Thomas and Liu in finals of U.S. Junior

Golf Betting Lines

07/23/2010 - Ada, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Justin Thomas and Jim Liu both won twice on Friday to advance to Saturday's 36-hole final of the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.

Thomas, 17, earned a 2 & 1 victory over Scott Wolfes in Friday's quarterfinals, then needed one extra hole to get by Denny McCarthy in the afternoon's semifinals.

Liu pulled out a 1-up win over Gavin Hill Friday morning and toppled Robby Shelton, 3 & 2 in the semifinals.

Thomas fell 1-down to Wolfes with a loss at the fourth hole, but rebounded with wins at six and seven. Thomas' lead stayed at 1-up until he won the par- five 13th with an eagle.

Wolfes hung in and won the 15th with a birdie to go 1-down. He made bogey at the par-five 17th at Egypt Valley Country and that was enough to give Thomas a 2 & 1 victory.

Later Friday, Thomas never led over McCarthy until the first extra hole. He was 1-down after a bogey at nine and the score stayed at 1-down until Thomas won 15 with a par.

The match was all-square briefly. McCarthy took the par-three 16th with a par, but a Thomas par at 17 drew him even. The pair halved the 18th with birdie and were back to the first to find out who made the final.

Thomas only needed a par at No. 1 for the win and berth in Saturday's final.

Liu, 14, was ahead early in his quarterfinal, but losses at seven and 10 left his match against Hall all-square. Hall moved 1-up thanks to a par at the 14th, but Liu clawed back to even with a birdie at 16.

Liu made a birdie at the 17th to go 1-up and hung on with a par at the last to move on to the semifinals.

Against Shelton, Liu was 1-down after seven holes, but got to all-square after a birdie at the par-three eighth. Shelton captured the 10th and 11th holes to move 2-up on the back nine.

Liu never panicked and won 12 with a par and 13 with a birdie. Those two victories gave Liu some momentum. He won the next three holes with two birdies and a par to close out the match with five straight winning holes.

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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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