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These derogatory expressions puzzle me. It's not a good thing to be small potatoes - but why not? (I suspect this expression started before people got keen on "new potatoes" which are usually on the small side, and delicious when boiled with a bit of mint! nothing bad about being a small potato if you are also a new potato.)
One of my brothers recently used the term "small beer" to me, I think about a tourist attraction. Something along the lines of, "I think people from Europe would find such-and-such very small beer." (Can't remember what the attraction was.) Why is small beer bad? I have a feeling it's probably a brewmaster's expression - but how did it arise?
And then, when you wish to point out that someone thinks he's pretty special, when in reality he's pretty average (can you be degrees of average?!), you cut him down by calling him "a big fish [or frog] in a small pond." Is this to say that of course he thinks he's pretty special, because there ain't much for him to compare himself to? ie, if he were in a bigger pond, he couldn't, ahem, crow so much? (do fish and frogs crow?! big ones do!)
Anyone know anything fascinating and illuminating about any or all of these phrases?
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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While this one could be considered derogatory, I wouldn't say it always is. It can be just a statement of fact, as in the example below: big fish in a small pond Also, big frog in a little pond. A person who is important in a limited arena; someone overqualified for a position or in relation to colleagues. For example, Steve has both a Ph.D. and an M.D., yet he's content with his practice at a rural hospital; he prefers to be a big fish in a little pond. The expression big fish has been slang for an important or influential person since the early 1800s. The addition of in a small pond as a metaphor for an unimportant organization is more recent, as is the substitution of frog. Another variant is the proverb Better a big fish in a little puddle than a little fish in a big puddle. http://www.xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=629563
Anyone know anything fascinating and illuminating about any or all of these phrases?
Nope.  
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Only thing I know about small beer is that it was a drink of English peasantry - I think - in the later Middle Ages... Dictionary.com (I know, I know) says this: "Small beer is beer of only slight alcoholic strength ("small"); hence it came to signify something of little importance."
I think because it wasn't very alcoholic, it was cheaper to buy and therefore more accessible to the poorer people...
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Carpal Tunnel
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In other words, "This Bud's for you". 
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I had always thought that small potatoes was something not to be worried about.
But is there a correlation between small potatoes and calling a child a small fry?
And the first time I heard big fish in a small pond was in the sixth grade. Mom told me, "Right now, you are the big fish in the small pond, but next year in Junior High School, you will be the small fish in the big pond." So, I have always thought of these two as being opposites.
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I think small fry has to do with fish, doesn't it, rather being associated with 'French fries' (I assume that's what you mean, Angel?) Appropriate with this week's theme...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Anyone who has raised potatoes knows how much nicer it is to have large ones rather than small ones which are more trouble to find, and must not be left behind because they can encourage growths of
molds that may damage next year's crop. And it is much easier to peel a large potato than a lot of small ones.
The best potatoes I ever raised, I did not bury the seed. After spading some fertilizer into each hill,
I covered them six inches deep in seaweed. They grew beautfully, had few blemishes, and all I had to do
was pull up the whole plant which came up easily and then pick the postatoes off the roots.
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