Monty tabs Harrington, two others for Ryder Cup

Golf Betting Lines

08/29/2010 - Perthshire, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie selected Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Edoardo Molinari to round out his team on Sunday.

They joined the nine players who automatically qualified for the European Ryder Cup team -- Lee Westwood, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell, Ross Fisher, Martin Kaymer, Rory McIlroy, Francesco Molinari and Peter Hanson.

Montgomerie also added Sergio Garcia as his fourth vice captain.

The European captain said if Westwood is unable to play because of injury, Justin Rose will take his place. Rose, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour this season, was among the players left off the team.

Among the other snubs were world No. 9 Paul Casey and 2004 captain European Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer, who has won four times on the Champions Tour this year, including back-to-back senior majors.

Harrington is a three-time major champion and has played in every Ryder Cup since his debut at Brookline in 1999. The Irishman had never been a captain's pick until this year as the world No. 18 narrowly missed an automatic spot.

He is 7-11-4 is his five previous Ryder Cups, but only owns a winning record in singles. He has a slew of top-10s around the world in 2010, but has yet to win.

Harrington has missed the cut in three of four majors this season as well as at The Players Championship. His only made cut in a major was at the U.S. Open, where he shared 22nd.

Donald will be playing in his third Ryder Cup after missing the 2008 edition. The Englishman was a captain's pick by Bernhard Langer in 2004 and owns a spectacular 5-1-1 record, including a 4-0 mark in foursomes.

He had a spectacular summer run where he won the Madrid Masters and posted top-three finishes at BMW PGA Championship and Wales Open, which was played at the Ryder Cup venue, Celtic Manor.

The world No. 10 also has enjoyed a fine season on the PGA Tour. He finished second at the Northern Trust Open, shared ninth at the Match Play Championship, tied for third at the Heritage and took solo third at the Canadian Open.

Edoardo Molinari joined his brother Francesco on the team. They are the third set of brothers to play on the same European Ryder Cup team.

The last two brothers to play together were Bernard and Geoffrey Hunt in 1963. Both Molinaris are Ryder Cup rookies.

Edoardo collected his second European Tour victory on Sunday, winning the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles by a single stroke over Brett Rumford. He also won this year's Scottish Open and has four other top-four finishes in the 2010 campaign.

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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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