Bautista continues grand season, lifts Jays over Tribe

Baseball Betting Lines

07/30/2010 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jose Bautista's grand slam and league-leading 31st home run highlighted a six-run fourth, as the Toronto Blue Jays won their fourth straight with an 8-1 rout of the struggling Cleveland Indians at Rogers Centre.

Bautista tied the club record with his 11th home run of July and finished with three hits, as the Blue Jays snapped a four-game losing streak to Cleveland. Fred Lewis also homered as part of the 14-hit attack, while Yunel Escobar and Lyle Overbay both had multi-hit efforts.

Shaun Marcum (10-4) was dominant in the start, allowing just one run and three hits while fanning a season-high 10 over seven frames.

Matt LaPorta's sacrifice fly was the only offense for the Indians, who have lost three straight and six of seven. Justin Masterson (3-10) was pounded for eight runs on a career-high 13 hits and two walks over only 5 1/3 innings to take the loss.

The Blue Jays got the scoring started with Lewis' leadoff shot in the third, then scored six times in the fourth to take control.

Aaron Hill and Lyle Overbay both singled to begin the big inning, and Edwin Encarnacion's base hit with one away brought in Hill for a 2-0 edge. Lewis singled to load the bases, and Escobar pushed a Masterson offering through the infield's left side to plate another run and keep the bases loaded.

Bautista followed by launching a pitch into the seats in center for his third career grand slam and a commanding seven-run advantage for Toronto.

The Indians could manage only LaPorta's sacrifice fly in the fifth, but were answered when Escobar scampered home on a wild pitch in the sixth for an 8-1 margin, which held for the final score.

Game Notes

Bautista tied Shawn Green's Toronto record. Green hit 11 home runs in July, 1999...The Indians went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and are now 5-for-61 in such situations during the last nine games...Cleveland outfielder Austin Kearns hit a double for the Indians' only extra-base hit of the game. The club now has an extra-base hit in 52 straight games, the longest active streak in the majors...The season series is tied, 4-4...The Blue Jays have homered in 11 straight games...Bautista's last grand slam came on September 19, 2006 as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

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.

NFL Betting Lines

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