Minor League Games - July 9th, 2022

[Squire]

AAA: Rochester at Lehigh Valley (TBD) - 6:35PM
AA: Reading (TBD) at Richmond - 6:05PM
High A: Hudson Valley at Jersey Shore (RHP Andrew Painter) - 7:05PM
Low A: Clearwater (RHP Jean Cabrera) at Dunedin - 6:30PM
FCL: FCL Phillies (TBD) v. FCL Blue Jays - 10:00AM
DSL: DSL Phillies Red (TBD) v. DSL Nationals - 11:00AM
DSL: DSL Phillies White (TBD) v. DSL Mets - 10:00AM

Rolling Scores Here - https://www.milb.com/scores/philadelphia-phillies/2022-07-09

Rolling Boxes Here - https://www.mlb.com/prospects/stats/affiliates?teamId=143&date=07/09/2022

[Squire]

NPG back in the FCL lineup. Scott Moss is the starting pitcher. Still no sign of Gavin Tonkel. Its amazing how many guys just absolutely disappear in our system.

[bigegypt0417]

Good 3 innings for Painter and Rojas with a HR and still hitting at AA.

[fish]

Good 3 innings for Painter and Rojas with a HR and still hitting at AA.

This was really the first chance to see him on MILB.TV- his stuff looked as good as advertised. The fastball had velo and jumped on hitters. His slider was a consistent plus pitch, and his curve was solid. didn't see much of a changeup.

[schillingfan]

Who is NPG. I couldn’t figure out where to get the boxes for the rookie leagues.

[BaseballCat]

Was at the Reading - Richmond game for a short while before misty, windy and generally cold weather forced me to leave as I was not dressed appropriately for comfort. Rojas hit his homer before I got seated, but made a nice catch in CF a few innings later. Looked generally good as so did O’Hoppe. While I love to watch Phils minors, this game was less than pleasant, but they still won in the end. I hope for better weather when I see Jersey Shore in a few weeks.

[phillychuck]

Who is NPG. I couldn’t figure out where to get the boxes for the rookie leagues.

Nikau Pouaka-Grego -- 17-yr-old Aussie

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/nikau-pouaka-grego/sa3018959/stats?position=2B/3B

Hitting well in the FCL, although he was 0/2 with a K in his return game.

Squire's second link has Phillies affiliate boxscores for all leagues. No box for the opposition.

[andyb]

Technically from New Zealand I think though he moved to Australia to play youth baseball. And hard to spell correctly.

[julio]

Technically from New Zealand I think though he moved to Australia to play youth baseball. And hard to spell correctly.

Knebel, Schwarber, Castellanos.

“Hard to spell correctly” sounds a lot like “not Anglo” to me.

[phillychuck]

Honestly, if you are Anglo, a lot of non-Anglo names are hard to spell correctly. Lack of familiarity. I often wonder if Smith and Jones are hard to spell correctly in other cultures...

[Jeff05]

I have it on good authority that Indians have no problems with "Smith and Jones" - they were colonised by them!

[julio]

Honestly, if you are Anglo, a lot of non-Anglo names are hard to spell correctly. Lack of familiarity. I often wonder if Smith and Jones are hard to spell correctly in other cultures...

Understood. But... confronted with an unusual or multi-syllabic Anglo name, do we just punt? Mostly, no, we don't.

I have some experience with people being unfamiliar with what is a thoroughly Anglo (spelling adapted from German - which IS Anglo-Saxon, ya know) surname...

[bkox]

My very German last name gets botched by everyone outside of parts of Berks and Lancaster counties.

[zambonir]

andy's comment may count as a microaggression but the general impulse to abbreviate/nickname players isn't (and also I think his comment was as much about the length of the name as its degree of difficulty). I do think it's more about familiarity as anything - once Pouaka-Grego is in the system for a few years, assuming he remains a prospect, people will learn how to spell his name. Personally I always make sure to spell Yairo Muñoz correctly but if he'd never been in the mix for a call-up I never would have had occasion to do so.

[andyb]

It is also about name length and hyphenation. I have often seen athletes with long and hyphenated last names be shortened with initials, especially on message boards where people post rather quickly and posts might have autocorrect lingering underneath. Is "hard to spell" correlated with non-Anglo names? Sure. It is only natural to have more difficulty with names that you are less familiar with. I am dreading trying to spell the Caps new 1st round pick (Ivan Miroshnichenko) on message boards. I also double check whether I get the "Ps" and "Ls" right in Mark Appel's name.

I also am pretty sure that Mr. Pouaka-Grego would be thrilled to know that posters in Philadelphia, Washington, Austin, Oregon, and even Ireland are noticing him.

[Squire]

I thought NPG was a pretty cool nickname in the same manner that James Van Riemsdyk is universally called JVR or many people refer to JT Reamulto as JTR.

[zambonir]

I can't say I've ever heard JTR. Seems like JT is sufficient.

But of course there's OBJ and ABJ and even LBJ (a real generational divider, that one).

[schillingfan]

I was totally confused when I moved to Northeastern Pennsylvania and encountered Slavic names some of which had strange consonant mixes like lsz, wiz or wsk. It gets more confusing when many names have been anglicized from the origins. I grew up with Green and Smith and Walker. It all depends on what you are used to.

[zambonir]

I was talking to my Dad the other day about the fact that PA currently has a Jewish Democratic gubernatorial candidate named Shapiro. He's not the first one - except Milton changed his name to Shapp.

And Mark Appel is not Jewish but there are certainly Jewish people with that name who used to be Apfel, or even Applebaum.

[Sabin]

Understood. But... confronted with an unusual or multi-syllabic Anglo name, do we just punt?

On a (primarily) baseball message board, this was the idiom you chose? Shame