Cardinals cruise behind Carpenter to top flailing Phils

Baseball Betting Lines

07/20/2010 - St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Carpenter allowed just one run in eight strong innings, and the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the struggling Philadelphia Phillies, 7-1, in the second of four games at Busch Stadium.

Carpenter (11-3) yielded just five hits and a walk while fanning four, helping the Cardinals win their seventh straight game. Matt Holliday launched a three- run homer, while Randy Winn added a two-run shot in the victory.

It is the first seven-game win streak for St. Louis since July 7-16, 2006.

Jayson Werth and Placido Polanco each had two hits for the Phillies, who have lost five of six to begin the second half and lost their starting pitcher due to injury. Jamie Moyer pitched only one inning before being removed due to a left elbow strain; the severity of the injury is unclear thus far.

Andrew Carpenter (0-1) relieved Moyer and gave up three runs in three innings to receive the loss.

The Cardinals got to the Phillies rookie hurler in the third, when Felipe Lopez singled leading off and Winn followed with a blast to the right-field seats for a 2-0 lead.

Yadier Molina doubled and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth to extend St. Louis' lead, and the hosts broke the game open in the fifth.

Danys Baez came on to pitch for the Phillies and walked both Winn and Albert Pujols before surrendering a three-run homer to Holliday, putting the Cards ahead, 6-0.

St. Louis' Carpenter dominated, allowing only three hits and a walk through the first six innings, but the Phillies finally got on the board via back-to- back doubles from Werth and Shane Victorino in the seventh.

The Phillies, however, did not threaten the rest of the way, and Winn's RBI single in the eighth accounted for the final margin.

Game Notes

One day after receiving the loss in Monday's series opener, Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick was demoted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley, prompting the recall of Andrew Carpenter...The Cardinals are 38-21 in games started by Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia and Adam Wainwright. Garcia and Wainwright are scheduled to start the final two games of this series...The Phillies have dropped nine of their last 11 road games...The season series is tied, 3-3...Winn, who also homered on Monday, went deep in consecutive games for the first time since September 25-26, 2007.

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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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