As if trying to sign CC Sabathia wasn't hard enough, it looks like the local paper may have helped make the Brewers' task a little harder this week.
Sunday's Journal Sentinel ran a story titled, "Yankees' offer baffles Melvin," though at no point does it quote Brewers General Manager saying that he was in any way baffled. Instead, it quotes Melvin saying, "It sounds like they're overbidding. If the speculation is true that we've offered CC $100 million, why would you offer $140 million? Why wouldn't you offer $110 million?"
Now, MLB.com's Adam McCalvy is reporting that Melvin hasn't heard back from the Sabathia's representatives. Maybe it's because they think the Brewers are "baffled" -- and not ready to step up and negotiate.
McCalvy wrote, "Melvin admitted he got a fair amount of reaction for his comment last week that the Yankees were 'overbidding' for Sabathia by exceeding the Brewers' offer -- the only other formal overture to Sabathia reported so far -- by such a significant amount. He took issue with a headline on a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report that said he was 'baffled' by the Yankees' offer."
"I wasn't baffled by what they are doing," Melvin told McCalvy. "I do think it's funny that the Yankees make their bid, and a couple of hours later it's on ESPN."
Hey Journal Sentinel, the Yankees don't need any additional help in poaching Sabathia. Please stick to the quotes and skip the editorializing in your headlines. Melvin's job right now is hard enough -- the last thing he needs is to have a newspaper start putting words in his mouth.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
