Marcell Ozuna's shrinking trade value is entirely the Braves fault

The biggest disaster plaguing the Atlanta Braves this year was hiring Tim Hyers as hitting coach.
Marcell Ozuna, Atlanta Braves
Marcell Ozuna, Atlanta Braves | Jim McIsaac/GettyImages

This era of Atlanta Braves baseball needs to end come October. No, you cannot fire the whole team, but the whole coaching staff needs to go. It is past the point of no return for skipper Brian Snitker to unfurl his golden parachute. The hard ground is rapidly approaching, so good luck with that. While I would love to see him take so many of his coaches with him, hitting coach Tim Hyers should have never been hired in the first place.

Outside of general manager Alex Anthopoulos overpaying young players prematurely, I would put the bulk of the blame for this year's disaster on Hyers essentially stealing money from Liberty Media. Then again, all Atlanta Braves Holdings wants to do is acquire more territory in and around the Cobb Cloverleaf like it is a game of Risk or something. Either way, I have seen these bozos ruin this team, one player at a time.

If you want proof of this, look no further than the issues designated hitter Marcell Ozuna has had at the plate of late. Yes, you could argue that he is fighting through a nagging hip injury, but Prehension Athletics argues his slightly altered stance is what may have caused it in the first place. Meanwhile, Hyers is too busy thumbscrewing everything under the sun like he is Ross Geller over on Friends.

I am not a kinesiologist by any means, but this tweet has me wishing Kevin Seitzer was still around.

The minute the Braves let Ron Washington and Eric Young Sr. leave, this entire core was so cooked.

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Marcell Ozuna's mechanical issues are crippling his trade market value

Look: Ozuna was probably not going to be traded anyway. He has 10-5 rights, meaning he can veto any deal put forth by Anthopoulos. The fact he is a designated hitter in his mid-30s does not suggest he will have a robust market at the deadline. He may have one more semi-big deal left to be had in free agency, but we all know that Anthopoulos hates paying players over 30. Ozuna is almost certainly walking anyway.

As far as what the Braves need to do, they need to hire a savvy baseball mind, potentially someone who has never been to Atlanta before. They pronounce it with one too many T's. They must conduct the interview at a Waffle House, just to make sure they do not call it Hotlanta because passing the vibe check is important. From there, I would look at getting a guy who has the fire of one Bobby Cox.

I am really at wit's end with this team. I understand that the All-Star Game will be happening miles from where I live, but I really do not care. We are in the midst of Sad Boy Summer watching these sad boys play ball six days a week. Rather than let them pick their song of choice to walk up to, let's just put The National on Spotify, crack open a bottle of merlot and try to get through this thing alright.

As long as the Braves remain half-awake in their fake empire, we will have more sad boy summers.