Juve returns to top four

Soccer Betting Lines

03/06/2010 - Florence, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Juventus moved back into the top four in the Serie A table on Saturday as Fabio Grosso scored in the 68th minute of a 2-1 Juve win over Fiorentina at the Artemio Franchi.

Diego put the visitors in front in the opening minutes, but had his goal canceled out before halftime by former Juve man Marco Marchionni. However, Grosso was able to give the Turin side the lead for good 22 minutes from time.

Fiorentina remains in 10th place with the loss, and they could fall further from a European spot after Sunday's results.

Juve took the lead with their first chance of the game as Antonio Candreva played a ball to Diego, who looked close to being offside. However, the flag stayed down and Diego rounded goalkeeper Sebastian Frey and finished off the move to put his team ahead inside of two minutes.

The hosts tried to answer right away and they tested goalkeeper Alex Manninger with a number of efforts over the next 20 minutes.

Alberto Gilardino had two shots saved by Manninger before a free kick from Riccardo Montolivo was also turned away, but Manninger could not keep out a header from Marchionni in the 32nd minute.

Neither side seriously threatened after the break until Juve took the lead in the 68th minute as Grosso drove a well-placed shot into the upper corner past Frey.

The Viola had a penalty appeal turned down minutes later when Giorgio Chiellini appeared to handle the ball inside his own area, but they were unable to really test Manninger over the remainder of the contest.

AC Milan and Roma finished 0-0 at the Stadio Olimpico in Saturday's other match, moving Milan to within three points of leaders Inter Milan, who face Genoa on Sunday.

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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.

NFL Betting Lines

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