Suzuki propels Mariners past Padres
Baseball Betting Lines
06/25/2009 - Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ichiro Suzuki finished a triple shy of the cycle, going 4-for-5 with a pair of runs scored as Seattle downed San Diego, 9-3, in the rubber match of a three-game interleague set from Safeco Field.
Mike Sweeney added a 4-for-4 day at the plate with two RBI for the Mariners, who took two of three in the series and seven of 10 overall. Rob Johnson knocked in three runs, Adrian Beltre contributed three hits and scored twice, while Wladimir Balentien also homered for Seattle.
Jarrod Washburn (4-5) earned his first win since April 21, a span of 10 starts, by allowing just six hits and two runs over six full frames. He fanned six with just one walk and lowered his ERA to 3.22 in the effort.
Chase Headley's two-run homer and a solo shot from Edgar Gonzalez accounted for the offense for the Padres, losers in seven of their last 10 games.
In his second career start, Wade LeBlanc (0-1) lasted only 1 1/3 innings in the loss, charged with five hits and four runs.
The Mariners struck for four runs in the first inning, starting with Suzuki's leadoff blast, his sixth home run of the season. Beltre singled two batters later, and Sweeney followed with a double. Franklin Gutierrez drew an intentional walk with two down, then Johnson laced a double down the line in left which cleared the bases.
Suzuki led off the second with a double but was picked off trying to steal third. Russell Branyan walked and LeBlanc's game was done in favor of Josh Banks, who held the M's at bay.
In the fifth, Seattle picked up two more runs on Ronny Cedeno's successful squeeze bunt which plated Gutierrez, then Balentien's solo shot.
Headley's two-run homer in the sixth put the Padres on the board, and Gonzalez added a solo shot in the seventh to make it 6-3.
Seattle responded in the eighth to put its opponent away for good, tacking on three runs courtesy of a two-run single from Sweeney and a run-scoring double-play from Jose Lopez.
Game Notes
Suzuki's leadoff homer was his second of the year and 29th in his career...LeBlanc's ERA swelled to 14.54, as he allowed three hits and three runs in three innings in his first start, on June 19 against Oakland...Prior to the game, the Mariners placed infielder Yuniesky Betancourt on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right hamstring and reinstated Lopez from the bereavement list.
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
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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