Pigs In A Blanket: St. Paul Saints Start Season On April 6

[Parker Hageman]

Twin Cities baseball fans will get an early look at one of their professional teams: The St. Paul Saints begin the 2021 season two days ahead of the Minnesota Twins.

 

The Toby Gardenhire-led Saints will officially begin their first season as the Twins’ top affiliate on April 6th at CHS Field against Cleveland's AAA club, the Columbus Clippers.The Clippers will stay in St. Paul for a six-game series.

 

The league announced that each series will be six games, with games being played from Tuesday through Sunday. Monday will be a league-wide off-day, allowing the players to stay fresh and reduce travel overall.

 

The Saints recently announced that they will play in the Midwest Division of the Triple-A East League. While the Saints are scheduled to face all of the Midwest Division teams in 2021, Because of travel and COVID-19 concerns, the Saints, Iowa Cubs and Omaha Storm Chasers will not play teams outside of the Midwest Division this year.

 

Overall, the Saints will have a 142-game schedule that stretches from April 6th through September 19th and will be divided between 70 at CHS Field and 72 games on the road.

 

More details on start times will be announced at a later date.

 

Download attachment: Saints Schedule.png

 

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[IndianaTwin]

Interesting approach to scheduling. Almost exclusively in six-game series, and every Monday off for travel.

 

Being located in northern Indiana, I like that there's two trips to Indianapolis, one to Toledo. 

[chaderic20]

Yay! Three trips to Des Moines!

[DocBauer]

Guess I'll be checking out the Saints here in Omaha when they visit. PUMPED!

[Trov]

Not surprised the schedule plan, it reduces possible outbreaks within the league.  Hopefully that will not be an issue by mid-summer anyways.  They will get to know their opponents very well.  I think that will need to be taken into account when accessing players.  Facing a team for a full week will lead to seeing same pitchers a lot more frequent, and facing only a few teams all season will be similar.  

 

What I would look at is how players make adjustments during those 6 game stretches to how teams are playing.  That is a sign of a good player that learns how to adjust when teams figure them out, or when things are not working.

[AmesFan]

I'm liking this new alignment! There will be lots of Twins apparel in Des Moines this year. T.C. South....

[Otwins]

 

Guess I'll be checking out the Saints here in Omaha when they visit. PUMPED!

18 Games!!! Do you think anyone would be interested in getting together to talk Twins?   I could rent adjoining suites at the ballpark.  I do it once a year anyway for work.  I think it is about 18 per suite so 36 total.

[MN_ExPat]

 

18 Games!!! Do you think anyone would be interested in getting together to talk Twins?   I could rent adjoining suites at the ballpark.  I do it once a year anyway for work.  I think it is about 18 per suite so 36 total.

That would be awesome.  It's time like these that make me miss living in the Midwest.

 

Then I think of the snow and.... nope I'm good

[rdehring]

Did I read this right, 36 games against Omaha and Iowa? See 22 against Columbus, but only 12 against Toledo?  I guess they will just be happy to be playing and not concerned with balance so league standings won't be all that meaningful.

 

Saints should be happy with 70 home games, assuming they can get people into the stands. Don't recall how many home dates they used to have, but this has to be a lot more.

[twinfan]

Well they won't be coming to NC but maybe in the future. I'll have to follow them through league news and the milb site. I'm sure there will be a shuttle service between the Saints and the Twins as COVID is sure to affect both teams at some point.

[jrod23]

 

Well they won't be coming to NC but maybe in the future. I'll have to follow them through league news and the milb site. I'm sure there will be a shuttle service between the Saints and the Twins as COVID is sure to affect both teams at some point.

 

I was definitely looking forward to Durham coming to town, but oh well.  The hotbed of minor league baseball is in your back yard out there.  It's why our annual MiLB roadtrip always hits the Southeast.  MiLB IS BACK!!!

[blindeke]

Those early games are gonna be EMPTY

[gbg]

Got my season tickets! The question is how comfortable I'm going to be sitting in the stands pre-vaccine. Oh well. Happy to have the opportunity in my adopted home town!

[DocBauer]

18 Games!!! Do you think anyone would be interested in getting together to talk Twins?   I could rent adjoining suites at the ballpark.  I do it once a year anyway for work.  I think it is about 18 per suite so 36 total.

I've met a handful of Twins fans here and there over the years in Omaha. The only ones I actually KNOW are my dad and myself, lol. So perhaps you are more plugged in to fellow Twins fans than I am.

 

I think it's been 15-20 years since the Twins had a AAA franchise visit here. I believe it was the Portland days IIRC. Werner is a really nice stadium and I've been there a few times on the 1B side. Stinks only because the sun is a bite the first few innings. Told my dad we will have to get tickets on the 3B side behind the visitor's dugout so we can wave Twins hats and give shout outs, lol.

 

Never watched a game in a suite. Sounds fun! Is it better than being in the stands? We can do a PM in the future to look at games and connect. Maybe a few other fans from around the area would journey in for a game???

[Joey P]

We will have to catch those games together. I'm only an hour from Indy!

Interesting approach to scheduling. Almost exclusively in six-game series, and every Monday off for travel.

 

Being located in northern Indiana, I like that there's two trips to Indianapolis, one to Toledo.