White Sox Minor League Update: April 17, 2017

If you didn’t believe Brian Boesch’s report about Zack Collins’ defense behind the plate, James Fegan went to Winston-Salem to see for himself and picked up a couple more details:

The bulk of that instruction is coming from White Sox minor league catching coordinator John Orton, who was Collins’ consistent companion in Arizona, and has already been in Winston-Salem to work with him. Collins will only seriously work on catching drill when Orton is in town, but he’s going to get game experience every week.

The White Sox want to limit him to 90 games caught, so Collins is on board with serving as a designated hitter every few days, as he was Sunday. He understands the need to rest his legs. But he still covets more sessions with Orton, when the drilling, extra catching sessions and skill development kick back into high gear.

Collins also theorized that, like Omar Narvaez, he’d expect that his batting eye would be better rewarded at higher levels with better umpires.

Top prospects at a glance

• Zack Collins went 0-for-1 with two walks and a sac fly.
• Alec Hansen: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 WP

Tennessee 6, Birmingham 0

• Eddy Alvarez is starting to heat up, going 2-for-4 with two doubles and a walk.
• Jake Peter went 1-for-5 with a strikeout.
• Trey Michalczewski was 1-for-4.
• Courtney Hawkins wore the collar with two strikeouts.
• Nick Basto went 2-for-3 with a walk.
• Alfredo Gonzalez was 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
• Jordan Guerrero gave up all four of his runs in the second inning: 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 K

Winston-Salem 2, Frederick 1

• Zack Collins went 0-for-1 with two walks and a sac fly.
• Johan Cruz, 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
• Zach Thompson: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K

Kannapolis 5, Asheville 3

• Joel Booker went 3-for-5 with a double, strikeout and stolen base.
• Jameson Fisher went 2-for-5.
• Micker Adolfo was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
• Alec Hansen: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 WP