Red Sox shoot for third straight win against battling M's

Baseball Betting Lines

07/24/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Red Sox try to make it three straight wins this evening when they continue their four-game set against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field.

The Red Sox will turn to Jon Lester to keep them in the win column, as the southpaw will take the hill trying to rebound from his fourth loss on the season. In the 4-2 setback to Texas on Sunday, Lester surrendered four runs -- three earned -- on nine hits, but he also struck out six batters in eight innings.

The loss halted Lester's personal three-game winning streak.

Lester has been solid throughout the season, especially on the road where the Washington native is 5-2 in nine starts, and that comes with an impressive 2.78 earned run average.

However, Lester has endured struggles against Seattle in his career, posting just a 1-1 mark with a lackluster 4.55 ERA in five outings.

Taking on Boston will be a former player from the organization in David Pauley. Pauley, who participated in nine combined games for the Red Sox in 2006 and 2008, will be making his third start on the season since being called up from Tacoma back on June 27th. Both of Pauley's starts have come at home, but in both matchups the right-hander was defeated.

The last time Pauley took the hill he surrendered three runs on eight hits in a 6-1 setback to Chicago.

Last night, Bill Hall hit the go-ahead home run in the seventh inning and Josh Beckett pitched into the sixth in his first appearance in over two months as Boston edged the Mariners, 2-1.

Beckett had been sidelined with a lower back strain. In his first game since May 18, the right-hander went 5 2/3 innings, yielding one run on five hits with three walks and five strikeouts. He threw 98 pitches, 62 for strikes.

The Red Sox blew a five-run lead in the ninth inning on Thursday, but managed to win the opener of the four-game series, 8-6, in 13 innings. Jonathan Papelbon, who was part of that ninth-inning collapse, escaped a jam in the final frame Friday for his 22nd save of the year.

The Mariners not only suffered their eighth loss in 10 games, but tempers boiled over in a skirmish in the team's dugout in the fifth inning apparently over a lackadaisical effort in the top portion of the frame by second baseman Chone Figgins.

Josh Wilson was already warming up to replace Figgins when Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu told Figgins that he was being removed from the game.

"I don't think you can point a finger at anyone," said the Mariners' Russell Branyan. "I just think that Wak walked down there and told Figgy that he was done and Figgy wanted to explain his side of the story, how the play went down. That was pretty much it and I think that some tempers flared a little. That's about it."

Lopez had his jersey pulled over his head as a cluster of players came together in the dugout. Figgins and Lopez were being held back by teammates on one side of the dugout, while Wakamatsu appeared to be at the other end and also part of the argument.

"In the fifth inning I didn't think there was much effort on that back-up," Wakamatsu said. "One thing people have to understand, everybody in that dugout cares and tempers fly a little bit. What happens in there stays in there."

Boston is 9-4 in the past 13 contests in this 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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Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds

Super Bowl XLIII, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Super Bowl XLIII is now set, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers will meet each other on February 1st in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium to battle it out for the coveted Lombardi Trophy. The game kicks off at 6:00pm ET on NBC with announcers Al Michaels and John Madden covering the on-field action. Super Bowl XLIII betting odds at online bookmaker MySportsbook.com have the Steelers listed as an early -6.5 against the spread favorite.Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds

Pittsburgh earned their passage to the big game by beating their division rival, the Baltimore Ravens, 23-14 in yesterday's AFC Championship Game. The Steelers jumped on Baltimore early, building a 13-0 first half lead, and never let up on their way to a fairly easy win. Although the Ravens did close to within two points in the fourth quarter, it never appeared as if they had enough offense to pull off the upset.

The Steelers dominating defense held Baltimore to a total of 198 yards while allowing them to convert just three third downs in 13 attempts. Pittsburgh also forced quarterback Joe Flacco into three interceptions, one of which safety Troy Polamalu returned fourty yards for a touchdown.

The Cardinals, by far the playoff team with the longest odds to reach Super Bowl XLIII, did so yesterday with a 32-25 upset of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship. Arizona charged out of the gates and built a 24-6 halftime lead that had the Eagles venerable defense reeling. Quarterback Kurt Warner and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald did most of the damage, connecting on three first half touchdowns.

Arizona, however, could not sustain their momentum and the Eagles took a 25-24 with 10:45 left to play in the fourth. The Cardinals, with the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance hanging in the balance, mounted a fourteen play, 72 yard touchdown drive that consumed 7:52 off the clock. Warner hit running back Tim Hightower on a short screen for the go-ahead, game clinching score that will forever live in Cardinal infamy.

MySportsbook.com's Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds:

Pittsburgh Steelers -6.5 (-110), Over 46.5 (-110), -260 (Money line)

Arizona Cardinals +6.5 (-110), Under 46.5 (-110), +220 (Money line)

Matt Foust won both of his conference championship plays yesterday and he is ready to serve up plenty of Super Bowl action. Each individual play costs $15.00, however, MySportsbook.com recommends purchasing Matt's NFL Playoff Package which includes all of Matt's Super Bowl props and picks from just $45.00.

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