Baseball America recently released their top 150 Stuff+ leaders, and unsurprisingly, there are a handful of Pittsburgh Pirates top pitching prospects. 2025 rookie Bubba Chandler, along with breakout hurler Antwone Kelly and hard-throwing right-hander Wilber Dotel, are among the top 150. However, one unlikely name that appears on their list is right-hander Alessandro Ercolani.
Stuff+ is a new pitching statistic that essentially measures pitch quality based on physical factors, such as release point, movement, velocity, and spin rate (per FanGraphs). It is measured on a scale such as OPS+ or wRC+ where 100 is average.