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TITLE: Back at It — Season Recaps, What’s Live, and the Pledge That Sets Us Apart

Hey everyone — RickJ here. It’s been a minute since I’ve posted anything on the site, and I wanted to come back with something worth reading rather than just noise. Life out here in Las Vegas stays busy, and between running the picks operation, keeping up with the investment side of things, actually watching the games, getting my pickleball in three times a week, and dealing with my HOA — which deserves its own post someday — the blog sometimes gets pushed to the back burner. But I’m back, and I’ve got a lot to catch you up on.

Let me start with the numbers, because that’s what this is all about.

NCAA Football wrapped up a few months back. On the sides, I went 45-36-1 — a solid winning record I’m genuinely happy with over the course of a long college football season. Totals were a rougher ride at 5-11, and I’ll be straight with you: the totals market in college ball has gotten tougher, and I wasn’t sharp enough there. I’ll own it.

The NFL season was cleaner. Sides finished 20-15, which is a profitable margin in a league where sharp edges are hard to find. No complaints there.

NCAA Basketball ran long and deep this year. Sides ended at 47-44-4 for the season, which is a winning mark across a massive volume of games. Totals were a struggle at 5-8-1 — again, a category I need to tighten up. The tournament was a small sample, just a few plays, and it didn’t go the way I wanted: Totals 1-2-1, Sides 0-1. Tournament basketball is a different animal and I treated it that way, keeping my exposure limited.

Now here’s where things are getting interesting: MLB 2025 is underway and we’re off to a real good start. Through the games so far, I’m sitting at 14-12 on sides (+8.51 units) and 13-12-2 on totals (-1.65 units), for a combined +6.86 units and a 13.45% ROI. Early in the season, but I’ll take it. Baseball is a grind — 162 games, six months — and starting with positive ROI and units up is exactly where you want to be.

Right now I’m active on MLB every day. I’m putting out roadmaps — full breakdowns of every game on the slate — plus my actual plays, all going out via email and through the RickJSports Discord channel. NBA and NHL are still in their seasons too, and I’m covering those as well. NCAA Basketball just concluded for the year, so attention shifts pretty fully to the diamond and the hardwood and the ice.

One thing I’ve added that a lot of you have really responded to is the investing side. I run a second Discord channel called RickJInvest where I post market commentary, trade ideas, and my own positioning. It’s not a picks service — it’s a conversation about what I’m watching and doing with my own money. This channel is included with all paid subscriptions at no extra cost. If you’re into markets as much as sports, you’ll get something out of it.

Speaking of subscriptions — here’s the structure: it’s $49 a month, $24 a week, or $499 for the full year. Signing up is simple — just use the PayPal button right on the home page at rickjshandicappingpicks.com. But the thing I want you to hear, because no other handicapper I know of does this: if I do not have a winning season, I will refund 50% of your subscription. Not a credit, not a promo — a real refund. I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and accountability is the one thing that separates the real ones from the guys just selling dreams. You deserve to know the person you’re trusting with your money has real skin in the game. I do.

If you want to sign up, have questions, or just want to talk ball, reach out directly at riccja3@gmail.com. You can also find me on Discord in the RickJSports and RickJInvest channels. Come hang out — it’s a good group of people who take this seriously without taking themselves too seriously.

Glad to be back. Let’s have a run.

— RickJ
RickJ’s Handicapping Picks
rickjshandicappingpicks.com

We survived the first half of MLB this season without the overnight plays. I had sent out an email indicating that there would be no overnight plays this season as a result of the data I was getting for overnights going out of business. I tried a new database last season, and it was dismal so I decided no more overnights until I found another reliable database to use.

The one I had been using gave us a lot of profit over the 4 to 5 years or so I had been using it. The new database I tried last season, for whatever reason did not work out well.

So this season I went with day of game plays in MLB, similar to what I do in all sports. Except I tweaked it a bit to where I felt it would produce steady profits with a lot less variance. In gambling that is not easy to do.

But so far this season it has worked out, here are the season to date results for MLB up the all star break:

2025 Season

March
Sides 0-2 -2.00

April
Sides 3-3 +.69

May 2-0 +2.52
Totals 0-3-1 -3.10

June
Sides 7-5 +6.86
Totals 11-8-1 +.55

July
Sides 1-2 +0.44
Totals 2-1 +0.90

Season to date:
Sides: 14-12 +8.51
Totals: 13-12-2 -1.65
Combined: 27-24-2 +6.86 ROI 13.45%

A few things to note. The number of plays has diminished substantially from when I was posting overnight plays and no day of game plays. This was an expected by product of the shift.

Making money in handicapping is no easy go of it:) MLB for me has always been the toughest sport since I began posting plays online some 20+ years ago. Time certainly goes by fast. It seems like just yesterday I was posting on 2+2 every day.

Well I am still at it:) And still tweaking when necessary. I think I have a method now in MLB that will produce perhaps 5 to 10 units over the season. And one where you will not see the 1o to 15 unit downswings periodically. We will see:)

In the meantime this season as with last season MLB and all sports until the beginning of college football is FREE. I have taken the protected discord directories that were open only to subscribers and made them public.

I did this for both RickJSports and RickJInvest my two discord channels. In addition for those that wanted to join during the free period, I am sending out plays also to everyone via email using rickj@rickjshandicappingpicks.com

If you wish to join us for the 2nd half of MLB, for FREE, just send me an email and I will send you an invite to my Discord channels and place you on the email list. Then when the first game of NCAA FB begins , the plays will go back to subscription based.

I will take all Subscribers using paypal off of pause and they will pick up right where they were when we went to free. Everyone that is using the free period will have plenty of time to subscribe if they choose to. But once the first game of NCAA FB is to start, free signons, will be discontinued and those taking advantage of it will be deleted.

As far as next years MLB I have not decided whether to have it free or subscription. A lot will depend on how we end up this season, and my analysis of the results during the off season.

If anyone has any questions you can contact me at riccja3@gmail.com , that is usually the best email to get my attention. I am in the process of setting up a chat server on my site, one a bit more sophisticated then what I have now. So, when that is done you will be able to communicate with me on the website.

As those that have been with me for 20+ years know, handicapping sports is a passion of mine. You can find a 2+2 article on handicapping the NFL I wrote in Two Plus Two Magazine, Vol. 7, No. 12 on the top menu of this site. A person that I played poker with at the time worked actively with 2+2 and asked me to write an article. I at first was reluctant, but the more I got to know the person, the more I was comfortable doing it. We became friends and had some very interesting conversations at the poker table.

One of them happened when we were sitting next to each other at an Omaha 8 game at the Bellagio. It was a lively game, and I had an incredible run of good cards only to find myself down about six racks in a short period of time:) (there is a downside of getting good cards).  He turned to me in bewilderment asking when I was going to quit. I responded , what is the difference if you downswing in poker occurs in one session or 3 months? It is just variance. And if I am playing well and the game is good there is no reason to quit. He was impressed with the response, and told me after 2 racks he gets mad:) So he quits.

Those are the types of conversations I enjoy having. There are not enough people around that you can talk to in that way and they understand unfortunately:)

Hope you enjoyed this short story, and I hope to see you join us for the 2nd half of MLB. Follow along and see if this might be for you.

RickJ

RickJ’s Handicapping Picks

Discord: RickJSports

RickJInvest