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08/17/2010 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miguel Tejada went 4-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored as the San Diego Padres downed the Chicago Cubs, 9-5, in the opener of a four-game set.
Chris Denorfia went 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored while Tony Gwynn Jr. scored twice for the Padres, who have won seven of eight. Kevin Correia (10-7) got the win as he went six innings without giving up a run and was charged with just five hits and a walk along with five strikeouts.
The Padres widened their lead to four games over San Francisco atop the NL West.
"He hits all pitches and hits good pitching," Padres manager Bud Black said about Tejada. "We've seen him work the left field line, we've seen him hit the ball in the left field gap, we've seen him drive the ball to right-center and we've seen him single to right."
Kosuke Fukudome had three hits and drove in two runs while Blake DeWitt added a two-run home run for the Cubs, who have dropped four of six. Tom Gorzelanny (6-7) was handed the loss as he gave up five runs on nine hits in 6 1/3 innings.
With the game scoreless in the fifth, the Padres took the lead as Denorfia hit a two-out single and came home to score on Correia's double to left.
San Diego tacked on another run in the sixth as back-to-back singles from Tejada and Adrian Gonzalez left runners at the corners and Ryan Ludwick followed with a sacrifice fly.
The Padres added to their lead in the seventh. With a man on second, Tejada doubled to left to score Gwynn and came around to score himself on Gonzalez's single. Later in the frame, Chase Headley punched a single to center to score Gonzalez for a 5-0 lead.
Chicago finally got on the board in the seventh. With one out, DeWitt singled and, after Koyie Hill grounded out, Tyler Colvin walked. Joe Thatcher then took the mound and Fukudome greeted him with a double to right to plate both runners and make it a 5-2 game.
"To their credit, they keep their heads up, they come back every day with confidence and work hard," Hill said of the team's young players. "Nobody is giving up on them, that's for sure."
San Diego, though, got the runs back in the eighth as Denorfia scored on a wild pitch and Tejada followed with an RBI single back up the middle.
Ernesto Frieri, who got the final out of the seventh, stayed on for the eighth and got the first two outs, but Xavier Nady kept the inning alive with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Alfonso Soriano's double. DeWitt followed by crushing a pitch to the seats in right to make it a 7-5 game.
Denorfia's two-run triple in the ninth extended San Diego's lead.
Game Notes
Correia won his third straight start...Gorzelanny fell to 0-3 in his last five starts...San Diego has taken six of 10 from Chicago this season...Jerry Hairston Jr. went 0-for-6 for San Diego.
<< Tampa Bay inks first-round pick Sale
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Rays beat a midnight
deadline on Monday by signing first-round pick Josh Sale.
Multiple reports have Sale signing for around $1.62 million.
Sale, an outfielder, was the 17th overa
<< Reds sign C Grandal
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Reds have signed catcher
Yasmani Grandal, the 12th overall pick in this year's draft.
Grandal, who signed a major league contract with a bonus worth $2.99 million,
according to MLB.com,
<< A's reinstate Jackson from DL among host of moves
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Athletics made several roster moves
on Monday, including reinstating outfielder Conor Jackson from the 15-day
disabled list.
Jackson, who was acquired by the A's from Arizona on June 15, was
<< Nationals agree to deal with top overall pick Harper
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Nationals and top overall
pick Bryce Harper have agreed to terms on a five-year major league contract
worth $9.9 million just before the midnight deadline on Monday.
Harper, who the Na
Diamondbacks, Brewers, Padres don't sign first-round picks >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee
Brewers and San Diego Padres all failed to sign first-round draft picks prior
to a midnight deadline on Monday.
The decisions mean the teams will receive com
Adonal Foyle retires from NBA after 13 years >>
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -Adonal Foyle is ending his NBA playing career after 13 seasons.The 35-year-old center announced his retirement Monday after playing for the Orlando Magic the last three seasons. Foyle spent his first 10 years with the Golden Stat
Gilbert, helmet in hand, takes over at Texas >>
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -When Garrett Gilbert's big moment came, he nearly panicked.He couldn't find his helmet.Just minutes into last season's BCS championship game against Alabama, Texas quarterback Colt McCoy came staggering over to the sideline, a ne
Miami Dolphins 2010 Season Preview >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - If the final week of October 2010 arrives, and the
attention of the South Florida sports fan is focused on the Miami Dolphins,
you'll know things are going very well for Tony Sparano's team.
If the Dolphins are, say, 3-3 a
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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NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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