D-Braves pitcher Matthew Small gets 50-game drug suspension

Atlanta Braves minor league pitcher Matthew Small, who played for the Danville Braves this summer, was suspended for 50 games Tuesday after testing positive for a banned amphetamine.

The penalty will take effect at the start of next season.

The 20-year-old righty was 1-2 with a 2.55 ERA this year in 13 relief appearances for the Braves’ rookie-level Appalachian League affiliate. Small tied for the team lead with six saves this summer while striking out 27 batters in 17 2-3 innings. He allowed six walks, 13 hits and five earned runs.

“We’re obviously disappointed in his actions but we fully support the commissioner’s drug program,” D-Braves General Manager David Cross said Tuesday night. “Right now we can’t offer any defense on the player’s actions. We fully support the policy that’s in place.”

The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Small was the Atlanta Braves’ 14th-round selection in the 2006 amateur draft out of Ipswich High School in Massachusetts, where he started all four years.

After speaking with the player’s family, Ipswich High baseball coach Gardy O’Flynn said in a telephone interview that Small was hurt for the last month of Danville’s season and was taking painkillers.

Small was unavailable for comment Tuesday night.

“Not only is he a tremendous baseball player, but he’s a tremendous person,” O’Flynn said. “(Poor character is) nothing that I’ve seen from Matt. He always showed up and played hard and did whatever a coach would ask.”

Small, whose fastball reaches in the low-90 mph range, attended Lake City (Fla.) Community College before signing with Atlanta.

He went 0-3 with a 4.91 ERA and had 18 strikeouts while appearing in 10 games for the Gulf Coast League Braves in 2007.

Kurt Kemp, the Atlanta Braves’ director of player development, did not return a telephone message from the Register & Bee seeking comment. D-Braves manager Paul Runge also did not return a telephone message Tuesday night.

Small was named player of the year by the Salem News, his hometown newspaper, following his senior season at Ipswich High, when he led the Tigers to their first Cape Ann League small division championship in eight years.

He compiled a 7-2 record, a 0.73 ERA and struck out 96 batters in 57 2-3 innings his senior year. He was also strong at the plate, posting a .444 batting average with three home runs and 21 RBIs during the Tigers’ division title run.

“I know that they’re cracking down due to the steroid issue in baseball,” said O’Flynn, who played Division I college baseball at New Hampshire and spent six years in the Texas Rangers farm system, rising as high as Class AA.

“I know amphetamines and greenies have been used for decades in baseball, which you know I’m not sure what was found in Matt’s case, but there’s an issue in all of society in relation to that,” O’Flynn said. “A lot of it is you have to make the right decision when it comes by your way and you have to know the possible consequences.”

Under pressure from Congress to toughen penalties for drug use, baseball players and owners agreed in November 2005 to institute a 50-game suspension for a first offense, a 100-game suspension for a second offense and a lifetime ban for a third.

There have been 66 suspensions this year under the minor league program and two under the major league program.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.