Burnett For Friday Brewers

Baseball Betting Lines

New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Yankees have officially traded right-handed pitcher A.J. Burnett to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a pair of minor leaguers -- relief pitcher Diego Moreno and outfielder Exicardo Cayones. The trade was first reported on Friday and was pending a physical and approval by Major League Baseball.

 

The Yankees signed Burnett after the 2008 season, around the same time they also landed CC Sabathia.

 

Burnett, 35, owns a career record of 121-111 with a 4.10 earned-run average in 314 games -- 309 starts -- for the Marlins, Blue Jays and Yankees. He threw a no-hitter while with Florida on May 12, 2001.

 

Moreno, 24, went 2-4 with five saves and a 3.63 ERA in 41 games between Class- A and Double-A ball last season. Cayones, 20, hit .228 with 12 RBI in 38 total games with State College and the GCL Pirates in 2011.

 

Other candidates that were reportedly in the mix were former Yankees Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui.

 

The Yankees were able to free up some money to add a bat when they finalized a trade that sent pitcher A.J. Burnett to Pittsburgh.

 

In 1,817 games over 16 seasons with Seattle, Kansas City and Philadelphia, Ibanez has 252 homers, 1,054 runs batted in and a .280 batting average. He was an All-Star for the first and only time with the Phillies in 2009.

 

McClendon compiled a 3-0 record and a 2.63 ERA in nine relief appearances with Milwaukee a year ago, while Dillard had a 1-1 record and matched Estrada with a 4.08 ERA in 24 trips out of the Brewers bullpen in 2011.

 

Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Veteran slugger Manny Ramirez is reportedly set to join the Oakland Athletics. Various reports, including MLB.com, have indicated that Ramirez has agreed to a minor league contract worth $500,000.

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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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