Scouting Report Barry Enright

Last year, the biggest "keyword search" for Long Live Shea Stadium was Barry Enright Scouting Report. That means either of two things: 1) No one has any idea who he is. 2) Barry Enright has a lot of friends and family who liked my scouting report last year. 

The 25-year old Right-hander Barry Enright was a second-round pick in 2007 out of Pepperdine, where he was the 73rd pick, which was the highest Pepperdine player drafted since 2001 (former teammate Dan Haren and former big leaguer Noah Lowry). Enright made his major league debut June 30 last year, and limited the Cardinals to one run in five innings in a 101-pitch performance. In his first season last year, he went 6-7 (17 starts), and finished with a solid ERA (3.91), and a 1.27 WHIP, but looking further at his stats reveal he's not going to repeat those numbers again. He K/9 rate is ugly (4.45), as was his swing and miss % (6.6) and he was extremely lucky with BAPIP (.248) and an unsustainable LOB % (85%). Due to these factors, his FIP was 5.62.

Enright is a pure finesse pitcher who survives by mixing up four average pitches. He throws an upper-80s fastball that occasionally hits 91 (88 mph average), and three secondary pitches (curve, slider, changeup) that all rate as average, with his change-up being a plus pitch. He throws all of his pitches for strikes and at any point in the count, succeeding on the ability to paint the corners and keep hitters off balance. He has a big frame (6'3" 220 pounds), clean mechanics, and no injury history of note. He's a fly-ball pitcher who has little margin for error (let 20 HRs in 99 innings last year), especially in Chase Field. He uses his slider as his strike out pitch and he rarely throws a change-up when he's ahead of the count. Most scouts label his upside as a #5 starter, and is a "lesser Ian Kennedy."

This year, he's 0-1 with 3 starts, but has been consistent. He's gone 5+ innings each start, but also has let up 4 runs in each of the starts. He continues to give up home runs, including 2 in his last start versus the Giants. His ERA sits at 6.23, and a 1.50 WHIP. His swing and miss % has upticked slightly to 7.6% (but it's still below average), and his K/9 has risen to 6.2 (still below average).

He faced the Mets twice last year (July 20 and July 31),  and threw very well. His 1st start he went 8 innings, allowed only 1 run, and surprisingly struck out 8. He followed that up with another quality start, going 6 innings, and allowed 2 runs.