafted high school outfielder David Espinosa and college catcher Dane Sardinha and signed them to major-league contracts because of a lack of bonus funds.

Espinosa was traded to the Tigers last season, but Sardinha is at Double-A Chattanooga, where he was hitting .198 with three homers and 28 strikeouts in 32 games.

Because of his contract, Sardinha must be placed on the Reds' 25-man roster by next season whether he's ready or not.

"You don't want to give a high school player a major-league contract unless it's the only way you can sign the player," Bowden said. "It's kind of a last resort.

"Those kinds of contracts certainly hurt the players and the clubs."

In the 12 seasons since he debuted with the A's, and before the Reds recalled him, Van Poppel had pitched for the A's, Tigers, Rangers, Pirates, Cubs and Rangers again, been waived twice and released three times.

He had a 34-45 record with a 5.55 ERA in 302 career major-league games.

Projected as a starter out of high school, drawing comparisons to fellow Texan Nolan Ryan, Van Poppel has made only three major-league starts since 1998.

"I've always been comfortable out of the bullpen," he said. "I still think I can start if it comes down to it. My arm has been very resilient."

The 2000 and '01 seasons with the Cubs were his finest when, as a middle reliever, Van Poppel went a combined 8-6 with a 3.18 ERA in 110 games.

"When I was with the Cubs, I was more aggressive, had a little bit of movement on my fastball and could keep the ball down," he said. "I could do anything with my slider, and I think that's what I've got to get back to."

Texas released Van Poppel, who was in the second year of a $7.5 million contract, June 4. He was 1-0 with an 8.53 ERA and had allowed 20 hits and walked nine in 12 2/3 innings.

"We think he should be able to bounce back and throw like he did with the Cubs those two years," Bowden said. "They tried to make some changes with him in Texas, and maybe the changes they tried weren't going to work for him and that had something to do with his failure there.

"He certainly still has the arm strength and certainly showed with the Cubs that he could get the job done."

Armed with a fastball that still reaches the mid-90s and the slider that helped him succeed in Chicago, Van Poppel likes his chances of staying in the majors.

"A lot of people don't think I have (lived up to the expectations)," he said. "I was supposed to have been winning 20 games for 10 years in a row by now. But I've met a lot of people, been a lot of places and I've had fun.

"I still feel like I have a lot of years left."

The Todd Van Poppel file
POSITION/TEAM: Pitcher/Reds
THROWS: Right
BORN: Dec. 9, 1971, in Hinsdale, Ill.
RESIDES: Southlake, Texas
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6-5/235
DRAFTED: 14th overall by the A's in 1990
HOW ACQUIRED BY THE REDS: Signed a non-guaranteed minor-league contract June 12.

CAREER MAJOR-LEAGUE STATS

YEAR	TEAM	W-L-S	ERA	G-GS
1991	A's	0-0-0	9.64	1-1
1993	A's	6-6-0	5.04	16-16
1994	A's	7-10-0	6.09	23-23
1995	A's	4-8-0	4.88	36-14
1996	A's-Tigers	3-9-1	9.70	37-15
1998	Rangers-Pirates	2-4-0	6.38	22-11
2000	Cubs	4-5-2	3.75	51-2
2001	Cubs	4-1-0	2.52	59-0
2002	Rangers	3-2-1	5.45	50-0
2003	Rangers	1-0-0	8.53	7-1
Totals		34-45-4	5.55	302-83

First-round picks since 1989 who signed major-league contracts

1989 - P Ben McDonald, Orioles (1st overall)#
1990 - P Todd Van Poppel, Athletics (14th overall)*
1993 - SS Alex Rodriguez, Mariners (1st overall)*
1998 - OF Pat Burrell, Phillies (1st overall); OF J.D. Drew, Cardinals (5th overall)
1999 - P Josh Beckett, Marlins (2nd overall)*; C Eric Munson, Tigers (3rd overall)
2000 - SS David Espinosa, Reds (23rd overall)*%
2001 - P Mark Prior, Cubs (2nd overall); P Dewon Brazelton, Devil Rays (3rd overall); 3B Mark Teixeira, Rangers (5th overall)
2002 - P Jeremy Guthrie, Indians (22nd overall)

# = retired
* = high school player
% = traded to Tigers in 2002
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E-mail kkelly@enquirer.com