Did Ron Shandler get Barry Enright wrong?

Barry Enright just threw his fifth strong start of ST.  Although there seems to be hope in the air for a decent 2011 out of Enright, Ron Shandler says to stay far, far away.  Is he right or just full of hogwash?

Here is a recent piece by Shandler regarding Barry Enright:

Enright making progress in ARI rotation quest

Thus far this spring Barry Enright (RHP, ARI) is outdistancing the competition in his quest to claim one of the two openings in the Diamondbacks rotation. Thus far, Enright has allowed 3 earned runs in 12 IP, while Aaron Heilman has allowed 7 earned runs in 12 IP, andArmando Galarraga is in need of a couple of good outings, as he has allowed 10 ER in 11 IP.

 

Enright had a 3.91 ERA in 99 IP for Arizona in 2010, but as analyst Jeffrey Tomich demonstrated a month ago, Enright's skills were a disaster waiting to happen. His 50% fly ball rate, 1.8 hr/9, 13% hr/f, and low 4.5 dominance were all strong warning signs. Enright's spring performance has done little to quell those fears. The three earned runs that he has allowed have all come on solo homers. And his spring Dom is 4.5. Even in a tiny sample size, Enright's warts are showing. Even if he wins a rotation spot, as now appears likely, he's high risk on a fanalytic roster.

Here is Enright's game log from yahoo sports-

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/8755/gamelog;_ylt=AqlFSgRX9.eckTbvYKc5zSCFCLcF

What stands out to me obviously is that Enright was cruising along until he hit his previous innings high for a season (164), then he hit the wall.  He finished the season throwing 192.2 combined innings at the MiLB and MLB level.  He also  made the jump from AA to MLB which is usually not a good thing for someone who has been very hittable pretty much his entire career.  Enright  began his MLB career last season by making 12 nice starts in a row, five on the road and seven at home.  Then disaster fell upon his skills like an axe to a chicken's neck.  

But during his twelve game stretch, Enright parlayed into a flyball pitcher with limited k skills but showed some ability to keep the ball in the park on the road,  giving up 2 homers in some 29 innings in away parks.  Out of 73+ innings total in his first twelve starts he gave up eight homers (six of those were at home in only 44+ innings).  Also during this twelve game stretch Enright had a gb/fb count of 48/59 at home and 37/49 on the road (as per yahoo).

So there you go.  Is Enright someone who should be avoided at all costs or a cheap player who may turn a profit?  There's an argument that his pitch economy is suspect, which also means he's probably due to fall behind in a higher share of counts.  There's also the ever present fear that he'll hit the wall again at 160 innings.   I was surprised to see the D-backs allow that to happen last year and believe it won't happen again.  So Enright fits into the sell high category for 2011, especially if he gets through a decent April.  Then again he could be chucking soft toss for the BayBears by mid-May for all I know.  I don't think anyone is arguing that he'll be the next coming of Greg Maddux.  But maybe somewhere there's an argument that he may not end up as bad as Shandler thinks.