Sweet Grapes

In support of my argument yesterday that the Brewers should be trying to shop John Axford, here are the Major League leaders in saves since 2005:

Rk	Player	SV
1	Francisco Rodriguez	277
2	Mariano Rivera	267
3	Francisco Cordero	253
4	Jose Valverde	224
5	Jonathan Papelbon	219
6	Joe Nathan	216
7	Trevor Hoffman	208
8	Brian Fuentes	195
9	Brad Lidge	193
10	Huston Street	178
35	John Axford	71
39	Derrick Turnbow	65

For Rodriguez, that total of course includes the second half of last season when he got a grand total of zero.

Did you also know that Rodriguez is only one year older than John Axford?

What the Brewers have on their roster right now is one of the elite closers in the game and the league leader in saves last season.  And it's two different guys.  Given Axford's pre-arbitration contract status, it would seem that he would be the more valuable commodity on the open market.  If the Brewers could land a quality setup guy and a solid AAA prospect third baseman (which there happen to be a glut of at the moment), it would be foolish not to make the deal.  To think that Rodriguez should be nothing more than a setup guy is foolish also.  It's a waste of his talent.

So why the headline?  When you wind up not getting something that you really wanted and then after the fact claim that you didn't want it anyway, it's called 'sour grapes.'  So if you wind up getting something that you didn't really want but then after the fact realize how good it really is, it's called what?