The ACL season seemed to sneak up on everybody, given that as of this writing there hasn\u2019t been a single word published about the season out there, with one game in the books. So we\u2019ll run out a standalone season preview\/Opening Morning result here, then incorporate the ACL into our regular Minor League Updates from here on out.<\/p>\n
ACL <\/strong>Brewers 7, ACL <\/strong>White Sox 6 (7 innings)<\/strong> Anyhow, all that is to say it was a surprise to me when I clicked today\u2019s White Sox minor league boxes and saw the ACL in action! This morning\u2019s game was a seven-inning affair, which many\/most in the ACL end up becoming. Perhaps that\u2019s the new rule rookie ball, your guess is as good as mine. It seems at this level they\u2019re just making up rules at the exchange of lineup cards, like a father-son 16\u00b4\u00b4softball game or B-list comedian celebrity roast.<\/p>\n Adrian Gil was a bad, bad, bad man in the DSL in 2023 and took it on the chin his first year Stateside, last summer. Well, he opened his season with authority, tripling and homering and almost assuredly on the road to doing something crazy like a rookie league cycle if not for the truncated seven-inning contest. It was Gil\u2019s homer in the top of the seventh that brought the Complex Sox to within 7-6, but the boys just ran out of time. (We\u2019re gonna ignore the fact that Gil had tripled in the fourth and was thrown out at home on a ground ball back to the mound from Jurickson Profar. Was this in fact a safety or suicide squeeze gone wrong? A line shot that hit the Brew\u2019s pitcher in the gut? Hey, we\u2019re lucky to know it was 82\u00b0 at 11:02 a.m. first pitch, any details beyond that are gravy.)<\/p>\n Libourne, France\u2019s own, 2023 12th-rounder Mathias LaCombe, finally made his pro debut today, starting and getting knocked around by Beertown ACL: 2 \u2153 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, HR, HB, and yes, the loss.<\/p>\n Down 4-0 in the first inning, the Complex Sox could not recover, true to their traditional form.<\/p>\n
\nFor a sport that has shrunk its minor leagues ostensibly to save money<\/s> make the remaining teams stronger and more competitive, MLB sure does sweep its Stateside rookie league into a corner. There\u2019s no season previewing (hell, there aren\u2019t even rosters) and there is no (or minimal) social media covering the players and games. Sure, the minute an ACL player catches any fire he heads to Low-A, but MLB is too busy to even mildly promote some of the most significant players in pro ball?<\/p>\nPoll<\/h3>\n
Who takes the first Cold Cat in hot Arizona?<\/h4>\n