Right now Kremer is a distinctly inferior option to Fedde and Suarez, based on how they are pitching this season.  Things could change between now and October, but Kremer's performance in past years (regular season or postseason) is irrelevant to whether he should be in our postseason rotation this year.  

I love fans that argue against their team being improved.

Akin should never see the light of day in a game with runners on base. He's a fine arm to bring in mop up duty or extra innings once everybody else has been exhausted. Irvin really is clogging up a roster spot. My issue with Irvin right now is he's been beyond awful the last 4 appearances (1.116 OPS, 347 BA, 10.47 ERA). So something is definitely off. The issue is he's out of options. And there's zero chance he makes it through waivers. If he's a long/middle relief arm, that's redundant w/ Akin. And they both aren't trustable. Dillon Tate has been very disappointing, too. Strikeout rate has fallen a bit, hit rate has went up tremendously. He's not great with runners on.  The O's desperately need a reliever with a decent strikeout rate. Because in games where they can deploy the 4 headed monster (Kimbrel, Webb, Cano, Perez), they usually are pretty decent. But when the other Tier of relievers have to come in (Baker, Akin, Irvin, Tate) the game is really on shaky ground. I don't think you can afford to have 50% of your bullpen questionable to be effective.  Elias needs to acquire an effective reliever. That should bump Tate out. He has options remaining. Leverage Irvin only in long relief until he gets his crap under wraps. I'm not sold on Baker, but he has options remaining. And he's been better than Tate has so far.   

Current forecast is heavy thunderstorms rolling in to the Baltimore area at 8 PM and lasting several hours.  They won't get a full game in before the rains come.  Hopefully the O's take an early lead and make it through the top of the 5th before the storm hits.  Otherwise we could wind up wasting Burnes' start.  

I'm not suggesting that it happened but dismissing it without any proof that it didn't happen is pretty silly. This is typical Orioles Hangout posturing. "It doesn't fit the narrative that I have in my head so no chance that it happened" is just silly. The O's are in such a unique time in the franchise with the plethora of position talent, specifically the infield guys. We've been saying this for several years ... there is only so many spots in the lineup and with a group of infield talent who are all aged within four years of each other, something will have to give. I personally favored Joey Ortiz over Westburg but conceded that Joey's youth (and value) was being wasted in AAA. Something had to happen, it did and it has more than worked out for both the O's and Joey. The same will hold true with these other guys, JH included. It is incredibly possible (and plausible) that the Org sees JW as the best fit to pair with Gunnar up the middle. I've been saying for almost two years now that Holliday would end up as a 2B and that the OF, in my eyes, is still a possibility for him given the defensive limitations that I see in his game. It's believable that they see the overall value of an IF combo of Gunnar, JW and Mayo as more projectable/valuable than Gunnar, JW and Holliday/Gunnar, Mayo and Holliday. That is perfectly reasonable and as others have mentioned, JH probably offers the greater return of any prospect in the org and likely requires less dipping into the pool of other prospects. It would sting to trade the #1 Prospect in Baseball but if they could get a controllable, legitimate TORish guy in exchange for him, they'd have to consider it. And for the record, I can say unequivocally (and I know this to be a fact through folks that I have worked with that are actually connected to higher level professional baseball [I am not]) that front offices have discussions around players in passing alllllllll the time. So, while it may sound unlikely that a conversation of this sort actually transpired, it's just as likely that two GMs were shooting the shit with each other, one floated a half-serious scenario and it ended there. For what reason? Who knows, maybe Cherington just likes his guys. This happens literally every single day and often around players who most folks would assume are untouchable. The truth is, to a front office, almost literally NO ONE is truly untouchable. The right offer will always get a deal done. Again, not saying that the rumor of fact is true but it's silly to blindly dismiss it without any proof.