Pirates extend Rockies' slide in series opener

Baseball Betting Lines

07/27/2010 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Neil Walker finished 3-for-4 with a solo home run as Pittsburgh continued Colorado's second-half slide with a 4-2 victory at Coors Field.

Zach Duke (5-9) started the three-game set with six solid innings, allowing two runs on just three hits with four strikeouts and a pair of walks. Octavio Dotel pitched the ninth frame for his 21st save of the season. The Pirates snapped a four-game skid with the victory.

Jorge De La Rosa (3-3) took the loss, surrendering three runs -- two earned -- on six hits with eight strikeouts and two walks over seven frames. Brad Hawpe and Clint Barmes hit back-to-back home runs for the Rockies, who have lost seven straight.

The Rockies activated their star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki from the 15-day disabled list before the game after he missed 33 games with a fractured left wrist. He went 0-for-4 and committed his sixth error of the season.

The Pirates jumped out for two runs in the top of the first as Andrew McCutchen shot a ball down the left-field line for a double and scored on Jose Tabata's single to center. Walker followed with a bunt single, and after a double play grounder from Garrett Jones, a wild pitch plated Tabata.

Colorado didn't score a run until the fifth frame when Hawpe measured up a first-pitch fastball, driving it into the left field seats. Barmes followed with a homer of his own, tying the game at 2-2.

The Pirates didn't waver, striking right back in the sixth with the aide of a Tulowitzki fielding error. He misplayed Tabata's grounder then Walker reached on an infield single. Jones doubled home Tabata, putting runners on second and third with nobody out, but the Pirates failed to score again. Pedro Alvarez struck out, Lastings Milledge was walked to load the bases and Ronny Cedeno bounced into an inning-ending double play.

The Rockies threatened in the home half of the seventh with Miguel Olivo's leadoff double. Hawpe moved him to third with a groundout, but the Pirates brought the infield in so the catcher couldn't score on Barmes' grounder to third. Pinch-hitter Seth Smith walked, but Evan Meek retired Dexter Fowler on a grounder to the mound to thwart the threat.

"We need to come up with a hit there," said Rockies manager Jim Tracy. "That's basically what's been going on."

Walker hit a solo home run in the eighth to build a two-run cushion at 4-2.

The Rockies brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth after Hawpe's two- out double to left. However, Dotel got Jason Giambi to loft a fly ball to left to end the game.

Game Notes

Colorado closer Huston Street was taken to the hospital after being hit in the lower abdomen by a line drive off the bat of Ian Stewart during batting practice. He suffered a right abdominal contusion...With Tulowitzki's return, the club designated infielder Brad Eldred for assignment to clear a roster spot...Hawpe hit his sixth home run of the season, while Barmes clubbed his eighth.

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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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