Indians try to continue success against Rangers

Baseball Betting Lines

07/20/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians aim for a sixth consecutive victory over the Texas Rangers when the clubs play the second test of a four-game series tonight at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

The struggling Indians picked up a much-needed win in Thursday's opener, with Grady Sizemore belting a tie-breaking solo home run in the sixth inning to help the Tribe post a 7-5 decision.

Sizemore finished 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI for Cleveland, which had dropped seven of its last 11 games and needed to keep pace with the red-hot Detroit Tigers in the AL Central standings. Trot Nixon and Ben Francisco also knocked in two runs each in the triumph.

C.C. Sabathia became the first 13-game winner in the majors with a steady and unspectacular performance for the Indians. The All-Star lefty, who was coming off back-to-back subpar starts, allowed four runs (three earned) on nine hits in six innings.

Cleveland's Ryan Garko doubled in his final at-bat to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. The first baseman is batting .467 (21-for-45) with three homers and 10 RBI over that span.

Gerald Laird hit a two-run homer for the Rangers, who have lost two straight after winning their previous three games. Travis Metcalf and Mark Teixeira each drove in a run in the loss.

Texas starter Kameron Loe (5-8) was touched for six runs on six hits in six innings of work.

Cleveland has now won five straight matchups with Texas dating back to last season. The Indians swept a two-game set from the Rangers at Jacobs Field in April and are now 5-2 in their last seven games in Arlington.

The Indians remained two games behind first-place Detroit in the division with Thursday's win and own a 1 1/2-game edge on Seattle for the top spot in the AL wild card standings. The club has not been able to record consecutive victories, however, since putting together a six-game win streak from June 28- July 3.

Cleveland sends out one of its top hurlers in an effort to change that stat, as Fausto Carmona puts a personal three-start win streak on the line when he takes the mound tonight.

After ending a successful first half with wins over Tampa Bay and Toronto, Carmona delivered another strong effort to defeat the Royals on Sunday. The Dominican righty yielded just two runs on eight hits over seven innings to lead the Tribe to a 5-3 win.

Carmona has posted a 2.94 earned run average and hasn't allowed a home run during his three-start run.

The 23-year-old has faced the Rangers once during his brief career and suffered the loss in an encounter at Jacobs Field on April 29, 2006. Carmona was tagged for six runs on eight hits by Texas over 5 2/3 innings of work.

The Rangers will give the ball tonight to Brandon McCarthy, who hopes to end a lengthy winless drought. The right-hander has not won since a May 20 decision at Houston, having registered two losses, three no decisions and a 5.16 ERA following that victory.

In his most recent start, McCarthy gave up four runs (three earned) on six hits in a six-inning no decision in Anaheim.

McCarthy does own a 3-1 career record against the Indians despite a 6.16 ERA in 10 lifetime games, two of which have been starts. He tossed two scoreless innings of relief at Jacobs Field back in April.

Texas will play again tonight without All-Star shortstop Michael Young, who is in California attending the funeral of his wife's grandmother. Young is expected to return to the team in time for Saturday's contest.

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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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