O's game blog: Dean Kremer makes his major league debut

Right-hander Dean Kremer will make his major league debut this afternoon as the Orioles wrap of a four-game series with the New York Yankees. A win today would give the Orioles (18-21) a series win and three straight victories over the Yankees (21-18).

Kremer was part of the Manny Machado trade of July 18, 2018. The Orioles sent Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers and in return got Kremer, outfielder Yusniel Diaz, pitcher Zach Pop, and infielders Rylan Bannon and Breyvic Valera.

A 14th-round draft pick by the Dodgers out of UNLV in 2016, Kremer was signed to a bonus of $147,500. He's known as a very cerebral pitcher, one that soaks up the data and analytics that the Orioles provide for their players. In 2018, the year of the trade, Kremer went 10-5 with a 2.88 ERA and led the minors in strikeouts with a strikeout rate of 12.20 per nine innings.

His 2019 season started late due to an oblique injury and he made his season debut for Single-A Frederick in May. He would move to Double-A and recorded an ERA of 2.98 over 15 starts for Bowie. In four late-season starts for Triple-A Norfolk, his ERA was 8.84. Overall for the three clubs, he went 9-6 with a 3.72 ERA and 1.30 WHIP in 21 starts.

In November, the Orioles added him to their 40-man roster to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. Gary Kendall had some positive things to say about Kremer after he made the 40-man roster. Kendall managed Kremer at Bowie in 2018 and at Norfolk in 2019.

"This guy knows what he's doing," Kendall said in November of Kremer. "He's very confident with a very good delivery with great arm action. He's a strike-thrower that is around the plate all the time. I think he can pitch deep into games. He has the capability to have four good pitches. He's in tremendous shape and is a very good worker.

"He would pitch low 90s often. I saw him with a little better velocity last year at Bowie, but I really like the way the ball comes out of his hand. Such a good delivery. The curve is tight, a nice easy curveball with good tight spin. The slider and change to go with it. I really like what I see out of him."

Kremer's fastball will often sit in the 92-94 mph range, touching more at times. His curveball is his best secondary pitch and it gets 60 grades from MLBPipeline.com, which ranks Kremer as the club's No. 10 prospect. Kremer is No. 13 on the latest Baseball America listing of O's prospects. He has worked hard to improve his slider and changeup to make himself a more complete four-pitch pitcher.

He threw well in the Arizona Fall League, following the 2019 season. He went 1-1 with a 2.37 ERA in the AFL. Over 19 innings, he walked four, fanned 23 and posted a WHIP of 0.895.

For his minor league career, he is 22-16 with an ERA of 3.61 in 91 games. Over 356 innings, he has allowed a .243 average against with a WHIP of 1.26. His career walk-rate is 3.13 and his strikeout rate is 10.88 per every nine innings.

His mound opponent today is veteran right-hander Masahiro Tanaka (1-1, 3.38 ERA) who has made six starts, with the Yankees going 3-3 in those games. He has thrown real well his last two starts against Atlanta and Tampa Bay, allowing two runs and six hits over 11 innings with one walk to 11 strikeouts.

Tanaka has not faced the Orioles this year. Last season, he went 1-0 with a 3.71 ERA in three starts. In his career against the Orioles, he is 5-3 with a 3.72 ERA and WHIP of 1.230 over 15 starts. The Orioles have some players with success against him in limited at-bats. Both Chance Sisco and Renato Núñez are 3-for-8 and José Iglesias is 3-for-7. Hanser Alberto is 2-for-3 and Pedro Severino 1-for-2 off Tanaka.

The Orioles are 2-0 ov4er the last two games, but over longer stretches are 4-7 in the last 11 and 6-13 in their previous 19. They are 9-15 at home and 10-14 versus the American League East. The Orioles are 12-6 when they score first.

The Yankees have lost five of seven and 12 of their last 17 games. They are 12-10 within the division, which includes a 7-0 mark against Boston. They are 7-11 on the road.

The O's have been very successful swinging at the first pitch of an at-bat. They rank first in the AL and second in the majors in batting average (.403), fifth in the majors in OPS (1.106) and are tied for fifth in the majors in extra-base hits (25) The O's rank second the AL and fifth in the majors in doubles (15) and lead the AL in hits (58) as a team on the first pitch.