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07/30/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles hope a flurry of changes can help lead to more results like the team produced on Thursday.
The revamped club will set its sights on a second straight victory over the Kansas City Royals, who'll be out to put an end to a five-game losing streak in tonight's clash between the teams from Kauffman Stadium.
Baltimore announced prior to Thursday's game it had hired Buck Showalter to serve as the team's new manager, although the former Yankees, Diamondbacks and Rangers skipper won't officially take over until the Orioles return from their current road trip on Tuesday. Baltimore fired field general Dave Trembley on June 4, with interim manager Juan Samuel having gone 17-31 since assuming those duties.
Showalter won't have Miguel Tejada to put in his lineup, however, as the Orioles traded the former American League MVP to San Diego on Thursday in exchange for minor league pitcher Wynn Pelzer.
Baltimore did just fine without Tejada in last night's opener of this four- game series, rallying for a 6-5 extra-inning victory to stop a five-game slide. Ty Wigginton, another Orioles player rumored to be on the trading block, drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the 11th inning.
The Orioles trailed 5-3 after five innings, but scored single runs in both the sixth and eighth frames to draw even. Corey Patterson knotted the score with a solo homer off Royals reliever Robinson Tejeda with two out in the top of the eighth.
"Going over the scouting report on him, we knew he had a good fastball," Patterson said of Tejeda. "So I told myself to just say 'heater.' In the back of my mind, I thought he was going to throw me something off-speed and I kept fouling them. He didn't and obviously during that at-bat, when you see the same pitch, you're going to get a pretty good track on it."
In the 11th, Cesar Izturis worked a leadoff walk against Kansas City's Blake Wood (0-2) and moved to third on a Brian Roberts single before crossing the plate on Wigginton's fly ball to left.
"It just boils down to a leadoff walk," said Wood afterward. "You just can't do that [with the] game tied like that. I was just trying to be a little too fine."
Both Wigginton and Patterson finished with two RBI and Nick Markakis added a solo homer for Baltimore, which received a combined 7 2/3 scoreless innings from its relief corps after starter Brian Matusz was rocked for five runs over the first 3 1/3 frames. David Hernandez (5-7) picked up the win by shutting out the Royals in the ninth and 10th.
Kansas City, which has now lost 14 of its last 17 contests, received two hits and an RBI out of Yuniesky Betancourt in its most recent setback.
The Royals will be trying to get back in the win column tonight, as well as enabling the recently-acquired Sean O'Sullivan to notch his first victory with his new team. Tonight the young right-hander will be making his second start since being obtained by Kansas City from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last week as part of a trade that sent infielder Alberto Callaspo to the Halos.
O'Sullivan's Royals debut did not go well, as the 22-year-old was tagged for five runs and a pair of homers over five innings in a road loss to the New York Yankees on Sunday. Ironically, he defeated the defending world champions in Yankee Stadium in his final start as a Angel, tossing six innings of two- run ball and logging four strikeouts back on July 20.
The San Diego native made two starts against Baltimore as a rookie last season and received a no-decision both times, although he allowed 10 runs and 16 hits over a combined 9 2/3 innings of work.
Rookie Jake Arrieta gets the call for the Orioles tonight and will be out to improve upon a pair of shaky starts to begin the second half. The highly- regarded righty surrendered five runs in a 5 1/3-inning no-decision against Tampa Bay on July 20, then followed up by permitting five runs and walking four batters while lasting only four frames in Sunday's 10-4 loss to Minnesota.
Both of those outings took place at home, so perhaps leaving the hitter- friendly confines of Camden Yards will work to Arrieta's benefit. He's done well in limited action on the road, having compiled a 2-1 record and a 3.18 earned run average in four away assignments.
In nine overall starts since being promoted from the minors in June, Arrieta has gone 3-3 with a 5.40 ERA.
These teams split a pair of meetings in Baltimore back in May, as well as a four-game series held at Kauffman Stadium last season.
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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.
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.
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