Giants wrap up series vs. D'Backs
Baseball Betting Lines
08/29/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Giants rookie Buster Posey is a big reason for the club's success, but a forearm strain has been bothering the young catcher lately. He is expected to be back in today's lineup versus the Arizona Diamondbacks in the finale of a three-game series at AT&T Park.
Posey was handed the starting job this season when veteran Bengie Molina was dealt to the Texas Rangers, and he's batting .329 with 10 homers and 49 RBI in 78 games. The Giants could have used Posey's power in Saturday's 11-3 loss in which another starting pitcher was hammered. A day after Tim Lincecum gave up four runs over six innings in a series-opening loss, Barry Zito was touched for nine runs -- seven earned -- on six hits and five walks in 3 2/3 innings.
"I'm just not in a good rhythm. The pitches just aren't crisp right now," said Zito, who was in trouble after giving up six runs in the first inning. "It requires working hard between starts."
Pablo Sandoval homered and both Pat Burrell and Aubrey Huff were credited with an RBI for San Francisco, which has dropped three in a row and fell 1 1/2 games behind Philadelphia for the wild card lead. The Phillies defeated San Diego Saturday afternoon, keeping the Giants six games in back of the Padres for the top spot in the NL West.
The last time Giants starter Matt Cain faced Arizona he tossed eight shutout innings for the win back on July 22 at Chase Field. He'll take on the D'Backs again this afternoon and is 6-4 with a respectable 3.22 earned run average in 16 career starts in this series.
Cain was 0-2 in three starts before beating Cincinnati the last time out on Monday, as he held the Reds to two runs and five hits and struck out seven batters in eight innings of work.
The bulky right-hander has won four of his previous six decisions and evened his 2010 mark to 10-10 in 26 starts. Cain is 7-3 with a 2.59 ERA in 13 home starts this season.
Arizona will try for its fourth straight win and a three-game sweep of the Giants today, and has outscored its NL West rivals by a 17-5 margin so far.
Daniel Hudson benefited from a six-run first innings and threw seven innings of two-run ball for the win last night, while relievers Sam Demel and Jordan Norberto each pitched a scoreless inning of relief.
"I was struggling early on. We had some long innings, it was kind of tough to stay warm, just kind of battled through it for a little while then the tempo of game started picking up a bit out there," Hudson said on the team's site. "I really got into a rhythm there at the end."
Adam LaRoche and Mark Reynolds both homered and finished with three RBI and two runs scored for the last-place Diamondbacks, who got a three-run double from Miguel Montero during the first-inning explosion.
Rodrigo Lopez hasn't won since July 8 versus Florida and is only 0-5 with a 6.90 earned run average in his last eight starts. Arizona is 1-7 in that span and will send Lopez to the mound Sunday for his 27th start.
Lopez last pitched in Tuesday's 5-0 loss at San Diego, as he surrendered five runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings of work. The effort dropped him to 5-12 this season to go along with a 5.09 ERA.
The righty is 0-1 in two starts against San Francisco this season and 0-2 in four career starts in this series. Lopez hasn't pitched well on the road this season, going 2-6 in 12 starts away from home.
The Giants are 7-4 against Arizona this season.
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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