Stuff in Baseball

Sarah from Leyden, Massachusetts, wonders about the many ways baseball commentators and sportswriters use the word stuff, as in “The stuff is there, but the command is off,” or “The kid’s got great stuff, but he’s only got one pitch.” The term most often refers to a pitcher’s repertoire, and has been used that way since at least 1905. Stuff may also refer to the spin a pitcher adds to the ball, as well as the batter’s effect on the ball’s trajectory. A fantastic resource for all such lingo is Paul Dickson’s book, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary. This is part of a complete episode.