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05/13/2010 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thursday morning was a time for several of the Preakness starters, including the three favorites, to get acquainted with Pimlico Race Course. The only one of the 12 not at Pimlico is Schoolyard Dreams, who will arrive Friday.
Both of trainer Todd Pletcher's Preakness horses, Super Saver and Aikenite, visited the track Thursday morning. Both colts took a mile jog around Pimlico.
The colts shipped to Pimlico from Churchill Downs on Wednesday and Pletcher said they have settled into their new surroundings.
"We took him (Super Saver) out and gave him an easy jog once around the track," Pletcher said. "The track was sloppy and we weren't looking to do much, but I thought he handled everything really well. He had a good night; rested well and cleaned up his grain. His energy level is very good. It seems like he's shipped in as well as we could have hoped."
Pletcher said that his colts would go back to the track to gallop Friday morning: Aikenite at 6 a.m. (et) and Super Saver a half-hour later.
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert sent out Lookin At Lucky for an easy 1 3/8- mile jog under exercise rider Dana Barnes Thursday morning. It was the first visit to the track at Pimlico for the beaten Kentucky Derby favorite.
"He went nice. He just sort of got a feel for it," Baffert said. "On a muddy track you can't really get a good grip of it, but he looked good. That's not the surface we're going to be running on. He got a good look at the track around there. When there [aren't] any horses training on it, it's sort of weird for him, but he took in all the sights pretty good. He went easy around there. We don't do much once we get here with him. He's doing well."
Paddy O'Prado, who finished third in the Kentucky Derby, showed good energy during his jog around the Pimlico track Thursday morning.
"He bounced out of the Derby as though he never ran," said trainer Dale Romans. "That's why we're here. We normally wouldn't wheel one back in two weeks."
The updated weather forecast for the Preakness calls for sunny skies and a post-time temperature near 75.
Post-time Saturday is 6:12 p.m. (et).
<< Bresciano set for Palermo exit
Palermo, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Palermo midfielder Marco Bresciano is set to
leave the Serie A outfit and team up with Saudi Arabia side Al Nassr.
The Australian, who is expected to represent his country at this summer's
World Cup f
<< Chelsea's Drogba would welcome Torres move
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Didier Drogba has given his blessing for
Chelsea to launch a potential summer swoop on Liverpool for Fernando Torres.
Torres has been linked with a $59 million move to Stamford Bridge following
the en
<< NL West: D'Backs getting no action from Jackson
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Diamondbacks invested a lot of hope and plenty of dough
on Edwin Jackson this offseason, but all he's been able to do is lead his new
ballclub to just one win in eight starts.
Arizona (14-21) acquired Jackson along wi
<< Neuer starts in Germany's win over Malta
Aachen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manuel Neuer started at goalie for Germany
in Thursday's friendly against Malta, but the other goalies on the provisional
World Cup roster were not available.
Loew lost No. 1 goalie Rene Adler to a broken
Birmingham missed out on Cacau >>
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish
has confirmed his club missed out on the signing of Stuttgart's Brazilian-born
German striker Cacau.
The 29-year-old seemed certain to leave the Bundesliga c
Hearts to show four the door >>
Edinburgh, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hearts has confirmed Michael Stewart,
Jose Goncalves, Laryea Kingston and Christian Nade are all free to leave
Tynecastle this summer.
The quartet are all out of contract next month and will n
Scott's slam helps Orioles rally past Mariners >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Luke Scott hit his second career grand slam
in the eighth inning to help the Baltimore Orioles take a 6-5 win over the
Seattle Mariners in the finale of a three-game set at Camden Yards.
Corey Patterso
Jankovic reaches Madrid quarters >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic
highlighted Thursday's third-round winners at the $4.5 million Madrid Open,
a clay-court French Open tune-up.
The seventh-seeded Jankovic drilled Spain's own
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.
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.
The 2007 college football rules changes that were implemented to shorten games are now history. The NCAA rules committee did what they set out to do; games were cut by an average of 14 minutes per game last season. There were also, on average, 14 fewer plays per game. We’ll get into how that did (or didn’t) affect games in regards to the pointspread a bit later.
While the NCAA rules committee may have had the betterment of the game in mind, they'll now “turn back the clock” for next season. Two key rules have now been overturned by the NCAA committee for the 2007 season, something definitely for the better.
For those of you who may not remember what those rules actually were, let us refresh your memory.
1) The first one was actually starting the clock on a kickoff as soon as the kicker touched the ball rather than waiting until the returner touched it. The problem here was near the end of the half (or game), if the team leading was kicking off, they could milk the clock by intentionally running offsides and then re-kicking. They could run 10-15 seconds off the clock each play while taking just five-yard penalties each time. They could run the clock down and simply cause the half (or game) to end on a kickoff, keeping the opposing offense off the field. In 2007, the clock will now start when the returner touches the ball as it had before last season.
2) The second rule dealt with starting the clock after a change of online football betting possession rather than waiting until the ball was snapped. This took a lot of time off the clock throughout the game as teams changed possession, however it caused the most problems late in games (or halves). Rather than huddling up and calling a play, the offensive team would have to rush onto the field as the clock started. This was a definite disadvantage to a team that was trying to come from behind late in the game. This year the clock will start on a change of possession, after the ball is snapped.
How did those rules affect the college game last year and will it make a difference this year when it comes to the pointspread? We commonly heard two theories when it came to these changes. First, it would affect scoring negatively. Second, it would hurt favorites as they would have less time and fewer plays to cover the number.
Did the rules hurt scoring? Yes. It seemed obvious that shortening the game by what amounted to 14 plays would push scoring downward. That was the case last year. Of the 119 Division 1A teams, 69 squads scored fewer points in 2007 than they did in 2005. Just 48 teams had a higher PPG scoring average and two stayed the same. Almost 59 percent of the teams in college football last year had a lower PPG average than they did in 2005. Expect more scoring in 2007 as we revert back to the old rules.
Did the rules hinder favorites from covering the number in 2007? Not really. Last year the favorites posted an overall spread record of 336-350-16 (48.9 percent). The year before, favorites were 316-326-13 (49.2 percent). In 2004, the favorites were 316-339-2 (48.2 percent). In fact, college football favorites have been above 50 percent for the season just once in the last seven years (in 2003). Last year’s numbers fell right in line with where they have been historically.
How about big favorites? The rules must have hurt them? Maybe a little bit. Double-digit favorites last year came in at a 47.8 percent clip compare with an average of just over 50 percent over the last seven years. Since 1980, favorites of -10 or more have covered at exactly a 50 percent clip (measured over 6,716 games).
Even bigger favorites must have struggled? Not really. In fact, it was just the opposite. Favorites of three TD’s or more were 59-54-2 last year (52.2 percent). Since 2000, those same favorites (-21 or higher) hit at 51.3 percent and since 1990 came in a clip of 50.3 percent. Stepping it up a notch to four TD favorites or higher, we actually see they've covered at a much better rate last season than before. Last year, favorites of -28 or more were 31-21-1, or almost 60 percent. Historically, four-TD-or-higher favorites have come in at a 50.7 percent spot since 2000 and only 48.9 percent since 1990. The “perceived” problem with the favorites covering at a reduced rate really never came to fruition.
Bottom line is, there might be some more scoring in 2007, but no real revelations when it comes to finding any pointspread golden nuggets.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on college football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
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