Tuesday night pitching performances and one bonehead

The Florida State League continued to have some interesting pitching performances Tuesday night. Let's start in Tampa, where the Yankees hosted Dunedin and Brett Cecil, who was making his season debut. The youngster didn't seem to have any problems, going 1 2/3 innings, striking out two and allowing a hit before reaching his pitch count. Cecil seemed pretty confident when I spoke with him on Friday about making the start and now it's just a matter of his building up some arm strength. If he stays healthy I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be in New Hampshire by the end of this season.

"It's not necessarily counterproductive to think about moving up," he said. "For now, though, I just want to get my starts in, my innings in and perform well.If I keep working hard and make every start, we'll go from there."

Cecil should start next Sunday afternoon at Ft. Meyers. Another Florida State League starter who'll get the nod again on Sunday will be Lakeland's Rick Porcello, who suffered his first professional loss Tuesday night at Sarasota. Porcello didn't allow an earned run in five innings, struck out four and didn't walk a batter -- he had walked two in the final inning of work in his debut.

Porcello's undoing came in the fourth inning when a host of errors led to four unearned runs. Shortstop Cale Iorg made a fielding and a throwing error in the inning while second baseman Scott Sizemore added a throwing error. Iorg and Sizemore each have three errors this season. Iorg's mishandling of a grounder in Porcello's debut last week -- he wasn't charged with an error -- led to some shaky moments for the hurler but he pitched out of the subsequent jam.

Clearwater's Joe Savery also pitched for the second time, making his first start, and also suffered a loss despite pitching very well. He scattered seven hits and struck outt wo over seven innings in dropping a 2-1 decsion to Ft. Myers. Most important, though, was the fact that he walked only two hitters. Savery has had control issues in the past but if he proves he can keep people off base via the walk there's no reason to think he won't make it up to Reading at some point.

Moving over to the Sally League, Charleston's Dellin Betances continues to impress. He struck out eight over 5 1/3 innings against Savannah. Sure, he walked six hitters but he's 2-0 and has 16 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings so far,.If he keeps this up, he'll make the jump to Tampa before long.

"He's got a big-time curve, I mean a hammer," said Yankees senior vice president for baseball operations Mark Newman . "And he's throwing it well. We're not necessarily going to keep him in one spot. His stuff is so good, if he's healthy, he's going to move."

Staying in the Sally League, let's look at Rome. Is it too early to issue a mea culpa? I touted the Rome staff as possibly being the best in all of the Minor Leagues before the season and it certainly hasn't been the case through the first week. I was touting the Braves starters -- Jeff Locke, Steve Evarts, Jose Ortegano and Chad Rodgers -- yet they are a combined 1-3 with a 7.71 ERA in 18 2/3 innings thus far. Only Evarts, who didn't allow a run in five innings against Charleston last week, has pitched as predicted. But it is early, so...

And on a final note, how big of a bonehead is Atlanta's top prospect Jordan Schafer, who got busted on Tuesday for using HGH. What is this kid thinking? He had a great season last year and wowed everyone in camp this spring. Well, perhaps we now know why. In any event, this has cast doubts on everything he did last year after his average jumped 72 points from 2006. Dumb, just plain dumb.