Taffe recorded two points in 21 regular season games for the Panthers last
season. In 174 career regular season games over seven seasons with Phoenix,
the Rangers, Pittsburgh and Florida, Taffe has 21 goals and 23 assists.
Reasoner had been acquired by the Blackhawks in the trade that sent Dustin
Byfuglien to Atlanta in June. He registered four goals and 13 assists in 80
games last season with the Thrashers and has 82 goals and 141 assists in 624
career contests over 11 seasons.
<< AP source: Hornets schedule meeting with Paul
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -A person familiar with the meeting says the Hornets have scheduled a face-to-face discussion with Chris Paul on Monday to talk about the team's plans for the future.The star guard will sit down with new head coach Monty Williams, n
<< Arroyo returns to Heat, will vie to be starter
MIAMI (AP) -Carlos Arroyo has finalized his deal to return to the Miami Heat.Arroyo appeared in 72 games and made 35 starts at point guard for Miami last season, then decided to return to the club after a brief stint as a free agent. He averaged 6.1
<< Pirates place C Doumit on DL, recall Jaramillo
PITTSBURGH (AP) -The Pirates placed catcher Ryan Doumit on the 15-day disabled list with a concussion and recalled Jason Jaramillo from Triple-A Indianapolis on Thursday.Doumit, tied for second on the team in home runs with eight and RBIs with 32, l
<< Jankovic withdraws in Slovenia
Portoroz, Slovenia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Jelena Jankovic withdrew in
the third set of her match Thursday to provide a surprise conclusion to the
second round at the Slovenia Open.
Jankovic won the first set in her matchup with
<< MLB to test for HGH in minors
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Major League Baseball announced Thursday that
it will immediately implement a plan to test for human growth hormone in the
minor leagues.
MLB becomes the first United States professional sports league
Phillies avoid sweep, snap Cardinals' eight-game win streak >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Placido Polanco's leadoff homer in the 11th
inning provided the game-winning run, and the Philadelphia Phillies avoided a
four-game sweep at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals with a 2-0 victory.
Polanco
Heat re-sign G Arroyo >>
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Heat re-signed guard Carlos Arroyo on
Thursday. Per club policy, terms of the deal were not released.
Arroyo started 35 of the 72 games he appeared in with the Heat last season,
averaging 6.1 point
Top seed Davydenko latest to fall in Hamburg >>
Hamburg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko was the
latest to fall in an upset-minded German Open Tennis Championships, as third-
round play concluded Thursday.
Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev dethroned the defending
Bentley sues Browns for career-ending staph infection >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Cleveland Browns center LeCharles
Bentley has sued the Browns, reportedly for fraud and negligent
misrepresentation over a career-ending staph infection he suffered while with
the clu
Roddick moves on in Atlanta >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top seed Andy Roddick lost a second set
tiebreaker, but managed to pull out the final set to advance to the
quarterfinals of the Atlanta Tennis Championships.
Roddick needed less than a hal
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
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.