Royals Sign Zack Greinke

The Royals announced today that they signed Zack Greinke to a 4 year contract. He'll make $38 million over the life of the contract, backloaded (3.75, 7.25, 13.5, 13.5) so he'll get Jose Guillen's money when that ridiculous deal finally runs its course.

This is a great, great signing for the Royals. The national media hasn't totally figured it out yet (since he doesn't play for New York or Boston), but his stuff is electric and he's showing flashes of being a true top-of-the-rotation guy, a fringe top 10 pitcher in all of baseball. Stealing a little bit from Rany, Greinke's market value was probably around 4 years for $44 million, with a hope that he might take a million per less than that to stay in a relatively comfortable media market like Kansas City. The Royals have beaten that and structured the contract in a way that makes a ton of sense for the organization.

Conference Championship Sunday

Philadelphia -3 1/2 Arizona - Tough to lay points on the road in a game like this, but I just can't see the Cardinals going to the Super Bowl. I like them, and will be rooting for them even though I'm betting against them, but I'm not sure Anquan Boldin is healthy. Defenses have been huge this year, with the teams that finished 1-2-3 in the regular season all still alive. The Cardinals are the odd man out and will have trouble dealing with McNabb, Westbrook, and all the blitzing that the Eagles will do.

Lean:

Baltimore +6

The correct play, given where the numbers are at, is probably a PHI +2 1/2/BAL +12 teaser.

College Hoops - 1.17.2009

Florida State / Maryland UNDER 132 - Both teams go long spells struggling to score and the Seminoles are legitimately good defensively. The UNDER is 11-1 in games involving one of these teams on the season.

Texas -6 Texas Tech - The Longhorns are probably a little bit over-rated, but they should play well today after the discouraging loss at OU on Big Monday. Tech just really isn't very good, especially defensively, which will let UT score some points. And Texas can guard, so the Red Raiders will have a difficult time keeping pace. Texas has covered 3 straight in this series.

Kansas State +2 1/2 Nebraska - K-State opened up Big 12 play with Oklahoma at home and Kansas in Lawrence. The schedule softens up a bit today and coming off a gutsy, but not great, performance against the Jayhawks...they should be poised to play well today.

Format Change

The Football Edge is changing names to The Sporting Edge. It's also undergoing a format change. This will not be unlike that dark day in the 90s when the LAZER started playing Britney Spears songs, and for that, I apologize in advance. I'll be expanding to including basketball investing, as well as writing about teams I care about in the non-oddsmaking sense. So, if a team that I follow does something stupid (like giving Larry Johnson $60 million or signing Willie Bloomquist for more than a bag of baseballs), I'll probably write about it. Some of you that don't like baseball, and I won't name any names here, will probably want to set up a filter to automatically delete updates with "Royals" in the title. If you're not a Kansas fan, they'll be plenty of that that you don't want to read. So, really...I'll have roughly one reader that follows all the teams I'll talk about. But ultimately, it's my blog...so you'll learn to deal with it.

Enjoy.

NFL: Week 15

Miami -6 San Francisco - Miami is in the thick of the 3-way tie for first in the AFC East and with San Francisco in town and a trip to Kansas City coming next week, they have to like their chances. San Francisco makes the long trip east to play an early game (always tough for west coast teams), and they'll be doing it without Frank Gore, who's out with an ankle sprain. Tough spot for them, so I expect the Dolphins to win comfortably today.

NFL: Week 14

Green Bay -6 Houston - The Texans recent good play has this line held a little lower than it probably should be. Underachieving Packer team hosts Houston, with Matt Schaub seeing his first action in over a month. If Green Bay expects to make the playoffs, they need to get going right now...and today is the first time all year they've played a 2nd consecutive home game. I'd expect them to play well.

New England -6 1/2 Seattle - Rarely does a Bill Belichick team get embarassed like they did last week. It's even more rare for them not to respond and play well the following week. The squeezably soft Seahawks are just what the doctor ordered in this spot. The Patriots are 4-0 SU and ATS following a loss this season.

Denver -9 Kansas City - The Chiefs are playing better, but this is a Broncos team that, until last Sunday, was the Chiefs only win. A motivated team, in Mile High, with the Chiefs' inability to stop the, well...anything on defense means Denver gets to give a revenge f**k today.

Conference Title Saturday

Florida -10 Alabama - The Crimson Tide are getting no respect here for a multitude of reasons. The biggest deal, though...is that the SEC has a lot of good teams but not very many great ones. Alabama has managed to navigate through the conference without losing, but they've seldom looked great. The computers tell a big story here, of Sagarin's top 50, the only teams that played a significantly easier schedule than the Tide were Boise State, Ball State, and Tulsa. Nowhere to hide today, as they battle a motivated Florida team that needs to not only win...but do it convincingly enough to pass Texas in the BCS. Gators roll.

Oklahoma / Missouri UNDER 79 - Explosive offenses, poor pass defenses. Missouri is #116 nationally against the pass AND they didn't have to play Tech or Oklahoma during the regular season. So, why take the UNDER...it'll be cold, the field is in terrible shape, and in championship type games...79 is a ton of points.

Virginia Tech PK Boston College - Virginia Tech has a little more experience at the skill positions and should play well today to try to snag the ACC's prized spot getting annually humiliated in the Orange Bowl. Should be a good one.