The cruel economics of baseball

From all appearances, Aaron Small is a terrific guy. And last season, as a mid-season call up from Triple A, the career journeyman damn near saved the Yankees' season. His 10-0 record was completely unexpected and very likely was the difference between the Yankees winning the division and not.

This year? Not so much.

WASHINGTON, June 17 — In the last dozen years, Aaron Small has belonged to a dozen organizations. When the Yankees gave up on him Saturday, it hurt like nothing before.

Standing outside the visitors' clubhouse at R.F.K. Stadium in the morning, just after he was designated for assignment, Small said, "This is the hardest demotion I've ever had to face."

He was 10-0 last season, a superb performance that helped lift the Yankees to the playoffs. But Small missed the first month of this season with a hamstring injury, then went 0-3 with an 8.46 earned run average in 11 games, 3 of them starts.

When the Yankees needed a fresh reliever because of Kyle Farnsworth's back spasms, they promoted T. J. Beam from Class AAA Columbus and took Small off the roster. If no major league team claims him off waivers, Small, 34, said, he will accept an assignment to Columbus, where he would start.

Unfortunately, Aaron reverted to minor league journeyman form this year (actually, he did that in September of last year, but he got good run support and no one in the Yank's organization noticed, apparently). But in the meantime, he went from something clost to the minimum salary to getting a guaranteed contract for $1.2 million to pitch this year.

Small would probably get claimed by some other team if he were still getting paid what he got last year. But with a pro-rated $700 grand still coming his way, it's highly unlikely he'll be going anywhere but back to the farm system. I don't know of any other professional sport where a great reward can end up as punishment -- the flip-side of having the strongest players' union in sports.