Don't ya know it's gonna be all right (wrong)?

With a little tip of the cap to the Beatles...

All right, riffing off one of Alphonso's heretical points:

What did we not do that we wanted to do that we shoulda done?  And vice versa.

That is, what moves did we advocate which would have been good or bad had HAL actually okayed the money?

Manny Machado.

I have to admit, I was all for signing him, once Sir Didi went under the knife.  Which would've been a colossal waste of money.

Just 26—a phenomenally young age for a big free agent—Manny nonetheless grounded into an NL-leading 24 double-plays this year, and his batting line dropped precipitously, to .256/.334/.462/.796, even playing in the beautiful, carefree atmosphere of San Diego (Spanish for, "Whale's Vagina.").

To be sure, Manny still hit 32 homers, and played an above-average 3B.  He's young enough to come back strong, and who knows?  Maybe the whole LACK of pressure hurt his game.

But I still have to say:  I was wrong.  Picking him up would've meant missing out on the delightful Gio experience.

Bryce Harper

The easy call here is going to be that we didn't need him.  In fact, look for our craven idiot of a GM to pat himself on the back for passing on Bryce very soon.

But I'm not so sure.  I gotta go with our Dauntless Leader here.  Sure, we probably would've missed out on Maybin and Tauchman.  But boy oh boy, it would've been nice to have Bryce in the playoffs!

Harper JUST turned 27, and experienced only a minor drop-off this year, with an .882 OPS, 35 homers and 36 doubles, 99 walks, 15 SB in 18 attempts, and 13 OF assists.  And he's a lefty.

Let's see how we feel about this next year, when Coops has let Maybin walk and traded Frazier, Tauchman is reverting to his mean, Gardy is wearing out in latest farewell contract, and Judge and Stanton are struggling to stay off the DL.  And Joe Girardi's Phillies are five game up on their division.

I still say we shoulda signed him.

Patrick Corbin

The guy who won the World Series?  After going 14-7, 3.25, with 238 Ks in 202 innings in the regular season?  And who won't turn 30 until next midseason?

Yeah, I'll say we should've signed him.

Stupidly, I thought Happ was a better signing.  But I would've loved to have signed BOTH, and NOT traded Sheffield, then a leading pitching prospect, for Paxton.

The Maple Sapling's one good playoff start aside, we would've been better off signing Corbin AND Happ and dealing Shef for something else:  a good young OF prospect, another pitcher, etc.

Coops was wrong on Corbin.  And wrong for America, dammit.

Dallas Keuchel

Another no-brainer.  But then, what do you expect from a GM with no brains?

This was especially, egregiously stupid, because all it would've entailed was (a little) more money, with no big-contract or trade risk whatsoever.

No, Keuchel didn't burn the house down, in the end.  But he was entirely reliable, throwing 112 innings after the Braves signed him, and making two so-so playoff starts.

But hey, if we didn't like that?  We could've just let him walk at the end of the year.

Another WRONG for The Office Boy, which puts his 2019 record at 1-3.