1. I don't think the decision to sign McCutcheon was a bad one. The decision to trot him out almost every day,no matter how bad he performed, was the bad decision. He also should have been platooned, but in CC's mind Cutch was the platoon for McCutcheon. Just horrible decision making during the season.
2. I don't think they relied on Small that much. They were hesitant to promote him due to not improving enough at AAA. Ashby was the primary depth for SP and he struggled, then with mutlitple injuries they had LindBOOM sitting at Nashville and Alexander and Small as the "depth". They went with 2 of the 3 and Alexander was successful initially and Small not. I'm glad they didn't even try LindBOOM, but when Alexander was struggling they went waiver wire/FA dumpster diving for the likes of Chi Chi Rodriguez. I get they don't have the $$$ for depth, but with Gasser they might have one more option that might be able to put up #4/#5 starter numbers if needed.
3. Trade Deadline - BINGO! They took a mediocre pen and removed the elite closer and added a bunch of meh to caca. Sending the message to the players that the long game matters, this season? nah.