CC to take less money?

[NIGHT STALKER]

SI.com's Jon Heyman is on top of all the hot stove news. Here are some highlights from today's interview:

-- The Yankees don't see the Brewers as their competition for CC Sabathia. Milwaukee GM Doug Melvin said the Yanks over-bid. But New York is more worried about the California teams and probably thought less than $140 million would be an insult. Heyman thinks that Sabathia might take less money to go home to California -- either the Angels or Dodgers.

[Maxman]

I still think it is too much money for a 320 pound "athlete" with so many innings thrown the past few years.

[NIGHT STALKER]

I still think it is too much money for a 320 pound "athlete" with so many innings thrown the past few years.

I read an article last week that I can't remember where or who wrote it (this is what happens when you get old), that Sabathia could very well turn out to another Barry Zito signing with the Yanks.

[shawn306]

Sabathia to me is very iffy.

Everyone loves to point out the great job he did for the Brewers but I have seen very few people point out the fact that he was pretty awful the first part of the season with the Indians. Pretty alarming to me for a guy that was in the walk year of his contract.

I would have reservations about offering the kind of coin the Yanks are offering to Sabathia.

[DaBrick Wall]

I read an article last week that I can't remember where or who wrote it (this is what happens when you get old), that Sabathia could very well turn out to another Barry Zito signing with the Yanks.

They're not even comparable. That's the most ridiculous comparison I've seen in a while. Barry Zito was NEVER as good as Sabathia is now, even in his better years. Sabathia is a true ace.

[NIGHT STALKER]

They're not even comparable. That's the most ridiculous comparison I've seen in a while. Barry Zito was NEVER as good as Sabathia is now, even in his better years. Sabathia is a true ace.

Hey, I didn't write it...I'll try and find it.

Edit: Here you go!

By Jonah Keri/ESPN

This year's Barry Zito: CC Sabathia

For a while, Zito was a very good pitcher with the A's. His first four seasons included a 61-29 record, season-by-season adjusted ERAs 25 percent to 72 percent better than league average, a top-10 rookie of the year finish, two All-Star games and a Cy Young Award. He tailed off in his next three seasons, tossing more than 200 innings in each while delivering good, but not great, performances. That was enough to entice the Giants to chuck $126 million for seven years at then-28-year-old Zito, a move that prompted 29 other GMs and countless fans to type three-letter text messages to each other simultaneously -- the first and last of those three letters being "L." Zito has been a huge disappointment in his first two years in San Francisco, including an abysmal 5.15 ERA in 2008.

Sabathia, 28, heads into free agency a more attractive commodity than Zito was two years ago. Sabathia won a Cy Young in 2007 and would have contended for another had he spent all of 2008 in one league. He strikes out more batters than Zito did at the same age, gives up far fewer walks and has the kind of knockout fastball Zito lacked. However, Sabathia has thrown 513 innings in the past two seasons, counting the playoffs. It's difficult to intuit much from such a small sample size, but he looked gassed in the postseason each of the past two years. Sabathia also weighs nearly 300 pounds. As much as history suggests that big power pitchers (Walter Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens) tend to age better, there's no precedent for a pitcher's pushing three bills to get a monster free-agent deal. Nevertheless, the bidding for Sabathia figures to be intense, with Hank Steinbrenner likely to shout in Brian Cashman's ear every step of the way. If the Yankees get Sabathia, they'll improve their playoff chances for 2009, maybe 2010, too. But if they shell out, say, $175 million over seven years to get their man, there could be $100 million of regret waiting on the back end. The really large back end.

[faba]

I would be very worried about giving him all those years - any pitcher can break down at any time.

[rillo]

I read an article last week that I can't remember where or who wrote it (this is what happens when you get old), that Sabathia could very well turn out to another Barry Zito signing with the Yanks.

God, I would be sick.

[Jbro22]

When was the last time, a player turned then this kind of money. Even proportionally in years past.

[NIGHT STALKER]

The guy really likes Cali. The longer this takes, the more I start to realize the Yanks aren't getting him. Don't be surprised if the Dodgers or Angels make an offer of 120-125 mil for six years and he takes it.