Dave Yeager, the athletic trainer for the Huntsville Stars, just about gave Brewers general manager Doug Melvin a heart attack via e-mail recently.

In a pregame interview with Jim Powell of the Brewers Radio Network, Melvin talked about how he briefly thought the trade for CC Sabathia was going to have to be nixed because of an injury to Matt LaPorta.

Here's Melvin, responding to a question about how trades go down:

"There's so much involved with deals anymore. You have to contact the players, you have to make sure the players involved aren't injured, you've got to exchange medical information, you've got to exchange contract information, you have your agreements that have to be typed up and checked out by your lawyers. It's not as easy as picking up the phone and exchanging players in Fantasy Baseball. That's what happens, and that's why with the media, they might catch wind of something but there's so much more.

"I never feel comfortable about a deal until the players have been told by the opposing club and the players have been told by us. Because something can happen. For example, on Matt LaPorta, I got an e-mail from our Double-A trainer, and the e-mail from David Yeager read, 'Matt LaPorta has broken his (slight pause) cell phone.' And I read the e-mail and I thought Matt LaPorta has broken his foot. And I thought, oh my God. It completely tore me up until I saw 'cell phone. You won't be able to reach him. I'll find out a number for him.'

"I looked at that and I said to Gord (Ash, the assistant GM), did you have the same feeling when you read that? And we had just completed the deal. And I looked on my e-mail from our Double-A trainer that said Matt LaPorta has broken - and all I saw was broken. My blood started changing colors. Anyways, it was his cell phone. The deal was completed. It was his cell phone. If it would have been his foot, it would have been different."