Mills picks up first MLB win as Blue Jays sweep O's

Baseball Betting Lines

07/28/2010 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brad Mills threw seven shutout innings for his first career win as the Toronto Blue Jays continued their domination of the Baltimore Orioles with a 5-0 win to cap a three-game sweep.

Mills (1-0) gave up just two hits and three walks with four strikeouts as Toronto moved to 12-0 against Baltimore on the season. It's Toronto's longest winning streak against Baltimore since a 13-game run from April 11, 1999-May 10, 2000.

Lyle Overbay smacked a three-run home run while Adam Lind went 3-for-3 with an RBI for the Blue Jays, who have won five of their last six.

Jeremy Guthrie (4-11) was saddled with the loss despite giving up just one unearned run on six hits with a walk and three strikeouts over seven innings. Ty Wigginton's two-out double in the ninth accounted for the lone extra base hit for the Orioles, who have dropped five straight and seven of eight.

In the second inning, Toronto jumped out to a 1-0 lead as Vernon Wells led off with a single and came home when Lind singled to left that saw Corey Patterson boot the ball.

Mills was dominating Baltimore through the first five innings as he limited the team to one hit and two walks.

With two outs in the sixth, Mills hit Miguel Tejada with a pitch and then walked Nick Markakis, but got Luke Scott to groundout to first to end the frame.

Mills worked around a two-out single in the seventh while David Purcey and Jason Frasor combined to pitch a 1-2-3 eighth inning.

The Blue Jays then solidified their lead in the eighth. With one out and Jose Bautista on second, Lind singled to center to bring home the run. After Aaron Hill was intentionally walked, Overbay lofted an 0-1 pitch over the left- center wall for a 5-0 lead.

Game Notes

Toronto hosts Cleveland for three games starting Friday...Baltimore travels to Kansas City for a four-game set beginning Thursday...Toronto has hit a home run in 10 straight home games.

Wwwyehey Baseball Betting News

<< A's lose Sheets for the season
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oakland Athletics pitcher Ben Sheets will miss the remainder of the 2010 season with a torn flexor tendon in his right elbow. Sheets was placed on the disabled list Saturday, retroactive to July 20, wi

<< Dodgers acquire Podsednik from Royals
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Dodgers made a move to bolster their outfield by acquiring former All-Star Scott Podsednik from the Kansas City Royals for two minor league players - catcher Lucas May and pitcher

<< Ohlendorf hit by line drive, leaves game
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Ross Ohlendorf left Wednesday's game against the Rockies after being struck by a line drive off the bat of Troy Tulowitzki in the first inning. With a runner at t

<< Rays' Zobrist leaves game
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tampa Bay Rays infielder/outfielder Ben Zobrist left Wednesday's game against Detroit with lower back stiffness. His availability is being listed as day-to-day. The five-year veteran, playing cen

<< Chiefs sign second round picks
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kansas City Chiefs have signed second round draft choices Dexter McCluster and Javier Arenas. Terms of the deals were not disclosed. McCluster was the 36th overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft out of

Halladay goes distance again, Brown shines in MLB debut >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Outfielder Domonic Brown stroked an RBI double on his first major league swing and Roy Halladay tossed his major league-leading eighth complete game of the season, as the surging Philadelphia Phillie

Jones, Hudson lead Atlanta past Washington >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chipper Jones drove in two runs and Tim Hudson was solid in 7 2/3 innings on the mound, as the Atlanta Braves took down the Washington Nationals, 3-1, in the second test of a three-game set at Nationa

Longoria leads Rays to fifth straight win >>
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Evan Longoria homered and Jeff Niemann battled through six innings to lead Tampa Bay to a 7-4 triumph over Detroit in the third installment of a four-game set. Longoria finished 3-for-4 with a walk, tw

Thrashers sign F Eager >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Thrashers signed forward Ben Eager on Wednesday. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Eager spent last season with the Blackhawks and posted seven goals and nine assists with 1

Giants' Torres caps big game with winning hit in 10th >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andres Torres capped his four-hit day with a deep bases-loaded single in the 10th inning, lifting the Giants to a 10-9 win over the Florida Marlins at AT&T Park. Torres added a two-run homer

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

To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.