Pettitte has strong outing as Yanks top Royals

Baseball Betting Lines

04/10/2009 - Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andy Pettitte scattered three hits and one run through seven innings, as the New York Yankees topped Kansas City, 4-1, in the opener of a three-game set.

Pettitte (1-0) held his foes in check with six strikeouts and one walk, en route to his 216th career victory.

Jorge Posada knocked in a pair of runs for the Yankees, who evened their record after losing two-of-three at Baltimore to start the season. Nick Swisher and Derek Jeter also added RBI.

Mike Jacobs knocked in the lone run for the Royals, who opened their season by winning two-of-three in Chicago against the White Sox.

Sidney Ponson (0-1), who was called up from Triple-A to start the game and fill the roster spot vacated by the injured Jose Guillen, was charged with six hits and four runs over six innings, fanning five with three walks.

The Yanks got to Ponson early, putting up two runs in the first on a sizzling two-RBI base hit from Posada. The Royals countered in the home second, on a two-out walk to Billy Butler followed by a double from Jacobs.

In the fourth, New York picked up two more runs courtesy of a Swisher double to plate Robinson Cano and a fielder's choice grounder by Jeter to plate Swisher.

Kansas City's best chance to cut into its deficit came in the fifth, as Butler led off with a double. However, the next three batters were retired in succession without advancing the runner.

Pettitte closed out his start by retiring nine of the final 10 batters he faced from the fifth through the seventh.

Brian Bruney fanned a pair while blanking the Royals in the eighth, then Mariano Rivera closed out the game with a scoreless ninth to earn his first save of the season.

Game Notes

Cano collected two hits for the Yankees, the only player on either side to have a multi-hit game...Right-fielder Guillen was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a grade 2 tear of a right groin muscle suffered Thursday in Chicago...Royals relievers Kyle Farnsworth and Jamey Wright combined to allow one hit with six strikeouts over three scoreless frames...Both clubs won five games apiece in the 2008 season series.

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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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