• A look at Indians' Class A prospects

  • By Keith Law | March 26, 2009 6:44:34 AM PDT
Notes from a day with Cleveland's A-ball kids:• Cleveland left-hander Kelvin de la Cruz threw three innings in an A-ball game Tuesday, working from 88-91 mph with his fastball, although a Cleveland coach remarked after seeing the radar readings, "He throws harder than that." His best pitch, and clearly his favorite, was his 78-79 mph changeup with some downward action and very good arm speed, although I wouldn't call it an out pitch. His slider was soft and didn't have great horizontal movement. He has a loose arm but only moderate arm speed, giving the impression that he wasn't throwing at 100 percent, and he was a pretty slow worker.• I caught part of Lonnie Chisenhall's BP on Tuesday, and he didn't play in the game, so all I can offer is two observations. He has a great swing with good bat speed, and he should have been above de la Cruz when I did my Cleveland top 10 prospects back in January, possibly above Hector Rondon as well. If he can find a position, he'll move up my rankings significantly.• Abner Abreu is a high-upside outfielder who spent 2008 in the Gulf Coast League. He's long and lean -- Old Weird Harold would be an appropriate body comparison -- and the ball comes off his bat very well. He's just 19 and still raw as a hitter after just one year of pro ball in the U.S. His swing can get long on anything below the middle of the strike zone and his recognition of offspeed stuff is poor. He's also a below-average runner who takes oddly short strides for someone his height.• Tim Fedroff was a surprise signing for Cleveland last year, inking a $725,000 deal, or second-round money, as a draft-eligible sophomore. He's a left fielder who doesn't project to hit for power, is an average runner and bars his lead arm badly at the plate. There are hitters who bar out and still do make contact, but they constitute the exception.• One of Cleveland's Taiwanese prospects, catcher Chun-Hsiu Chen, played half the game and took a good BP. He has an easy, contact-oriented swing and good bat speed; he looks like he should hit for power down the road, but right now he's just using his arms and not using the rest of his body well enough to do so. In the game, he took a 90 mph fastball over the center fielder's head for a double, and made a good throw on a bad pitch to try to nab a runner at second.

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