rewrite this title A Brief History of The Kremer Unit

Image credit: © Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images

One of the cornerstones of baseball fandom is the hating of a guy. Sometimes that enmity develops in a rational and proper way, through the crushing of dreams, like how Rafael Palmeiro used to average four RBI a game against the Seattle Mariners between the years of 1989 and 2003. Other times, it arrives in a rational and somewhat less proper way, through disappointments in fantasy baseball or gambling. Sometimes it’s just a guy’s face, or the offhanded answer to a question, or the way they waggle the bat before each pitch. Sometimes it lies deeper in the subconscious, a faint projection of one’s own failures. Sometimes.

I’m not certain where my dislike of Dean Kremer began, or why it began. It certainly has nothing to do with the man himself, as a person, though it’s intentional that I don’t seek out any knowledge of Kremer as a person to build a case on. It doesn’t even really relate to Kremer as a pitcher, because imagine having strong feelings about Kremer as a pitcher. One may as well get really worked up about door frames, or fridge condiment placement. Kremer’s continued existence as a fourth starter for the Baltimore Orioles said far more about the Baltimore Orioles, one of the early signs that Mike Elias, having collected so much promise so quickly, might not feel inclined to push the franchise to title contention.

Thus began the establishment of the Kremer Unit, a measurement concocted by Jeffrey Paternostro and discussed regularly on BP’s Five & Dive podcast. The Kremer Unit is more than just a straight measurement of performance over a theoretical replacement value; it combines fifth-starter quality with the probability that a given pitcher might elevate into something more, by applying a formula that only existed, half-formed, in the mind.