Braden tosses four-hitter as A's down Rangers

Baseball Betting Lines

08/28/2010 - Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dallas Braden threw his second shutout of the season to lift the Oakland Athletics to a 5-0 win over the Texas Rangers in the second of a three-game set.

Braden (9-9) gave up just four hits and struck out one in throwing his fifth complete game of the season for the Athletics, who had dropped four of six coming in. Kurt Suzuki went 4-for-5 with two RBI, while Daric Barton scored four times and drove in two in the win.

Rich Harden (5-5) was tagged for four runs on eight hits with two walks and two strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings for the Rangers, who had won five of six prior to the loss. Jorge Cantu's double was the lone extra-base hit for the Rangers.

Oakland took a 1-0 lead in the first as Kevin Kouzmanoff's two-out single scored Barton. On the play, Suzuki was nailed trying to take third to end the inning.

In the third, the A's made it a 3-0 game as Coco Crisp singled with one out and Barton followed with a blast over the right field wall.

Oakland tacked on another run in the fifth as Barton hit a one-out double and Suzuki followed with an RBI single for a 4-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Braden kept the Texas offense in check as Cantu, in the second inning, was the only Rangers baserunner to reach second base until the ninth.

Oakland made it a 5-0 game in the seventh when Barton worked a one-out walk and came home on a double from Suzuki.

Braden continued to dominate the Rangers in the seventh as he set them down in order for the fifth time and worked around a two-out single from Alex Cora in the eighth.

Elvis Andrus singled to start off the ninth, but Braden set down the next three batters to seal the win.

Game Notes

Braden went 3-2 over five starts in August and improved to 2-4 lifetime against Texas...Each team has won seven times in the season series...Harden fell to 1-2 against his former team...Attendance was 47,411 and the game time was 2:28.

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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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