Indians Top 100 Prospects: #6 Kelvin De La Cruz

6. Kelvin De La Cruz - Left-handed Pitcher
Born: 08/01/1988 - Height: 6'5" - Weight: 187 - Bats: Left - Throws: Left

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2005	16	DSL Indians	R	3	3	2.36	13	12	1	53.1	49	14	3	16	39	2.7	6.6	1.22
2006	17	GCL Indians	R	1	2	10.98	9	4	0	19.2	32	24	2	13	15	6.0	6.9	2.29
2007	18	GCL Indians	R	3	0	0.50	3	3	0	18.0	7	1	1	2	20	1.0	10.0	0.50
		Mahoning Valley	A-	2	4	3.98	12	12	0	54.1	41	24	5	34	53	5.6	8.8	1.38
2008	19	Lake County	A	8	4	1.69	18	18	0	95.2	71	18	2	34	96	3.2	9.0	1.10
	19	Kinston	A+	3	2	6.44	8	8	0	29.1	35	21	1	25	36	7.7	11.0	2.05
	19	Akron	AA	1	0	7.20	1	1	0	5.0	4	4	1	3	4	5.4	7.2	1.40
		Career		21	15	3.46	64	58	1	275.1	239	106	15	127	263	4.5	9.1	1.36

History: De La Cruz was signed as a non-drafted free agent out of the Dominican Republic in December of 2004.  He is often referred to as "Carmona Left" because of his close resemblance to current Indians right-handed starting pitcher Fausto Carmona.  Not only does De La Cruz look a lot like him on the mound with his size and build and is from the Dominican Republic, but his skills, pitching repertoire, makeup and so on are near identical to what Carmona was like back in 2003 when he was at Single-A Lake County.  He is also very good friends with Carmona and often asks him for insight into the professional game and lifestyle. 

Strengths & Opportunities: Confidence has never been an issue with De La Cruz as he loves to compete.  He is a high ceiling lefty who pitches with his fastball and has a good feel for all three of his pitches with the ability to throw all three in the zone.  He gets good sink and pounds his fastball down in the zone.  In the last two years he has shown much improved arm strength as his fastball velocity jumped from 84-86 MPH in 2006 to 88-92 MPH in 2007 to where it sat at 91-93 MPH last season in Single-A Lake County.  His fastball velocity still could increase because of his young age and he is still getting bigger and stronger.  He complements his fastball with a curveball and changeup.  The curveball is a 12-6 hammer and a projectable plus-plus pitch with real good depth and a swing and miss put away type pitch.  He has a feel for his changeup, and it projects to be a plus pitch too. 

De La Cruz has the size, the pitches, and the intelligence to grow a lot in the coming years where as he matures he will better fill out his big frame.  He has proven to be very durable and projects as a middle of the rotation starter, and because he has the potential to add more velocity and develop more he could potentially be a front end starter.  At 6'5", he is a very tall kid who gets good leverage on hitters by using his height to get the ball on a downward plane.  He shows a no fear aggressive approach on the mound where he challenges hitters and pounds the strike zone.  He is a smart pitcher who has an understanding on how to attack hitters and stick to his strengths.  Even for his size, he displays very good athleticism and fields his position well by handling all the bunts and comebackers, and even while shagging during batting practice he shows off his athleticism by running down balls in the outfield.  He has good attention to detail, and is a student of the game.  He is also very passionate about baseball and is doing a good job making the cultural transition to the US from the Dominican Republic. 

De La Cruz still has a long way to go.  After dominating at Lake County, the Indians pushed him up to advanced Single-A Kinston in July just before his 20th birthday.  While he had a few rough outings at Kinston, the Indians were impressed with his performance and felt he competed well and was often the victim of some poor defensive play behind him.  Being young, his fastball command is still not there yet which leads to an issue with walks, so the main focus with him this upcoming season will be on improving his command so he can throw strikes more consistently.  He needs to continue refining his control and command of his pitches so that he can setup hitters to get themselves out as he moves up the minor league ladder.  He needs more work on being more consistent with repeating his delivery.  While he is a great person and teammate, he needs some work on his in-game attitude by controlling his emotions better and not letting things that are out of his control like errors affect him.  He also tends to lose focus at times, and if he is able to get better at maintaining his focus throughout the game he is going to be a pitcher to reckon with. 

Outlook:  De La Cruz has a promising future because he is young, strong and powerful.  He has the talent and intangibles to grow a lot the next few seasons and has a chance to be really good in the near future and move into the upper echelon of starting pitchers in the minors.  As a side note, he would actually get a lot more pub and be ranked higher in other places if they were aware that he was actually born on August 1, 1988 (08/01/1988) and not the incorrect date of January 8, 1988 (01/08/1988) which is a typo in every non-Indians publication that lists his vitals.  That incorrect date is big in that they think he pitched at age 20 in the South Atlantic League last year when he was really only 19 years old.  In any case, 2008 was his breakout campaign, and 2009 could be the sequel that firmly establishes him in that upper echelon of left-handed starters in the minors.  He should open the 2009 season at advanced Single-A Kinston, but should see some time at Double-A Akron at some point this season. 

Photo courtesy of Ken Carr 

Kelvin De La Cruz MinorLeagueBaseball.com stats page 

Kelvin De La Cruz Baseball-Reference page 

Kelvin De La Cruz MinorLeagueSplits.com page 

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