Bautista homers again as Jays hammer Rays

Baseball Betting Lines

08/31/2010 - St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jose Bautista's 43rd home run of the season highlighted a 10-run sixth inning as Toronto hammered the Rays, 13-5, at Tropicana Field.

Bautista leads the league in homers with his three-run blast giving him 102 RBI on the year, becoming the second player in the majors to reach the century mark. He later added an RBI single for a four-RBI night, but still trails the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera in the category.

Aaron Hill had a two-run homer, John McDonald hit a solo home run and DeWayne Wise ended with three hits, knocked in two and scored twice in the rout that snapped a two-game skid and evened the three-game series at a game apiece.

Meanwhile, Toronto starter Ricky Romero (11-8) pitched a three-hitter, leaving after 7 1/3 innings having allowed five runs -- four earned -- and five walks with as many strikeouts.

Tampa Bay faltered a night after taking the series opener, 6-2, and saw the Yankees grab sole possession of first place in the AL East by a game with their 9-3 rout of Oakland on Tuesday. The Rays still lead Boston in the wild card standings by a healthy seven games.

The hosts' undoing came by way of starter Jeff Niemann (10-5), who was roughed up for seven hits and seven runs in five-plus innings. He pitched to six batters in the fateful sixth frame without recording an out before Lance Cormier came on to allow four runs.

After McDonald's home run in the third, Tampa Bay actually took the lead on a Ben Zobrist RBI single and Dan Johnson's two-run double in the fifth.

It was all Toronto from there, starting with the marathon 10-run sixth as fourteen batters in all came to the plate. The barrage of runs started with Wise's base hit to center to score Fred Lewis.

Vernon Wells doubled home two to begin a string of three consecutive two- baggers with Adam Lind and John Buck following suit to make it a 5-1 game and chase Niemann from the mound.

Hill greeted Cormier with a two-run shot to left and Bautista later slugged his three-run blast out over the same wall for a commanding 11-3 lead.

It was a 10-run game in the eighth as Wise scored a run with a groundout and Bautista added a run-scoring hit off Andy Sonnanstine.

Reid Brignac chased home two runs with a single in the home eighth, but it was too little too late for the Rays.

Game Notes

Bautista also scored two runs and walked while McDonald scored three runs and was 2-for-4 with a walk...The Blue Jays accounted for 15 hits and went 7- for-12 with runners in scoring position...Romero has won four of his last five decisions...Niemann was coming off the worst performance of his career, having been battered for 10 runs and eight hits in 3 1/3 innings against Anaheim last Wednesday...The Rays had won three straight and seven of nine overall coming in.

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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.

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