Braves crush Cubs to spoil Piniella's last game

Baseball Betting Lines

08/22/2010 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Heyward and Omar Infante both finished with four hits, including two homers, scored four times and each drove in four runs as Atlanta dominated Chicago, 16-5, in the finale of a three-game set from Wrigley Field which was also the terminal contest in the storied managerial career of Lou Piniella.

Although the 66-year-old had announced last month that he would retire effective the end of the season, he abruptly moved up the date to Sunday. Mike Quade will take the reins for remainder of the season, beginning Monday in Washington.

Derrek Lee had three RBI and Alex Gonzalez knocked in a pair for the Braves, who took two of three in the series and have won six of eight overall.

Mike Minor (2-0) allowed seven hits and three runs over six innings for the win. The 22-year-old left-hander fanned a career-best 12 batters, after fanning 10 in his first two career starts.

Aramis Ramirez finished 3-for-4 with a two-run home run for the Cubs, losers in six of their last seven. Marlon Byrd added three hits and an RBI while Blake DeWitt and Xavier Nady also drove in a run each.

Randy Wells (5-12) was charged in defeat for seven hits and seven runs -- five earned -- with five strikeouts and four walks in six-plus frames.

Already ahead by two, the Braves broke the game wide open with a four-run seventh. Infante and Heyward singled, leaving Wells to exit and Diamond Thomas to enter the game before a fielding error on a Martin Prado grounder loaded the bases.

Lee flew out and James Russell got the nod, only to allow a run-scoring fielder's choice by Brian McCann. Melky Cabrera walked and Justin Berg was called on but surrendered a three-run hit from Gonzalez which made it 9-3.

Atlanta piled on in the eighth with five runs as Heyward scored one with a single, Lee slugged a bases-clearing double and Cabrera grounded into a fielder's choice for a 14-3 game.

Chicago cut its deficit to nine in the home half on a DeWitt pinch-hit RBI single and a fielder's choice grounder from Nady.

Heyward rocketed a two-run homer to right in the ninth for a 16-5 contest, then Cristhian Martinez turned in a scoreless bottom of the frame.

Each side picked up a run in the first as Infante launched his first homer of the game, then Byrd countered with an RBI single.

Heyward's one-out solo shot put the Braves ahead in the third, but Ramirez hit a two-run shot in the home half to give the Cubs a one-run edge.

Infante reached the bleachers again in the fourth with a three-run blast for a 5-3 Atlanta edge.

Game Notes

Infante's last multi-homer game came on September 17, 2003 with Detroit against the White Sox...Heyward recorded his first career multi-homer contest...Piniella exits the game with a record of 1835-1713 with the Yankees (1986-88), Reds (1990-92), Mariners (1993-2002), Rays (2003-05) and Cubs (2007-10)...He won a World Series with Cincinnati in 1990, and was a three- time manager of the year (1995 AL, 2001, 2008 NL)...Cubs leftfielder Alfonso Soriano's eighth-inning double was his 700th career extra-base hit...The Braves won four of six in the 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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MySportsbook.com Releases World Series Championship Lines

New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox early favorites to win 2008 World Series
The Major League Baseball season starts this weekend and MySportsbook.com, a leading online sportsbook for over 8 years, is the first to offer baseball sports betting lines on who will win the 2007 World Series.

"The World Series is the biggest baseball event in the sports betting world and MySportsbook.com is excited that we are first to market with betting lines on every team," says Tim Dalton, Marketing Director, MySportsbook.com. "We are getting things ready for a great baseball season and our members are looking forward to our Player Payback Bonuses, as well as Dime Lines, all season long."

Going in to this weekend, MySportsbook.com's favorites to win the World Series are the New York Yankees at 7-2 and last year’s winners the Chicago White Sox at 9-2.

"These betting lines are ripe for the picking," Dalton added, "baseball fans know that the season is long and many factors, including players staying healthy, will affect these Future odds as the baseball season progresses. Betting on your favorite team in the beginning of the season could prove quite lucrative. We are seeing examples of this right now in the NCAA College Basketball Tournament with a lucky few that placed pre-season bets on George Mason to win it all. Anything can happen."

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Mastercard needs..

About www.MySportsbook.com
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