Phillies split DH with Marlins; pull within half-game of Braves

Baseball Betting Lines

09/06/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chase Utley and Placido Polanco each had two hits and two RBI, and Roy Oswalt won his fifth straight decision as the Phillies downed the Marlins, 7-4, to close out a day-night doubleheader and inch closer to the division lead.

Philadelphia lost the opener of the twin-bill, 7-1, thanks to Florida's Adalberto Mendez pitching six shutout innings in his major league debut, but with the win in the nightcap and Atlanta's loss to Pittsburgh earlier in the day, the club pulled within a half-game over the National League East front- runners by stopping a short two-game slide.

Oswalt (11-13) survived home-run balls to Mike Stanton, Hanley Ramirez and Cameron Maybin to get the win. The right-hander was charged with four runs on six hits and a walk to go with seven strikeouts in as many frames.

Anibal Sanchez (11-9) didn't have as much success as Mendez, surrendering seven runs on seven hits and three walks in four-plus innings for the Marlins, who had won four of five coming into this four-game series.

In the away second, Stanton gave the Marlins an early lead by crushing a payoff pitch into the second deck in left.

The Phillies responded with a five-spot in the bottom half. After loading the bases with no outs, Sanchez walked Carlos Ruiz to force in a run before Shane Victorino, who had three hits, plated Raul Ibanez with a base hit.

Though Dominic Brown was thrown out at home on the play, Polanco kept the inning alive by lacing a ground-rule double down the third base line to bring in a pair. Utley followed with a run-scoring single to left for a 5-1 game.

Oswalt walked Logan Morrison in the third in front of Ramirez before yielding a home run to the slugging shortstop, then served up a solo long ball to Maybin two innings later.

The Phillies got two of the runs back in the home fifth, as Polanco tripled off the wall in center to start the inning and raced home on Utley's single up the middle. Ibanez's one-out double made it a three-run game, and the bullpen behind Oswalt finished it off.

Ryan Madson retired three straight in the eighth after J.C. Romero walked the leadoff batter, and Brad Lidge worked around a two-out single in the ninth for his 21st save of the season.

Game Notes

This doubleheader was made necessary when the middle contest of a slated three-game set in Philadelphia on June 9 was postponed...The four earned runs were the most Oswalt has given up since his debut with the Phillies on July 30. He had allowed just one run in 21 1/3 innings coming into the game...Stanton's home run was his 17th, Ramirez now has 21 and Maybin upped his total to eight.

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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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