Red Sox turn to Lester in opener against Indians

Baseball Betting Lines

07/23/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Red Sox are sure to receive an emotional boost in the form of Jon Lester tonight, when Boston begins a four-game series with the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field.

Lester is expected to be recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket to make the start tonight for the Red Sox nearly a year after being diagnosed with a treatable form of lymphoma.

The 23-year-old made 15 starts for the Red Sox last season, going 7-2 with a 4.76 earned run average, but baseball took a back seat after his last start on August 23 of 2006. Days later, it was announced that Lester had lymphoma.

The left-hander underwent treatment and was then brought along slowly by Boston, which sent him to Single-A on a rehab assignment to begin the season. He then hit a minor bump in the road on May 2 when he experienced muscle cramping in his left forearm.

After recovering from that injury, Lester was reinstated from the disabled list and optioned to Pawtucket on June 11 and has gone 4-5 with a 3.89 ERA in 14 starts.

Lester, who is replacing the struggling Julian Tavarez in the rotation, faced Cleveland once last year on August 2 and received a no-decision after allowing three runs on eight hits over six innings.

Reliever Joel Pineiro is expected to be designated for assignment to make room on the roster for Lester.

Boston was again without David Ortiz on Sunday for the second straight game, but saw Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell supplement the power loss with a three- run homer each in the club's 8-5 victory over the White Sox.

Ortiz had an MRI taken on his left shoulder Saturday that revealed no structural damage and is listed as day-to-day. However, he could be sidelined until Wednesday.

Coco Crisp added three hits and Ramirez scored two runs as the Red Sox won three straight over the White Sox after dropping the series opener. Tim Wakefield (11-9) earned the win despite being charged with six hits and four runs in 6 1/3 innings.

The Red Sox have matched the New York Yankees current three-game winning streak to maintain their 7 1/2-game lead for first place in the American League East.

The Indians, meanwhile, won three of four against the Rangers over the weekend, including an 8-3 victory on Sunday. Josh Barfield went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a pair of RBI to pace Cleveland.

Casey Blake also had three hits, including a pair of doubles, for the Indians, who trail Detroit by one game for the top spot in the AL Central and hold a 2 1/2-game edge over Seattle for the wild card spot.

Paul Byrd (8-4) started for Cleveland and pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on three hits.

Jake Westbrook will try again for his first win since returning from the disabled list when he takes the mound for the Indians tonight. Westbrook received a no-decision on May 2 against Toronto before being sidelined for over six weeks due to a left abdominal strain.

He returned on June 24 and has gone 0-3 in five starts since to extend his winless streak to a career-high tying six starts that he set from June 19 through July 15 of 2004.

In his last start on Wednesday against the White Sox, the right-hander took the loss to fall to 1-5 on the year with a 6.07 ERA after yielding four runs on seven hits over six innings of a 5-1 setback.

Westbrook is 3-1 with a 4.23 ERA in five career starts against Boston.

The Red Sox and Indians met for three games in Boston in late May, with the Red Sox taking two of three.

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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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