By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

With their $46 million payroll and tight-fisted owner, the Reds don't get many opportunities to make a statement to fans about their commitment to winning.

They had a chance to make one Wednesday and passed.

Or maybe they made the most telling statement of all.

When they should have told right-hander Jimmy Haynes to take his 0-3 record, his 9.60 ERA and the remainder of his $2.5 million salary and enjoy the rest of his life, when they should have called up one of those young arms they say they've been stockpiling for the future, they merely shifted Haynes to the bullpen and moved journeyman Todd Van Poppel into his spot in the starting rotation.

"Right now the focus is on what's going to make our starting rotation better," said general manager Dan O'Brien.

And the man to do that, apparently, is Van Poppel, with his lifetime 5.49 ERA.

That should get the Great American Ball Park turnstiles whirring.

If he were still general manager, Jim Bowden would have turned over half the roster by now, with the exception of five-tool Wily Mo Pena, of course.

But O'Brien is the anti-Bowden. He prefers to proceed deliberately and cautiously. While Bowden's method was often maddening, it at least gave the impression that something was being done.

Jettisoning Haynes, who's a combined 2-15 over the past two seasons, seemed like such a logical move that even Haynes himself at least had considered the possibility that he might be released.

"I'm just glad to still be here," Haynes said.

The decision to send Haynes to the bullpen and hope for the best only cements the growing notion that the Reds care more about the bottom line than they do about winning, although O'Brien said Haynes' salary had nothing to do with the decision.

Rather, the Reds' brain trust decided that Haynes could best fill Van Poppel's long-relief role in the bullpen.

"Hopefully, this will give Jimmy an opportunity to go down there and get himself back on track," manager Dave Miley said.

The pity is that the Reds could have earned some brownie points among their fans at the cost of just a few hundred thousand dollars.

We're not talking about adding a $5 million pitcher here, but cutting a $2.5 million one who can't get anybody out.

In his place, they could have summoned one of the young pitchers they received from the Atlanta Braves when they traded Chris Reitsma earlier this year and crowed about what a heck of a deal they made. Jung Keun Bong has pitched 15 scoreless innings at Triple-A Louisville over his last two starts. Why not call him up and show the customers what you've been working on?

At the most, it would have cost them roughly $300,000 to pay Bong the major-league minimum for the rest of the season.

And really, when you think about it, couldn't Van Poppel best fill Van Poppel's role in the bullpen?

Whether they know it or not, the Reds are beginning to lose the intimate connection they've shared with the citizens of this community for well over a hundred years.

Fans will suffer through lean years now and again. They'll even pony up for a new ballpark every 30 years or so, as long as they're convinced their team is trying to win.

When they stop believing that, they stop coming to the ballpark. And if they stop coming long enough, pretty soon baseball loses its hold on the local population.

You could make a case that it has already.

That's not all Jimmy Haynes' fault. But Haynes has become the symbol for something that's terribly wrong with this franchise and its half-hearted approach to winning.

That he's still in a Reds uniform and probably will find his way back into the rotation at some point says more about this club than all the squawkers on all the radio talk shows could say in a week.

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com