DOUG FRANZ

One win, six losses: A bad weekend for Arizona sports

Apr 14, 2014, 7:21 PM | Updated: Apr 28, 2015, 2:00 pm

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One win. Six losses.

With all due respect to the Arizona Rattlers and their huge win on the road at San Jose, the Suns, Coyotes and D-backs went 1-6 over the weekend. The only win was in the most meaningless game because the Coyotes were eliminated from the playoffs on Friday night before beating the Stars Sunday night.

How does this happen in a critical weekend for all three teams?

I’m going to alienate every English teacher and answer a question with more questions.

A friend at work pointed this out to me. When Dave Tippett benched Mike Ribeiro, the Coyotes went 2-0. They finished the season 1-7 with Ribiero placed back in the lineup. The lone win came Sunday night following a seven-game losing streak.

COYOTES QUESTIONS:

1) Why did GM Don Maloney sign Ribeiro?

2) Why did coach Dave Tippett put him back in the lineup?
3) Why doesn’t Ribeiro have an ounce of fire?

The Diamondbacks are 4-11. Don’t waste my time with the “it’s early” argument. Eighty-nine is the average win total of the worst NL Wild Card team the last two years. If you’re predicting the D-backs are a playoff team, you’re predicting they will finish the year 23 games above .500 the rest of the season. Two of the top five worst pitcher ERAs are owned by Trevor Cahill and Brandon McCarthy. No other organization has two in the top 16, let alone top five. This doesn’t include Will Harris, Oliver Perez and Randall Delgado, who don’t have enough innings pitched to qualify for the ERA standings so they can hide their numbers of 9.72, 8.44 and 8.38.

D-BACKS QUESTIONS:

1) Who are the THREE starting pitchers that are suddenly going to be 16-game winners if you truly believe this is a playoff team?

2) How are you going to protect Archie Bradley’s future when you need his present now?

3) How many more complete mental lapses can continue to happen before the manager gets blamed?

4) Does Cahill fully comprehend he’s second to last in ERA, WHIP and WAR making him, statistically speaking, the worst pitcher in Major League Baseball?

The Los Angeles Lakers have lost nine of their last 10 games. Any guess who they beat for that one win? Yep, the 16-point win versus the Phoenix Suns. Just to keep in perspective how pathetic the Suns’ effort was, the Lakers have lost by at least double figures in every one of the games in this stretch except for losses to those championship juggernauts Sacramento and Milwaukee.

In this crucial stretch of the last seven games, Phoenix has lost four times. One was to the Lakers and two of other games they blew big leads. A 17-point lead was blown against the Clippers, and San Antonio was allowed to come back from a 21-point deficit. The other loss is the “win and you’re in” game against Dallas.

SUNS QUESTIONS:

1) If your name isn’t Dragic or Tucker, how important is this to you because I can’t tell by your play.

2) Was the last play against Dallas just where the ball went due to the defense or was a play actually drawn up for Markieff Morris to take the final shot?

3) Will missing the playoffs actually burn in the soul throughout the offseason or will the players think they’ve accomplished something by coming close this year?

Last weekend has left a lot of questions that need answers. The problem is most of these questions can’t be answered until September.

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