Rochester Redwings continue streak of hilariously poor performance

For many people who grew up in the Rochester area, the Red Wings have been a staple of the culture. Allowing young local teams to run the bases and be great entertainment for a family night out made the Rochester Red Wings iconic. While the mascot antics are fun for everyone, the team itself has been beyond underwhelming for nearly a decade now. Winning seasons have become less and less common, and they have been by small margins as of late. The most recent Red Wings season that resulted in a playoff appearance took place nearly a decade ago in 2013, and then resulted in a first-round loss.The current season has already been disappointing, to say the least, with a 19-game losing streak that began mid-July and ended mid-August.

The only real glimmer of hope for this team was first baseman Joey Meneses, who had amassed 20 home runs, 64 runs batted in (RBIs), and an impressive .286 batting average. When a player performs well for a AAA team, they are bound to be sent up to the majors, which is exactly what happened to Meneses. The loss of his presence on the team has left the Red Wings to flounder and fall to eighth out of ten places in the division. To no surprise, the two teams currently behind Rochester are only a few games back, potentially allowing the Red Wings to reclaim the last place spot they became quite comfortable in last year.

Last season, the Red Wings franchise became a part of the Washington Nationals organization after being tied to the Orioles and Twins, both within the last 20 years. Instability in the front office has not stopped them from continuing the constant and divisie rebranding, along with consistently questionable roster decisions. In the last 18 years, there have been a whopping eight different managers, with none lasting longer than four dreadful seasons. Truthfully, the only redeeming quality this team has is a fairly average attendance per season in their somewhat dedicated, but surely disappointed, fanbase. Watching this team play is certainly fun for younger fans, but any true fans of the game cannot help but cringe by about the sixth inning.

As the old saying goes, “if you plant corn, corn will grow”; the Washington Nationals are the worst team in the MLB, winning roughly 35% of their games this season, and in an ever-so-shocking correlation, the AAA affiliate of the Nationals are also the very worst team in their league. The entire organization is, at this point, laughable, and the results of future seasons will likely wind up similarly to those of their current and past ones. The lack of raw talent these teams possess eliminates the possibility of any major trades which are so desperately needed. It is quite astonishing that just three years ago, the Washington Nationals had won the World Series, but managed to trade away many of their best players and have the ultimate fall from grace. Any team from the Washington organization, Major or AAA, reaching the playoffs anytime soon would be beyond shocking, and probably enough to make fans question the integrity of the game of baseball.