Towers, Blue Jays blank Mariners

Baseball Betting Lines

07/21/2007 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Towers pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings as the Toronto Blue Jays edged the Seattle Mariners, 1-0, in the second contest of a three-game set.

Towers (5-6) gave up just three hits while striking out four and walking two for the Blue Jays, who have won two of three after a three-game skid.

Toronto's bullpen finished the game off with 2 1/3 innings of hitless relief, with Jeremy Accardo getting the final two outs in the ninth for his 15th save of the season.

Aaron Hill knocked in the lone run of the game for the Blue Jays with an RBI single in the second inning.

Jeff Weaver (2-8) was the hard-luck loser after pitching eight solid innings. The right-hander gave up just the one run on four hits with four strikeouts and no walks.

Jose Vidro hit a pair of singles for the Mariners, who had won eight of their last 11.

Toronto got the only run it would need in the second inning behind three- straight singles by Vernon Wells, Frank Thomas and Hill, with Hill's base-hit scoring Wells.

Towers, meanwhile, retired the first 10 batters of the game before Vidro singled in the fourth.

Ichiro Suzuki walked with two outs in the sixth and Vidro's second base-hit of the game put runners on the corners. Towers, though, got Raul Ibanez to line out to center for the third out of the inning.

Richie Sexson then walked with two outs in the seventh and Jose Lopez followed with a single. However, Casey Janssen took over for Towers and retired pinch- hitter Ben Broussard to end the threat.

Game Notes

Scott Downs pitched a scoreless inning of relief for the Blue Jays...In Sunday's rubber match, Felix Hernandez will take the mound for Seattle against Toronto's Roy Halladay...Time of the game was 2:06.

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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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