Pirates Prospects Daily: Alessandro Ercolani is Off to a Strong Start in May

Not everyone is going to hit the ground running when the regular season starts. Some will take a little bit to get acclimated to the level they are playing in.

That can be especially be true for teenagers making the leap to full-season baseball for the first time.

One player on Bradenton that is doing that is right-handed pitcher Alessandro Ercolani. Signed out of San Marino, the 19-year-old spent the previous two seasons in the FCL, pitching 48.2 total innings in that span.

He saw a strikeout spike last year, but it came at a cost, with his walk rate jumping from 9.8% to 15.5%.

Regardless, the Pirates gave him the push up to Bradenton this year, straight into the Marauders rotation. April was a tough month as he adjusted, allowing nine runs in 9.2 innings while walking nine and striking out ten.

He did have a start where he pitched four shutout inning sandwich between his three starts, but it was also the game where he walked the most batters.

Two starts into May, not only has he completed five innings for the first time in his professional career, he’s done it twice now after Thursday’s start.

The strikeouts are a bit down, with only five in ten innings, but so are the walks as well. He has just three walks in his ten innings during the month of May.

There’s reason to believe that the strikeouts may trend back up anyways, as he’s posted a 33.3% combined whiff rate on his slider and curveball, according to Baseball Savant. It’s a solid, if not great, number to be at as a teenager pitching in Single-A.

While it would ideal just to see prospects come in and hit the ground running, that isn’t always how it works. Sometimes it’s better to see them struggle early, especially if you can see the progress throughout the season.

By the end of the season, maybe the numbers won’t be the best because of the rough start. If you can see the gradual progress throughout the season, that can be just as good, if not better.

Ercolani fits that kind of billing, as looking back at the end of the year, we will see what kind of progress he made throughout the season.

Prospect Notes

— Henry Davis made his second start in right field on the season Thursday night for Altoona. The first time around he committed a fielding error. He made a couple of outs this time around, and showed off his arm a bit throwing to third base as a runner was trying to advance.

It pulled the third baseman off the bag, but made it there in time. Entering the season the plan was to get him out there once a week, but that was scrapped after his first start.

The plan is to have Davis and Endy Rodriguez at separate levels so they can work on catching as much as possible, but they are still preparing them to have to play elsewhere to make sure they are both in the lineup as much as possible.

While he entered this season with some question marks behind the plate, Davis has been solid thus far in Altoona. He’s still struggled to throw runners out (2-for-11 right now), but that’s actually an improvement over last year.

— Is it too early to start talking about promoting Tres Gonzalez already? Probably, but in eight games with Greensboro he has ten hits, eight RBI, and five stolen bases. The lack of power may catch up to him at some point (had an EV of 83.3 mph in Bradenton this year, along with a barrel rate of 1.8%), but the hit tool is still standing out nonetheless.

Daily Video Rundown

#pirates prospect Deivis Nadal went WAY deep for this HR that gave @The_Marauders the lead #clutch pic.twitter.com/I61teoeDkQ

— Eric_Birdland (@Eric_Birdland) May 12, 2023

Power was a concern for Deivis Nadal, but he’s tied for the team lead in home runs with Shalin Polanco with three after Thursday’s deep ball.

I’m getting used to high level plays by #pirates IF prospect Javi Rivas. Last yr in the FCL, this is the player I thought we’d see at this stage of development. He’s handling the transition quite well. See? pic.twitter.com/UYMJgWsUJj

— Eric_Birdland (@Eric_Birdland) May 12, 2023

For a taller player, Javier Rivas has really handled the infield well this year with Bradenton. He’s also no stranger to strong contact, as in the second video he smokes a ball up the middle for a single.

Peggy powers his second home run of the season to tie the game 2-2!

LISTEN: https://t.co/aioWvW3Svf
WATCH: https://t.co/6GP894jPtF pic.twitter.com/pU41QEcqhL

— Altoona Curve (@AltoonaCurve) May 11, 2023

Liover Peguero has shown a much better approach at the plate this season, and every now and again he’s rewarded for it. He launched his second home run of the season on Thursday.