As the Weather Heats Up, So Have Saints Bats

[Theodore Tollefson]

Things are heating up with the St. Paul Saints ahead of another six-game homestand. Read up on what has been happening with the Twins Triple-A lineup over the last four weeks.

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

Back on May 19, the Saints finished up a homestand against the Omaha Storm Chasers they wanted to forget about. They lost four of six games against the Royals' Triple-A squad, and found themselves dead last in the International League in batting average, hitting only .219 collectively in 44 games. That was 21 points worse than the next-crummiest offense on the circuit.

The results for the Saints up to that point in the season had been a matter of hot and cold streaks. They were either hot or cold when games were close, and it cost them a few wins along the way.

“We’re trying to figure out to not only manage what guys are doing in their at-bats but also line them up in certain parts of the order to continue to put them into positions to find success,” said Saints hitting coach Shawn Schlechter on the results of their lineup this season. “Certain matchups are better for some guys and some we’re trying to figure out how we continue to develop their skills to be better in certain matchups.”

It must be working. Over the last four weeks, the team's average has jumped to .242 on the year. They no longer find themselves in the cellar in terms of collecting hits.

“The one thing I’ll commend our guys is that they show up every day to work and try to figure some of this out, and we see it on days like Wednesday (Jun. 5) where we’re putting a ton of balls in play, moving runners and hitting some homers and extra-base hits," Schlecter said. "But then we have days like today (Jun. 9) where situationally, our offense didn’t capitalize as much as we would like to help us win ball games.” 

Five hitters in the Saints lineup have been a large part of the turnaround: Yunior Severino, Michael Helman, Tony Kemp, DaShawn Keirsey Jr., and Matt Wallner.

Severino had one of the coldest starts in his career to start the 2024 season. Last year, he became a more familiar name to Twins fans, thanks to a minors-leading 35 home runs. The Twins added him to the 40-man roster last fall. Before the four-week stretch began in Buffalo last month, though, Severino had a triple slash of .148/.252/.310 in 38 games. 

Over his last 21 games, he's led the team with a .378/.511/.676 line, along with seven home runs and 20 RBIs. The cold slump for Severino looks to be over as the weather has launched us into summertime, and fans can be hopeful to see a rejuvenated Severino on the upcoming homestand.

Helman spent two weeks on the injured list in April, with a pulled hamstring. He had been hitting .184 in his first 10 games before the injury, but since April 30, he’s slowly built himself back up as a Major threat in the Saints lineup.

Over the last four weeks, Helman has been the Saints' second-best hitter (alongside Wallner) posting a .361/.426/.615 triple slash, along with five home runs and 15 RBIs in 94 plate appearances. 

“It always feels good when you’re hitting good,” Helman said. “Anytime I’m at the plate, I’m just trying to get the barrel on the ball and whatever happens, happens. Because everything is out of your control at that point." 

Helman attributed his hot stretch to reworking his leg kick with Schlechter, lowering it from where it had been at the start of the season.

“It was messing with my timing and just being able to recognize pitches. We narrowed that down and it feels a lot better now. That was probably the biggest thing right there to fix.”

“I think the slow start to the season was him just trying to get sped back up with getting at-bats and being comfortable in the box," Schlecter said. "He’s super-athletic, and I think we see that in the box. He can cover a good amount of the strike zone and when he is making contact, he’s hitting balls hard.”

Wallner leads the team with 11 home runs and 26 RBIs, and has a 1.098 OPS in 110 plate appearances over this stretch. He’s rediscovered his swing, and is making a case to re-join the Twins before the All-Star break.

“There were some things in his swing he wanted to tune up, and we’re starting to see the fruits of his labor here in the last couple of weeks. I think it’s a credit to his work ethic and showing up to hit the pavement running,” said Schlecter. 

Kemp has filled in as the Saints' de facto veteran leader in the clubhouse since joining the team in mid-April. He also had a slow start to the season with the Baltimore Orioles and in St. Paul, but like Helman, the last four weeks have been a phenomenal stretch for him. 

“I’ve never really been a fast start out the gates but I always just trust the process,” said Kemp. “When things start to click, you trust that it’s going come together and not panic. It’s my first time back in Triple-A since 2018, so a little bit of an adjustment period, but I’m not finished yet.”

As Kemp said, things have begun to click for him. He’s compiled an eye-popping .365/.385/.541 triple-slash in 19 games, including an unexpected power surge in his swing. Kemp has never had a season in the majors or minors where he’s hit more than 10 home runs. He’s already hit five with the Saints in 38 games, including three in these four weeks.

“I think the biggest thing about it is not trying. I know that my game has never been to try and hit the ball out of the ballpark, but if it happens, it happens," he said. "I’m just hunting for good pitches and I just feel like the more swings I get, the more I’m able to understand how my body is moving through the zone.”

Keirsey Jr. has been out for the last three weeks with a calf strain he suffered during the warmups of the Saints game against Rochester on May 28. Before that, however, he’d been their best hitter, and he had a phenomenal series in Buffalo, with a .423 average, two home runs, 11 RBIs, and five stolen bases. 

His .302 batting average, 16 stolen bases, and .908 OPS on the season still lead the Saints in those categories, and he's third on the team with a 23.5% strikeout rate. Before his injury, Keirsey Jr. broke down what had been working for him in Triple-A. 

“I just think it’s the focus I’m bringing this year,” he said, on May 16. “The knowledge of myself and the things I need to work on and things to just each day, come in, focus on. I’m not trying to put so much pressure on myself for results, as opposed to my process with everything each day.” 

The process Keirsey Jr. had taken each day up to the point of his injury had been working for him, both offensively and defensively. As long as his calf injury has seen no setbacks during the Saints' road trip to Louisville, he may be activated this homestand and get another opportunity to improve his numbers with the team.

Strangely enough, the Saints' success hasn’t been at CHS Field for most of the season. They’ve performed better on the road, with a 20-17 record, while CHS Field (a hitter-friendly ballpark) has been an adversary for them, as they have a league-worst 13-18 record in St. Paul. 

“It would be great to get some more wins, because all in all, what we’re trying to do is win ball games here,” said Helman. “Especially when you start winning, everyone is feeling good and you like to see that from both the offensive side and pitching.” 

Even with fewer games at home versus on the road, the Saints' offensive numbers are still better on paper at CHS Field. While they have a losing home record, the Saints have complied a .775 OPS at CHS, versus. a .746 OPS on the road, and that comes with setting a franchise record with a 22-hit game in an 18-4 win over Louisville last Thursday. 

“I just think it’s a coincidence,” said Schlechter. "No matter where we’re at, we could be hitting here or the Polo Grounds, or any of the least hitter-friendly ballparks. I just want our guys to continue to be relentless in the box and have good plans and execution in plans and approaches.”

Despite the bad losses at home, things are trending in the right direction for the whole Saints clubhouse, coming off the six-game sweep. Wallner and Randy Dobnak were named International League Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively. 

The Saints begin their homestand Tuesday against the Toledo Mud Hens, who are 3-7 in their last 10 games and have a team ERA of 5.48 on the season. The Mud Hens may be the team the Saints need to face to get over their struggles at CHS and come back to the sluggers they’ve been known as over the last four years.

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[DJL44]

A few takeaways from this article.

The AAA run environment is much higher than MLB. In MLB there are 3 teams with an ERA > 4.8. In AAA that's the median ERA. To translate AAA stats to MLB take 200 points of OPS away for batters.

You mentioned the team struggling against Omaha - that's the best pitching staff in the International League.

If all the hitters get better all of a sudden it's far more likely the team has been facing a run of bad pitching. If Tony Kemp is crushing it then it's very likely that the pitching sucks.

[chpettit19]

When so many guys make such huge jumps it does raise some questions about the competition they're facing. 

I'd very much like to see Wallner, Severino, Helman, and Keirsey (when he's back) continue to dominate, and have Julien and Kirilloff join them, too. Will be fun to watch their performance against other teams the next few weeks.

[jorgenswest]

They scored 46 runs in 6 games against the Louisville Bats. Their only effective starter Carson Spiers was promoted to the Reds earlier in June. The top three in games started have ERAs 9.85, 5.02 and 7.74. Two of those have nearly a walk an inning. They did face Graham Ashcroft last week. He has had a hard time getting major league hitters out this year but did calm the Saints bats after they had scored 34 runs the previous three games.

The Saints have shown they can score runs against the Louisville Bats. I am not sure how many major league pitches they saw last week though. 

[FlyingFinn]

They have much more talent now than in April. Helman and Lee were injured, Wallner and Julien were with the Twins. Get Keirsey back and call up Emma Rodriguez when he gets healthy and you could have a great team in St. Paul. And, as others have said, there is a difference between facing the best pitching versus the worst pitching team in the league.

[Guest]

Still don't understand what Wallner and Schlecter specifically have done to decrease the likelihood Wallner won't auger in again if he returns to MLB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike Sixel]

They can only play against the guys they play against. I'm happy they succeeded against what it likely lesser competition.....

[h2oface]

Twins are not learning well. Immediately promote Wallner. Utilize him when he is hot. Don't waste it in AAA. He should have started the year, when he was awful in ST, in AAA. He has options. Down quickly when sucking, Up quickly when he starts to hit. He will hit in the show, too, when he is hot. Wasting a hot hitter is just dumb. While he has options, use them.

[LambchoP]

I also think Wallner has earned himself a call up. I don't care that Margot has gotten a few hits this last week. He's 0-19 in pitch hit situations. Time to move on from him. If Wallner continues to struggle, give Keirsey a shot, he could be a good spark plug. I think we should package some of our blocked infielders like Severino Helman or Kemp to get some starting pitching and bullpen help. Now that they're all hitting well we should be able to get someone decent in return. Maybe offer up Kiriloff as well, he's been passed up by larmach and Wallner looks like.