Marlins hang on to beat Giants

Baseball Betting Lines

07/27/2010 - San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dan Uggla and Mike Stanton homered to back the strong pitching of Ricky Nolasco, as Florida held on for a 4-3 win over the San Francisco Giants to open a four-game set.

Nolasco (11-7) allowed four hits, a run, walked a batter and had seven strikeouts to win for the sixth time in his last seven starts.

Stanton drove in two and Leo Nunez surrendered a run in the ninth, but left the potential tying tally at third for his 24th save, as the Marlins posted their eighth win in 10 games.

Barry Zito (8-6) permitted eight hits and three runs over 6 1/3 innings and suffered his first career loss when facing Florida. Zito, who had been 5-0 in six starts vs. the Marlins, had three strikeouts.

Aaron Rowand belted a pinch-hit, two-run homer in the seventh inning, but the Giants had a four-game winning streak broken and lost for just the fourth time in their last 19 contests. Buster Posey extended his hitting streak to 19 games, the second-longest by a rookie in San Francisco-era history behind Hall of Famer Willie McCovey's 22-gamer in 1959.

Uggla homered to left in the fourth inning and Stanton hit Zito's first pitch of the fifth over the wall in left-center. It became 3-0 in the sixth when Uggla scored on a Cody Ross sacrifice fly on a nice sliding catch by Andres Torres in right-center field.

Pat Burrell walked with one out in the seventh. Rowand, pinch-hitting for Travis Ishikawa, sent Taylor Tankersley's 0-1 pitch over the wall in left field. Emilio Bonifacio jumped at the fence, but the ball was caught by fan with a glove at the top of the wall. Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez argued that the fan interfered, but after umpires went into the clubhouse for a replay, the evidence wasn't strong enough to overturn the home run call.

Ross scored on Stanton's double to center in the eighth and Nunez survived the ninth. Rowand and Freddy Sanchez singled to start the frame. Pinch-hitter Ryan Rohlinger put down a successful sacrifice bunt, and one run scored on Torres' groundout. First baseman Gaby Sanchez knocked down the ball on a diving stop and flipped to Nunez for the out. Edgar Renteria struck out to end the game and had to be thrown out at first base by catcher Ronny Paulino.

Game Notes

It was the first pinch-hit homer of Rowand's career...Former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula was in attendance...Before Monday, Zito had allowed one home run (2007) to the Marlins...After the game, the Marlins placed outfielder Chris Coghlan on the 15-day disabled list with torn meniscus in his right knee. They also called up first baseman Logan Morrison from Triple-A New Orleans...The Marlins moved above .500 (50-49) for the first time since June 3.

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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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