Cubs' Silva tries to put woes behind him in Arizona

Baseball Betting Lines

07/06/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cubs' offensive struggles have caught up to starter Carlos Silva, but the right-hander has reason to be encouraged given his team's performance on Monday.

Chicago will try to win back-to-back games and help its hurler halt a four- start winless stretch this evening in the second contest of a three-game series versus the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

Silva began the season by winning his first eight decisions, but has gone 0-2 over his last four starts despite a solid 3.04 earned run average. The Cubs have scored two runs or less in three of Silva's last four starts and have lost each outing.

The 31-year-old, who has a 2.96 ERA on the season, faced the Reds on Thursday and pitched a season-high 7 2/3 innings, yielding two runs on 11 hits with six strikeouts. However, despite his 12th quality start of the season, he got a no-decision.

"That wasn't easy," Silva told Chicago's website. "I had to work hard today, every inning. The good thing was I was able to get out of every inning. Unfortunately, we didn't win the game."

Silva is 4-0 with a 3.06 ERA in six road starts in 2010, but 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in seven games -- two starts -- lifetime versus Arizona. He faced them on May 1 at home and yielded three runs on eight hits, including a pair of homers by Mark Reynolds and one by Justin Upton, in a no-decision.

He'll hope his offense can back him today like they were able to do for Tom Gorzelanny on Monday, as Geovany Soto and Starlin Castro drove in two runs each in a 9-4 victory. It was the Cubs' fourth straight victory over the Diamondbacks and they have outscored Arizona 37-19 in that span.

Alfonso Soriano added a pinch-hit, two-run homer to surpass 800 career RBI, while Gorzelanny allowed three runs over five innings.

Soriano and Derrek Lee both did not start Monday's game to rest, while third baseman Aramis Ramirez returned after missing two consecutive games because of an aggravated left thumb injury.

Arizona's Ian Kennedy lost his fourth straight start after allowing seven runs in 5 2/3 innings, while Kelly Johnson drove in two runs in defeat. The club has now dropped three in a row after winning in Kirk Gibson's managerial debut last Friday.

"The most frustrating part is I want these guys to feel the success for the work they put in, but the game just doesn't do that sometimes," Gibson said. "The Cubs hit some balls hard and they hit some that found holes."

Rookie Barry Enright felt nothing but success in his major league debut last Wednesday and he looks to win his second game in as many starts tonight. The 24-year-old faced the Cardinals and held them to a run on four hits and four walks over five innings, fanning five in a 4-2 victory.

"It's a surreal feeling. It was a fun time," Enright said of his debut.

The right-handed 2007 second-round pick out of Pepperdine joined Arizona after going 4-1 with a 2.88 ERA in 14 starts this year with Double-A Mobile.

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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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