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07/21/2007 - San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chase Utley went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run as the Philadelphia Phillies downed the San Diego Padres, 7-3, in the second of a four-game series at Petco Park.
Ryan Howard went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored while Shane Victorino scored a pair of runs for the Phillies, who had lost four of five coming into the game.
Adam Eaton (9-6), making his first start against his former team, gave up just two runs on seven hits with three walks and six strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.
Eaton spent the first six seasons of his career in San Diego. He played last year with Texas before the Phillies signed him prior to the start of this season.
Adrian Gonzalez drove in a pair of runs and Russell Branyan also drove in a run for the Padres, who had won four of five coming into the contest.
Justin Germano (6-4) got the loss as he was charged with four runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Trailing 2-1 heading into the fourth, the Phillies took the lead in the frame with three runs. Utley led off the inning with a walk, Howard followed with a single and Aaron Rowand then blasted a double to score Utley. Pat Burrell followed with a groundout to score Howard for the lead. Eaton later helped his cause with a single to center to score Rowand for a 4-2 advantage.
Philadelphia padded its lead in the seventh as Utley hit a two-out, two-run home run to straightaway center for a 6-2 lead.
San Diego had two men on base with one out in the seventh, but Ryan Madson struck out Michael Barrett and Branyan to end the inning.
The Phillies plated another run in the eighth as Jimmy Rollins' single scored Michael Bourn, but the Padres countered with a run in the bottom of the inning as Gonzalez's sac fly plated Geoff Blum to make it a 7-3 game.
Antonio Alfonseca, who got the final out of the eighth inning, closed out the ninth inning to pick up his seventh save of the season.
The Phillies grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first as Victorino hit a one-out single, stole second, and after Utley struck out, crossed the plate on a Howard single.
The Padres got the run back in the second as Khalil Greene led off with a double and later scored on a single from Branyan.
San Diego took a 2-1 lead in the third as Brian Giles led off with a walk, moved to third on a single from Milton Bradley and came home on a double from Gonzalez. Eaton limited the damage to just the one run as he got Mike Cameron to fly out to shallow right and then struck out Greene and Barrett to end the inning.
Game Notes
The Phillies have won 13 of their last 18 games against the Padres...Burrell had a 10-game hitting streak stopped...The Phillies are 37-8 this season when leading after six innings...It was Germano's fourth loss in his last five decisions...San Diego stranded 15 runners.
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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.
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In terms of sports wagering, the NFL is "the most popular game in town." The explanation behind that is easy.
It is called the "pointspread."
Many years ago, NFL games, as well as the more popular college games, used straight odds as a vehicle for betting. For example, if the Bears were playing the Giants, and it shaped up as a competitive contest, the Bears might be, say, a 7/5 favorite. If they were playing an also-ran, it might be 10/1. Well, there is a point where a line becomes prohibitive, as far as betting the favorite. And who would waste money betting an underdog that has virtually no chance? Such a setup did not contribute to promoting betting action.
But in modern sports betting, a "pointspread" is used.
A NFL pointspreads are exactly that, a pre-established point difference between the two sides that will, for all intents and purposes, create a handicap that evens things out, and in doing so, produces comparable wagering activity on both sides of that proposition. So in lieu of a odds figure in which to bet the team to win outright, the Bears might be a three-point favorite over the New York Giants, and a 17-point favorite over the also-ran. Now that the team that is the underdog can "get" points, there can be equal action on both sides.
In sportsbooks, this is usually done with efficiency by charging the losing bettors 10% extra - in effect, bettors are laying 11/10 on those games. So they are actually betting $110 to win $100. If they lose, they pay the "vig." If they win, they simply collect.
The establishment of the pointspread as the corner stone around which team sports like football can be wagered upon was truly what brought gridiron betting into the stratosphere for online football betting .
Don't believe it? Just take a look at what happens around the Super Bowl.
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Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting odds .
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