Among all of the valuable insight into George Wolkow's uneven start to his second full pro season in his story published here on Wednesday, James mentioned his improving contact rates:
The feedback that Wolkow received from White Sox coaches, or even a certain beat reporter texting him, testing the waters if he'd want to interview about it despite his surface-level numbers being poor, is that his contact rates had shown real growth. Through April, Wolkow was chasing out of the zone in two-strike situations at a 33-percent clip, down 4 percentage points from the previous season. His in-zone whiff rate was down to below 22 percent, where it had been 34 percent in 2024. In all, he was within a hair of a 70-percent contact rate, which is where power hitters like Judge, Rafael Devers and Bryce Harper reside against big league pitching.
And sure enough, Wolkow's name appeared in a Baseball America story about Geoff Pontes about the prospects with the biggest improvements in miss rate, along with chase rate and 90th-percentile exit velocities. Only two other prospects have reduced their miss rate more than Wolkow (46.7 percent to 23.7 percent), and one of them is his former teammate Jordan Sprinkle, who is five years older.
Charlotte 7, Round Rock 3
- Andrew Benintendi played left and went 1-for-4.
- Mike Tauchman played right and went 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Brooks Baldwin played center and went 2-for-4, with a CS.
- Colson Montgomery was 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Korey Lee, 1-for-4 with a homer and a walk.
- Jesse Scholtens: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 40 of 68 pitches for strikes.
- Wikelman "The Vulture" González improved to 4-0: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K, 19 of 40 pitches for strikes.
- Nick Nastrini: 1 IP 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 9 of 13 pitches for strikes.
Birmingham 7, Pensacola 2
- Rikuu Nishida went 0-for-4 with an HBP, a K and a stolen base.
- William Bergolla, 0-for-5.
- Wilfred Veras was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Ryan Galanie was 0-for-4 with one strikeout.
- Jacob Gonzalez, 2-for-4 with a homer and a stolen base.
- D.J. Gladney doubled, walked and struck out twice.
- Jake Palisch: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
Winston-Salem 11, Hudson Valley 8
- Jeral Perez went 2-for-4 with a double.
- Braden Montgomery was 1-for-3 with two walks and a strikeout.
- Samuel Zavala tripled, doubled and struck out.
Kannapolis 6, Columbia 3
- Caleb Bonemer went 1-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Ronny Hernandez was 1-for-5 with a homer and two strikeouts.
- George Wolkow, 1-for-4 with a K.
- Lyle Miller-Green, 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Ryan Burrowes was 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Abraham Nuñez, 2-for-4.
- Seth Keener: 5.1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 38 of 66 pitches for strikes.
