Galaxy, TFC meet at The HDC

Soccer Betting Lines

05/14/2010 - Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Galaxy will try to continue their unbeaten start to the 2010 Major League Soccer Season when they host Toronto FC at The Home Depot Center on Saturday night.

While the galaxy have dominated early this season, going 7-0-1 in their first eight league fixtures, coach Bruce Arena cautions to not put to much value on such a short stretch of games.

"What's typical of the media and the press is to overreact to a team being real good or real bad," he told his club's website. "The truth of the matter is the entire league is only eight games in, and there's no clear points to be made yet. Nobody is real good or real bad yet; you kind of conclude that after 30 games, not after eight games.

"Look back to last year and see where everyone was after eight games. I would imagine not everything was said and done. I would think you look at the first eight games of 2009, then look at the end of the year, and you'd be kind of surprised by what you saw."

Toronto (3-4-0) is hoping that Arena's word ring true and that it is not as back as it first seven games indicate. The club does seem to be turning the corner, with two wins in its last three league fixtures, including a 4-1 victory over Chicago last weekend.

Getting a result on the road will be key for the reds, who are 0-4 while being outscored 11-4 away from BMO Field. Scoring four goals last week will should build confidence in the club, especially considering Dwayne De Rosario, who had scored six of his team's first seven goals to start the season, was held off the score sheet.

"I know it's a good relief for them," De Rosario told his club's website about other players pitching in offensively. "Hopefully we can take this confidence and bring it on the road with us."

The reds will be without defenders Emmanuel Gomez and Ty Harden, while defender Dan Gargan is questionable, all with injuries.

The Galaxy's A.J. DeLaGarza, Sean Franklin, Dema Kovalenko, Leonardo and Eddie Lewis are all questionable with injury knocks.

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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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