Giants, Brewers wrap anticipated set in Milwaukee

Baseball Betting Lines

07/22/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Milwaukee Brewers will get one last look at Barry Bonds at home this season when they try to avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of the San Francisco Giants this afternoon at Miller Park.

The Brewers came into this series having won seven straight against the Giants, including a three-game sweep at Miller Park from June 18-20. Now it's the Giants' turn however, as they will attempt to sweep the Brew Crew in Milwaukee for the first time since September 14-16, 2004.

Today's game will also mark Bonds' last chance to move closer to Hank Aaron's all-time home run mark in the city where Aaron spent most of his career. Bonds remained two homers shy of matching Aaron's record of 755 after going 0-for-2 in Saturday's 8-0 win.

Aaron, of course, played from 1954-65 with the Braves while they were in Milwaukee and then in 1975-76 with the Brewers.

Pedro Feliz homered for the Giants, who have won three of their last five games, while Ray Durham went 2-for-5 with three RBI in the win.

Tim Lincecum (5-2) extended his stretch of impressive outings by limiting the Brewers to four hits with eight strikeouts and a walk over eight shutout innings.

Craig Counsell went 1-for-3 for the Brewers, who have lost three of four and are now just 5-4 on their current 10-game homestand that concludes today. Dave Bush (8-8) allowed three runs on six hits with seven strikeouts over six innings in the loss.

The Brewers, who once enjoyed a very comfortable lead in the National League Central, have seen their edge for first place shrink to 2 1/2 games over the second-place Chicago Cubs.

Claudio Vargas will try to right the ship and shoot for his second win following the All-Star break for the Brewers. The right-hander improved to an impressive 7-2 on the season with a 4.47 earned run average after a victory over Arizona on Tuesday that saw him limit the Diamondbacks to two runs and five hits over five innings.

Vargas is 4-2 with a 5.67 ERA in 12 career outings (nine starts) versus the Giants. He opposed the Giants' Barry Zito on June 20 of this year and recorded the win, a feat he hopes to mimic today.

Zito will aim to continue his historic second-half success with today's start for the Giants. Zito was last in action on Tuesday against the Cubs, and earned the win after giving up just two runs (one earned) on five hits over seven innings with eight strikeouts. The victory improved his mark to 7-9 on the year while lowering his ERA to 4.67.

In his career, the left-hander is 60-27 in the second half of the season with a 3.26 ERA. His 60 victories are the most by any player following the All-Star break since 2000.

Zito, who was 0-4 with a 7.42 ERA in six starts before Tuesday's win, is 1-1 in two lifetime starts against Milwaukee. That includes the setback at Miller Park on June 20 of this season.

While there is always a chance Bonds could sit out today's game, he is 3-for-7 lifetime against Vargas with no homers, four walks and two strikeouts.

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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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