End of the Year Bowling

We have two bowl game Free NCAA Football Picks today after dropping to 2-1 on the bowl season.

Chick-fil-A Bowl
LSU/Georgia Tech OVER 53

Insight Bowl
Minnesota +9 over Kansas

Good luck!

Okay, Forget the Alamo Bowl

Missouri needed overtime to beat Northwestern 30-23 in the Alamo Bowl, meaning they failed to cover the -13 spread.

So, on second thought, feel free to completely forget the Alamo Bowl.

This game blemishes that perfect 100% bowl game mark of ours, knocking us down to 2-1 in the bowl season.

Don't Forget the Alamo Bowl

It's Alamo Bowl time, which means you'll probably be seeing plenty of headlines similar to our "Don't Forget the Alamo." "Remember the Alamo," perhaps?

Anyway, we've got a pick that's probably just as popular as the above headline, which scares us a bit. Nevertheless, we're hoping to improve on that impressive 2-0 bowl record of ours with this Free NCAA Football Pick tonight.

Missouri -13 over Northwestern

Hopefully, the Alamo Bowl will be worth remembering.

Good luck!

Free NCAA Football Picks Record Update

We realize it's been a while since we've updated our Free NCAA Football Picks record, so ask and you shall receive. (Or don't ask, and eventually we'll just give it to you anyway.)

Overall: 30-25-1... 55%
Since Week 6: 20-12-1... 63%
Bowl Games: 2-0... 100%

As you can see, we've had some success in the second half of the season after what can be described as an extremely rocky start.

And we fully expect that 100% bowl game percentage to survive as we end the college football season with a bang.

Free NFL Picks End Regular Season At 59%

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, another NFL regular season is in the books. Here at Stock Lemon, it means another successful season, though we certainly would have liked to play more games--and would have if we knew our Free NFL Picks would finish at just 59%.

The main reason for the sucess of our Free NFL Picks is that we are so picky with them. Rather than play nearly all of the games each week as we're routinely tempted to do, we stick to our computer system in hopes that we'll finish in the high 60's or low 70's for winning percentage.

Obviously, that didn't happen, and while 59% is respectable, it's definitely lower than we hoped. The good news for us: there is plenty of playoff football ahead, which means plenty more opportunities to improve on that mark.

On the bright side, we ended the regular season with a 3-1 day, giving us our 59% with a record of 26-18-2.

Thanks to the 0-16 Lions being just a little bit less awful than expected, Detroit covered a +10 spread in a 31-21 loss to the Packers. Elsewhere, the Giants nearly won outright and easily covered a +7 spread on the road against the Vikings with a 20-19 loss, while the Dolphins went from 1-15 to 11-5, covering a +3 spread with a 24-17 win over the Jets in the process.

Thus concludes our regular season NFL fun for the year.

We will have a play for every playoff game, regardless of whether or not it is a system play or not, so check us out for all of your playoff betting needs.

Free NFL Picks Close Out Regular Season

The last batch of Free NFL Picks for the 2008 regular season is in, and the picks, unlike the last few weeks, there are actually multiple picks.

As you'll notice, it's a very interesting week for the system as all four picks are underdogs. With the regular season ending and various teams resting starters for much of the finale, we tried to estimate the time each team will play their starters, and then calculated our data as we normally do each week.

As a result, the picks are a little different from our normal system, but are Free NFL Picks nonetheless.

It's also interesting that we have all of the NFC North covered this week, but since there are so many intriguing matchups, it isn't surprising.

Lions +11 over Packers

The Lions have everything to play for in this one while the Packers are just limping out of the year. Granted, nobody wants to lose to an 0-15 team, but with an 11-point cushion, the Packers don't even have to lose for this to be a winner. We're tempted by that +500 moneyline as well.

Bears +3 over Texans

Apparently we like the Bears to make the playoffs, when you factor in this pick with the next one. Although the Bears could still lose in a close one and miss the playoffs for us to win both bets, if your bookie is still taking bets on the NFC North Champ, it looks like our Free NFL Picks are telling you to take the Bears.

Giants +7 over Vikings

The Giants don't have much to play, or anything for that matter, and we still like this pick. That should tell you all you need to know about the Vikings.

Dolphins +3 over Jets

Cold weather game + Brett Favre = Dolphins +3. It's still hard to say with a straight face that Chad Pennington has a stronger arm than Brett Favre, but at this point, it's the truth.

Good luck!

Jenn Sterger Delivers Again!

Thanks to Jenn Sterger, we have a little bit of extra cash in our pockets. Well... thanks to her alma mater, anyway. The Florida State Seminoles walloped the Wisconsin Badgers, 42-13, covering the -6 spread with ease.

As many of you know, our favorite Facebook friend made a name for herself while at Florida State, just as we made a name for ourselves as one of the premier cappers in the 2008 Champs Sports Bowl. Our 100% accuracy in this bowl game is tied for the best in the history of the Champs Sports Bowl.

Really, though, our Free NCAA Football Picks are now 2-0 in bowl season and hopefully we will have some more bowl picks as our calendar continues to run out.

Reminder: FSU in the Champs Sports Bowl

Just posting this to remind everyone that Florida State is a Free NCAA Football Pick today in the Champs Sports Bowl over Wisconsin. Since we usually only post on the day of the game, plus with all the holiday distractions (like Lemmy's birthday), we figured you could use a friendly reminder.

We should also have a good batch of Free NFL Picks for you in the last regular season week of the season, so check back in tomorrow.

Good luck!

Merry Christmas To You, Happy Birthday To Us!

It's December 25, which of course, means it's Christmas day.

More importantly, though, is that on this day one year ago, in the wee hours of Christmas morning, Lemmy was born.

This site has officially been up and running for a full year, providing you with the main squeeze on stocks (sometimes) and sports wagers. At the exact minute of this post, Stock Lemon turned one.

That said, we'd like to wish Lemmy a Happy Birthday. Don't tell him that his hat doesn't fit.

So whether you're celebrating the birth of Jesus or the birth of Lemmy, enjoy Christmas day.

Thanks for hanging around for a full year, and, we hope, for many years ahead.

The Champs Sports Bowl Pick is in!

We're an incredible 1-0 so far in the college bowl season, hitting 100% of our picks! Next up: The Champs Sports Bowl. Although this bowl game is still three days away, we had to take a break from the Christmas Eve festivities to post this before the line jumped on us.

Florida State -6 over Wisconsin

With apologies to our friends over at The Bucky Channel, this isn't a good year for the Badgers to be facing the Seminoles for the first time in their history. Our Free NCAA Football Picks system sees real value in the Seminoles.

It's rare that we post a play so far in advance, so that should tell you how much we like Florida State to take care of business. Or it should tell you that we have a busy couple of days ahead and weren't sure when else to post this. Either way.

Good luck!

Poinsetta Bowl Picks Improve to 1-0 All-Time

Boise St. lost to TCU in the Poinsetta Bowl, 17-16, but all was not lost. The three-point dogs covered the spread and gave us a win in our first bowl game pick of the year.

With the win, we are now 1-0 all-time with Poinsetta Bowl Picks! Hooray! Make sure to mark your calanders for 2009's match-up.

In all seriousness, though, it's nice to get a Free NCAA Football Pick at a time when some of our other systems are either on losing streaks or are pushing the old fasioned way (by not playing any games).

And the good news is, there are plenty more bowls to come to hold us over as we begin our countdown to Poinsetta Bowl 2k9.

The Poinsetta Bowl Is Finally Here!

We know you've been waiting for our Poinsetta Bowl pick all year, and finally, the wait is over.

Our first Free NCAA Football Pick of the Bowl season goes to...

Boise St +3 over TCU

Even if Ian Johnson and the Misses don't renew their wedding vows after the game, he should have plenty of reason to celebrate after his last bowl game with the Broncos.

Good luck!

Strange Week Here at Stock Lemon

It's been a strange, or should we say, quiet week here at Stock Lemon. We're still messing around with our Free NBA Picks system and in the meantime thougth we'd have some Free NCAA Basketball Picks for you, but that hasn't been the case.

To make matters weirder (and quieter), we had no Free NFL Picks for the first time all year, after having just one last week. We've gone through some quiet patches before (usually with our Free MLB Picks), but expect things to pick up again as we near the end of the calendar year.

Meanwhile, we're getting ready to go bowling with some Free NCAA Football Picks in the coming days, so stay with us as we close out 2008.

A Random College Basketball Pick

Our Free NCAA Basketball Picks are extremely sporadic, but are usually pretty successful when there is value on the board.

Of course, around tournament time we lower our standards so that we can make more bets--more for fun than for profit--but during the season, the picks have to have a lot of value in order for us to play them. Fortunately for us, after a few days without any picks, we have a college basketball play for tonight.

Louisville -15 over Ole Miss

This is only the second Free NCAA Basketball Pick of the year, in case you didn't believe us about rarely having plays in this sport. So far we're hitting 100% of our picks and fully anticipate keeping that impressive record throughout the year.

Good luck!

Time For Our Free NBA Picks to Take a Break

Despite a nice slate of NBA games tonight, and what looks like some decent plays from our Free NBA Picks system, we're holding off on these picks for now. 

We've got some numbers to crunch in regards to this system, which only seems to be correct when it comes to betting on the Cleveland Cavaliers. While we could just try and ride the Cavs all season, we somehow doubt that it would be what you could consider sustainable betting. 

We'll tinker with the stats that we use for our picks, but we'll keep the original formula in tact and keep a constant eye on it, since we really started getting hot (and posting our plays online) starting in about late January when the sample sizes for the year were much bigger. 

Stay tuned. We should have some new NBA leans later this week. 

Sunday Night Free NFL Pick

Just one play this week, although a Monday Free NFL Pick is still a possibility.

Giants +3 over the Cowboys

The Cowboys need it more and are at home, yeah yeah, but the Giants aren't about to lose back-to-back games. 

Good luck!

Play With Caution

We have another Free NBA Pick for you to fade today: 

Rockets -4 over the Clippers

With Tracy McGrady back for the Rockets, and Chris Kaman still out for the Clip Show, this looks like a slump buster for us. Then again, probably not. 

Good luck!

Non-Cavs Free NBA Picks Continue to Struggle

We have another non-Cleveland Cavalier Free NBA Pick tonight, so play with caution. 

Milwaukee Bucks +1.5 over the Golden State Warriors

Some injuries for the Warriors make this one a favorable match-up for the Bucks, even on the road. 

Good luck--you'll need it. 

Another Big NBA Favorite

Our Free NBA Picks like another double digit favorite tonight as they try to improve on their record when we don't bet on the Cavaliers. 

Lakers -11 over the Kings

Good luck!

Jenn Sterger Did it and So Can You!

A while back, we told you that Stock Lemon entered the world of social networking by adding a Facebook page. Well, unfortunately, that page has since been removed, since Facebook only allows individuals rather than multi-billion dollar corporations like us. 

But fear not, Facebook friends, there are still multiple ways to let the Facebook world know of your love for Stock Lemon. Our marketing "intern" Wendy has been all over getting us all sorts of social networking exposure. 

First and foremost, you can join the Stock Lemon page, as 194 brave souls have already done, including the lovely Jenn Sterger currently of the New York Jets. If you're unfamiliar with Jenn, Wikipedia has you covered on her rise to fame. Now, we're using that fame to try and take over the Facebook world. 

If the Stock Lemon page isn't enough for you, go ahead and join the Stock Lemon blog network and the Stock Lemon group as well, although we must warn you that Jenn is not a part of these two applications. 

If nothing else, at least these gave us an excuse to post a picture of a girl for once. 

A Winning Week in the NFL!

Well, it definitely wasn't the busy Sunday we anticipated earlier in the week, but at least it was a winning Sunday. 

The Ravens beat the Redskins 24-10 to cover the -6 spread and give us a Free NFL Pick win, putting us just shy of that coveted 60% mark at 23-16-2 (59%). 

Hopefully there will be more NFL action next weekend. 

So Much For Having A Busy Weekend

We told you earlier this week that we were looking forward to a potential huge weekend of plays, especially in the NFL. 

Well, if you could tell by the fact that we had no posts earlier today, there were no Free NFL Picks this afternoon. In fact, our only play is the Sunday nighter. 

Ravens -6 over Redskins

Good luck!

Take the Tide Today

Our Free NCAA Football Picks are hitting 62% in the last eight weeks and we have one play in the SEC Championship Game today. 

Alabama +10 over Florida

This should do it for our Free NCAA Football Picks until it's time to go bowling. 

Good luck!

Cavs Keeping Free NBA Picks Afloat

For the third time this year, the Cavaliers were a Free NBA Pick. For the third time this year, the Cavaliers delivered a victory. 

With a 97-73 win over the Pacers, the Cavs made it easy on us, covering the -11 spread without a problem. 

Our Free NBA Picks are off to an absolutely horrible start, especially considering they were 40-20 last year (67%). We expect them to pick up as they did in the second half of last season when the statistical data we use has a bigger sample size, but for now, just awful. 

Take a look at the numbers for this season:

Cleveland Cavs as a Free NBA Pick: 3-0

29 other teams as a Free NBA Pick: 1-8

Overall record: 4-8

Unreal. 1-8! A lot of cappers are having a tough time with the beginning of the 2008-09 season, but we've caught a lot of bad breaks to start the year. 

We hope you stick with us through these tough times. We fully expect these picks to rebound, but for now, you might want to be careful when we bet on 29 of the 30 teams in the NBA. 

Another Cavs Free NBA Pick

It seems like our Free NBA Picks really have been favoring the Cleveland Cavaliers this year.

Maybe it's because they are 15-3, or maybe because they have one of the best players in the game in LeBron James, but whatever it is, the system likes them again tonight.

Cleveland Cavaliers -11 over Indiana Pacers

So get used to the Cavs as a Free NBA Pick--until 2010 anyway. 

Enjoy the Day Off

If you hadn't noticed, we have no plays today, but enjoy the day off while you can.

From the looks of it, we could have a pretty busy weekend, particularly in the NFL.

Stay tuned.

East Carolina Covers At +2 or -2

Earlier today, we posted our first Free NCAA Basketball Pick of the year, taking those mighty Pirates of ECU +2 over UNC Wilmington.

We checked back before tip-off and found some of the craziest line movement that we've seen in just a few hours, all the way from +2 to -2. Either way, hopefully you grabbed East Carolina, who won the game 99-85 to give even the cappers who mysteriously got them at -14 1/2 a victory.

Now that we're tied for the greastest win percentage in the history of NCAA basketball betting at 100%, we should almost call it quits.

Of course, we won't, and we will probably have many more picks to come as the season starts picking up, particularly with conference play.

Until then, enjoy the 100% rate at which we pick college basketball.

Our First Free NCAA Basketball Pick This Year

Our Free NCAA Basketball Picks are still a work in progress and haven't had the sucess that we've had in other sports, but we think we have everything worked out and all the correct data entered in our spreadsheets. 

So, with that in mind, we've saved our first pick of the year for one of the biggest games of the year. That's right, East Carolina and UNC Wilmington!

East Carolina +2 over UNC Wilmington

Let's get the 2008-09 college basketball season off on the right foot. Good luck!

An NBA Over For Tonight

Once again, it's been a slow start to the NBA this year for a lot of cappers, and that's been true so far with our Free NBA Picks. Still, there's one pick tonight as we keep plugging away.

New Jersey Nets/Washington Wizars OVER 206

And no, that's not a typo. There is no D in Wizards, at least on the court.

Good luck and let's get back on track.

Lemmy Awards: Top Sports Wagering Sites

Yes, folks, it's time for another presentation of our Lemmy Awards, which recognize excellence in sports related websites.

We've given out a few Lemmy Awards in the past, once for the Top Five Sports Betting and Stock Websites and once for the Top Five Rivals Sports Message Boards.

As our focus shifts more in the direction of sports wagering than stock picking (though we're not done flirting with the stock market just yet), we thought it would be a good idea to narrow some Lemmy Awards to the Top Sports Wagering Sites, eliminating stocks from the award.

We should note that these awards are only for American-based sports betting sites, though we know of many great European sports wagering blogs, which may call for another Lemmy Awards presentation on a later date. For now, check out Green-All-Over for sports investing or Ed's Betting Blog for some picks or Italian Easy Bet (Scommesse Facili) if you're fluent in Italian, all of which can be found permanently on the Lemmy's Friends blogroll. We should also mention Picks That Cover, which isn't foreign but they have only been around since October, so we'll let them grow before throwing the high expectations that a Lemmy Award brings at them.

Since we've been around a lot longer than we were when we rolled out our first awards, there are many blogs that we only recently found out about and there surely are many more we haven't yet discovered, so don't feel bad if your blog is not included in this edition. If you have a blog you feel is worthy, go ahead and shoot us an e-mail so we can check it out.

For the occassion, we have updated our Lemmy Award, giving Lemmy a nice little spot on the trophy rather than floating somehow above it. Even at the risk of losing some traffic to one of these sites that you might like better, we feel obligated to provide you with the best resources possible to make smart wagers--but try to check in with us even if these guys are making you more money (please?). That said, let's move to those brand-new Lemmy Awards.

• The Online Sports Bettor

First off, we're giving The Online Sports Better a second Lemmy Award, after handing one out in our inaugural "ceremony." This makes The Online Sports Bettor the only two-time Lemmy Award winner, something they are likely bragging about at every moment possible.

The Online Sports Bettor specializes in NFL, hitting 58% with a 33-24 record this year, as well as MLB picks. Occasionally the Sports Bettor will tackle other sports, but NFL and MLB are the big ones over there. His stated objective is to bet on sports, win, and tell you about, according to the header of the blog, along with making you laugh and winning tons of money.

For three years, The Online Sports Bettor has done both.

• The Visionary Sports Handicapping Blog

The Visionary, along with The Online Sports Bettor, can both be found on the blogroll, and they are there for good reason. Picks are posted daily for all major sports, with pretty decent percentages.

In the MLB, the Visionary enjoyed a 77-56 (58%) season and is .500 or better in every sport except the NBA. At least we aren't the only ones off to a rough start in that department.

Along with free picks of varying unit amounts, the Visionary provides sports commentary and news on the current state of the onling betting industry. Hopefully, now that he has earned a Lemmy Award, he doesn't big-time his readers and quit the great work he's been doing

• The Money Line Journal

The Money Line Journal has some great wagering insight and some hilarious reviews on the outcome of his games, along with his very frequently updated picks.

While the picks haven't beed doing so great this year as opposed to last year (-31 units in 2008-09 compared to +175 units in '07-08), he still delivers them with great wit on a daily basis in a multitude of sports. Yes, including golf. He provides sports wagering with an attitude and isn't afraid to show emotion after a back-door cover.

We've been mentioned once on his site after e-mailing him a story of ours, which he then stuck in a Q & A session of his blog, complete with a sarcastic remark:

I am sure that the above link is going to result in loads of meaningful, repeat traffic for the soon to be famous “Stockle Mon”** blog.

The asterisk notes that he reads Stock Lemon as Stockle Mon, but hey, at least he's reading it at all. Be sure to check out some of his comments based off message board posters, or one of the aforementioned Q & A sessions. Hopefully, his last post about his struggles does not lead to him getting away from some of the things he has done so well.

• Against All Odds

Against All Odds has had some success in various sports (59-49 in NCAA Football), including way more bets on tennis than we ever imagine making (47-45 record). It's usually a good place to be during baseball season, not just because they were up 8 units on the year, but because the write-ups are pretty darn good.

In fact, the write-ups for their picks of any sports are better than a lot of what you'll find on the internet and are always worth a read. The two-man operation out to beat the books does a nice job of justifying their picks, and they'll cause you to think twice if you're on the other side of a play.

• Vegas Watch

Again, we said we felt obligated to post the best sports wagering sites we know of, and that's what we're doing. That doesn't mean that these sites are too fond of us, for whatever reason.

A while ago, we decided to add our Lemmy's Friends blogroll to the right side of the page and so we e-mailed around to see if anyone was interested in link exchange. Vegas Watch and a couple of others (some of which are Lemmy Award winners) seemed to have a personal grudge against us and didn't want to add us to their own blogrolls, which is fine.

Later, Vegas Watch e-mailed us regarding our reasoning for the Steelers as one of our NFL picks. Of course, the reasoning was made up, as many of you know we simply follow our systems but sometimes post a fun stat anyway that favors our side. Vegas Watch didn't undestand that, and replied hastily:

I don't understand how you could actually give it as reasoning for picking the Steelers. Do you actually think it's relevant to a football game?

We later asked him again about including us in his blogroll, to which he decided:

Quality of the content isn't close to being high enough.

When we told him that other links on his blogroll haven't even been updated in months, he shot back:

I am glad you're policing my blogroll. Fantastic. I have no further input.

So, if anyone thinks that these Lemmy Awards are only given to blogs that we are friendly with... that isn't always the case. Regardless, Vegas Watch is deserving of the award more for commentary than for picks. You can find some great weekly NFL survivor analysis as well as a tracking of MLB free agents, in addition to whetting your gambling appetite.

• Sports Investments

Another site that isn't quite fond of us enough to put us into that elusive blogroll of theirs, but another deserved site. Like the Money Line Journal, the units are down this year (-13 in 2008-09 after +84 in '07-08), but there's still time to improve upon that.

We especially like the disclaimer at the bottom of the page, which states: "I am not responsible, nor do I care, if you lose money following my picks."

After their peformance last year, their readers can afford to lose some money.

• You Guessed it, Frank Stallone

They aren't having a great year over there, but they deserve a Lemmy Award for the constantly updated picks and solid write-ups. After all, the worst thing a gambler can do is quit, right?

Hopefully this award can help brighten up their mood, as the "about me" says: "If you know me, you know where I am. If you don't, let's keep it that way."

Maybe not the friendliest, but a Lemmy Award winner nonetheless.

Congratulations to the seven Lemmy Award winners. Feel free to brag about the award all you want. Go ahead, stick the image of that Lemmy Award trophy all over your site. Just remember to tell everyone about the great free picks you get over at your favorite site.

Superman to Save Free NBA Picks

Our Free NBA Picks are off of the 67% pace that they hit last year, but we have the perfect solution.

Superman Dwight Howard will save them.

More specifically, Howard's Orlando Magic will save them, given huge points on the road tonight.

Magic +8 1/2 over the Celtics

Our Free NBA Picks system indicates that this spread is four to five points higher than the statistics would indicate, so hopefully the combination of Superman, a little Magic, and an inflated spread will lead our Free NBA Picks back to prominence.

Upset of the Century Covers

The Broncos knocked the Jets back down to Earth yesterday with a 34-17 win, covering the +8 spread in the process.

The win means that our Upset of the century covered, improving those picks 1-0 on the century. Come back in about November of 2108 for our next Upset of the century.

Unfortunately, our Lock of the year must have been unlocked, as it didn't cover, so our Free NFL Picks had a 1-1 day.

We won't have any more "locks" or picks that only come around once in a ridiculous while, but we enjoyed the increase in Google searches for "NFL locks" while we had them.

Stay tuned for more free picks throughout the week--and the century, for that matter.

Two NFL Locks of the Year!

Our number one goal here at Stock Lemon is to make you money. That's it. That's the main idea. We hope that our free picks can provide you with a little extra spending cash during some hard times.

Our second goal, though, is to increase traffic to this blog. The more readers we have, the better business is for us. That said, we thought we would deliver our Free NFL Picks to you this week like many other online sports betting websites--with false promises! Sadly, doing so will likely increase our traffic by about ten times. So, enjoy our two "locks" that are "100% guaranteed!"

NFL LOCK OF THE YEAR! BIGGEST PLAY OF THE SEASON! THROW ALL OF YOUR MONEY DOWN ON THIS PLAY!!!!! (BUT DON'T COME CRYING TO US IF IT LOSES)

Bills -6 1/2 over the 49ers

NFL UPSET OF THE CENTURY! NEVER BEFORE HAS THERE BEEN A CRAZIER LINE! THIS ONE IS WAY OFF! THOSE BOOKIES ARE GOING TO BE HURTING AFTER THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Broncos +8 over the Jets

Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good News and Bad News

Well folks, we have good news and bad news.

The good news is that our Free NCAA Football Picks are hitting 55%, but more importantly are 18-10-1 in the last 7 weeks, which is 64%.

The bad news is that we only have one pick this week.

Texas Tech -21 over Baylor

Hopefully we'll have more good news to report after this game.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Despite the Turkey Day NFL action, we have no plays today. Instead, go stuff your faces and be thankful that we will have more free picks this weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving from Lemmy and the crew here at Stock Lemon!

Forecast Says Suns With No Chance For Thunder

We have one wather-related Free NBA Pick today, and the forecast calls for the Suns to shine in Oklahoma tonight.

With a zero percent chance of Thunder.

If you haven't guessed by now, here's the pick.

Suns -10 over Thunder

There isn't much more to say about this one, although as a side note, this is our first ever pick involving the Oklahoma City Thunder!

Good luck.

Some Engine Sludge in New Orleans

Profootballtalk.com had a strange item up on their rumor mill Saturday, and we'll let them tell you all about it: 

Saints owner Tom Benson owns various car dealerships.  We’re told that, each year, he brings a mini-fleet of new cars to the team facility in the hopes of getting some of his employees to make a purchase.

As we hear it, the players don’t really appreciate the sales pitch, due in part to the perception that they aren’t offered much of a deal.

This year, some of them made it known.

On Saturday, when players arrived at the facility to continue preparations for Monday night’s home game against the Packers, more than one of the cars was coated in a certain byproduct of the human digestive system.

This might be a bit of foreshadowing on the Saints part, because we have a feeling that they're going to play the Monday Night game just like the substance that's covering Benson's car. 

At least, if our Free NFL Pick system (which is juuuuust under 60% this year) is any indication, that's how they'll play. That said, the Packers are the pick.

Packers +3 over the Saints 

As a side bet, is there any chance that Jeremy Shockey isn't responsible for this?

Lemmy Squeezes More Juice For Free NFL Picks

Things have been pretty average around here lately. It seems like every post we're writing about going .500 for the day, be it 1-1-, 2-2-1, 1-1, 1-1, 1-1, or 1-1.

Well, guess what? Our Free NFL Picks went 1-1 today.

The Patriots covered the -1 spread with a 48-28 pounding over the Dolphins, but the Chargers choked in the final minute--again--and lost to the Colts 23-20, losing against the -2 1/2 spread in the process.

So, once again, we had a .500 day, and Lemmy lost some more juice, or lemonade as we say here at Stock Lemon.

The bad news is that the 1-1 day drags our Free NFL Picks record under the 60% mark that looks so good on resumes. We are now 22-15-2 on the year, which is 59.4%.

The good news is that we will have a play coming for the Packers/Saints Monday Nighter tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Just Two Free NFL Picks This Week

Our Free NFL Picks only like two games this week, both in the AFC.

Chargers -2 1/2 over the Colts

Patriots -1 over Dolphins

Our system is hitting 60% thus far with a record of 21-14-2, but we're optimistic that these two picks will put us above the 60% benchmark.

Good luck!

Oklahoma Gives Us a Winning Day

Heading into tonight's Oklahoma/Texas Tech match-up, our Free NCAA Football Picks were a pedestrian 2-2-1 on the day. Fortunately, we decided--after much deliberation--that Oklahoma did qualify as a Free NCAA Football Pick as touchdown favorites, and Sam Bradford and Co. made us proud.

Bradford threw four touchdowns in Oklahoma's 65-21 stomping of Texas Tech, giving us a 3-2-1 day. The winning day puts our picks at 55%, but 64% in the last 7 weeks. Here's the weekly breakdown:

Week 1: 1-2

Week 2: 2-2

Week 3: 3-2

Week 4: 3-1

Week 5: 0-5

Week 6: 1-1

Week 7: 2-1

Week 8: 2-0

Week 9: 3-1

Week 10: 5-4

Week 11: 2-0

Week 12: 1-2

Week 13: 3-2-1

Total: 28-23-1... 55%

Last 7 Weeks: 18-10-1... 64%

We look forward to some conference championships next weekend and then it's on to bowl season.

Afternoon Plays Go 2-2-1

Hopefully, you ignored us when we told you to stay tuned for more picks after our first three were posted.

Those first three Free NCAA Football Picks went 2-0-1 earlier today with the following results:

The pick: Rutgers -18 over Army
The result: Rutgers 30, Army 3 (Win)

As expected, Army finally received their blow out.

The pick: Clemson -3 over Virginia
The result: Clemson 13, Virginia 3 (Win)

Sloppy game, but Clemson got the job done.

The pick: Boise State -7 over Nevada
The result: Boise State 41, Nevada 34 (Push)

Can't believe Boise State let this one get so close. We thought those first three picks would be 3-0, but a poor second half by the Broncos changed that.

Then, of course, we had to go and spoil it with two stinkers in consecutive posts. So we're sitting at 2-2-1 with on play pending.

That Last Pick We Promised For Today

We told you there was likely more to come with our Free NCAA Football Picks, so in addition to this and this, we're adding this one:

Michigan St. +15 1/2 over Penn St.

We weren't sure if we would include this one, even though it came up with pretty decent value in the system. Bettor's intuition or something like that. We looked over our numbers though and think this game will be closer than two touchdowns, so we'll gladly take the Spartans and the points.

This looks like our last pick for today, so you don't have to constantly check back to make sure we didn't put in a new update--but again, if you want to anyway, go right ahead.

FYI: Our system also showed some moderate value on Oklahoma -7 over Texas Tech, but we looked at those numbers and it doesn't really add up to be considered a Free NCAA Football Pick. We thought we would have more than just this one extra pick for you, but unfortunately Michigan St. is our only addition, leaving us with a five-game card today.

UPDATE: We looked at this game all afternoon, and will be playing Oklahoma -7. Hopefully you can get this before tip-off in about 20 minutes.

Good luck!

Just Vandy

We have confirmed what is now our fourth pick for today's action, to go along with these three.

We made sure to post this seperately for anyone who might quickly check to see if we posted anything new, and not see our updated pick at the bottom of the previous post. Instead, we did it this way so that people will only see this post and miss the previous three plays. Either way, someone will complain. We just can't win... except for with this pick.

Vanderbilt -3 over Tennessee

We thought this line should be higher, and it is climbing at least a half point at some books, but we would take it all the way up to a touchdown if we had to. Vandy has a better football team this year, and at home we don't see this year's match-up with Tennessee being too difficult for them.

Again, more picks might be coming, so make sure to check back later. And we're not just saying that to get more repeat visits to our site, although we won't mind it if you check back every 20 minutes or so just to be safe. You never know what you might miss.

Until then, good luck with the picks we have posted.

Another Batch of Free NCAA Football Picks

Last week, our Free NCAA Football Picks suffered a losing week for the first time in seven weeks. Regardless, they are hitting 65% in the last six weeks (15-8) and hopefully will remain hot closing out the season and eventually heading into bowl season. We have four picks as of right now but there could be more coming, so stay tuned.

Rutgers -18 over Army

We're banking on Scarlet prevailing in the battle of the colored Knights, although Rutgers hasn't been great this year. Then again, neither has Army. The one thing about Army, though, is that they make sure to keep their losses just close enough, so they haven't been doing too badly against the spread. Our system indicates that this is the blowout they've been waiting for.

Clemson -3 over Virginia

Clemson is simply the matter team. Definitely. Maybe. Hopefully.

Boise St. -7 over Nevada

The BCS busting Broncos will continue to screw everything up. Except this bet.

That's it for now, but there's one more game that we just have to confirm, and potentially more before kickoffs.

Bite Size: Making More Moola

Every so often, Cash Shark will swim on over to Lemmy's land and provide us with some bite sized information about making money online. This happens to be one of those times. Enjoy.

Back in the day, when we had our own website to post such matters on, we told you about Moola.com, a great site for anyone looking to make just a few extra bucks.

The site starts out by giving you a penny, and you risk that penny in strategic games against others. Sure, it seems like small fish, but if you're looking for a relatively easy way to collect some pocket change, it could be worth a shot. From the website:

Welcome to the world's first Massively Multiplayer Rewards Game (MMRG), an ambitious entertainment project which took more than five years to develop and launch for the world to enjoy. Loosely described, Moola is something like a free super-jackpot game show, which allows anyone to become a millionaire on the internet, rather than watching others do so on TV. Similar to a TV game show, Moola is free and relies on sponsors to enable millions of people to vie for serious amounts of cash and prizes. The method used to facilitate competition is simple yet powerful: Sponsors give small amounts of money to millions of people, and then Moola allows those people to compete against one another so that individuals may win more or less, depending on how well they compete.

That's all fine and dandy, but the reason we bring up Moola is because of a new feature that some folks here at Stock Lemon might enjoy: sports wagering!

Moola has teamed up with Wryer sports prediction, allowing Moola users to use their winnings to legally bet on games. Currently, the limit is four bucks a bet (did we mention this is small fish?), but for those of you who don't bet large units anyway--and we know you're out there--it's worth a shot.

Another 1-1 Night in the NBA

On back-to-back nights, our Free NBA Picks hit a pick right on the head. The problem, though, is that on back-to-back nights, those picks have been way off on a pick, too.

The pick that hit tonight was the Nuggets taking care of +1 spread in San Antonio with a 91-81 victory over the Spurs.

So, we're 2-2 on the week. Even though we're a site with lemons all over the header, we still hate losing juice.

Mark Cuban's Insider Trading Coincidence

As you probably heard in the last few days, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission, not the Southeastern Conference) recently charged Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with some insider trading that allegedly netted him about $750k by selling stock in MAMA, or Mamma.com.

Apparently, Cuban had some information that was supposed to be confidential and he used the info to sell the stock before the info that he knew became public. Which is just about the exact definition of insider trading. Only, as we've learned, it looks like a phone transcript between Cuban and Mamma.com pretty obviously clears Cuban's name, but that's neither here nor there.

We just wanted to point out a little piece of information that might be helpful to the SEC, since they need something to base their charges on. How about this: Cuban posted on his blog, blogmaverick.com, November 17 about the charges against him, after not posting anything for three days. The last post?

Titled: I hate to lose.

So what if the post is about his Mavericks and their sluggish start to the NBA season, isn't it a little ironic that his last post is about how he hates to lose, when he's being charged for selling stocks so that he didn't lose a big chunk of change? Or, maybe, the last post is forshadowing how the case will be resolved--with Cuban doing everything he can not to lose.

Either way, the SEC might as well take this possible Freudian slip into evidence. It's better than anything else they've got.

Two More Free NBA Picks

Our Free NBA Picks system is finally starting to give us some valuable picks. After just four Free NBA Picks in the first two weeks of the season, we'll now have four picks in the last two days with two more plays today.

76ers -4 over the Timberwolves

Nuggets +1 over the Spurs

Today's picks are led by a couple of new faces in new places. Elton Brand signed with the Sixers in the off-season, while Chauncey Billups was shipped from the Pistons to the Nuggets in exchange for Allen Ivereson.

Good luck!

Brett Favre Swears Just Like a Kid Out There

Aw, look at Brett Favre out there, he's like a little kid in that tunnel, swearing for the love of the game. He drops F bombs like we would drop F bombs if we could beat the Patriots on Thursday night. Just like a little kid out there, having fun, yelling profanities the way profanities were meant to be yelled.

Though you have to wait until about the 2:37 mark before you get a glimpse of Favre, it's worth it to watch him put together a two consecutive curse streak. Nobody does it like Brett Favre.

UPDATE: This video has been removed from Youtube. You'll have to take our word for it.

Cavs Come Through... Again

Once again, we took the Cavs at -6. Once again, they covered and won easily. Maybe we should stick to Cleveland.

The Cavs beat the Nets 106-82, giving us what looks to be, unfortunately, a 1-1 night. Hopefully our posting this at halftime of the Lakers/Bulls game will put some kind of jinx on the teams and they'll stop scoring and hit the under, which isn't even close at the moment.

We're going to enjoy this time, since for about an hour and a half longer, we're looking at a perfect 1-0 night.

Cavs Are a Free NBA Pick... Again

Though we've had just four Free NBA Picks so far, we've twice bet on the Cleveland Cavaliers (once in an over and once against the spread). We won the last time we bet on Cleveland at -6, so why not do it once more?

Cavaliers -6 over the Nets

Additionally, we have a total for tonight.

Bulls/Lakers UNDER 202

The reason for the under is that the last five times the Bulls over/under was listed as 190 or above, they've gone under. All three times they've gone under when it's been set at 200 or above. If that's not enough, the last nine times the Bulls and Lakers have met, they've gone under. Our system generally churns out more sides than totals, and if we were to choose one of these picks it would be the Cavs, but we're still putting the same amount of units on each--as we do with all our plays.

Good luck!

If the NFL Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

While we didn't have a wager on the game between the Chargers and Steelers, in a way, everyone lost.

Especially the NFL. Well, them, and the people who bet on the Steelers.

With the Steelers ahead of the Chargers 11-10, San Diego had time for one last desperation play. It went just about how you'd expect a dump-off-and-lateral-from-inside-the-20 play to go, with Philip Rivers throwing a short pass to Ladainian Tomlinson, Tomlinson flipping it back to Chris Chambers, and Chambers lateralling it to nobody in particular.

Chambers' heave was knocked down and scooped up by Troy Polamalu, who ran it in for a touchdown, giving the Steelers a 17-10 lead. Unfortunately, due to an illegal forward lateral by Tomlinson, the touchdown was wiped off of the scoreboard. Still, the Steelers won, so no harm done, right?

Wrong.

The Steelers may have won, but anyone who took the Steelers at anywhere from -3 1/2 to -5 didn't share the victory. Okay, so Steelers bettors caught a bad break, happens all the time, right?

Sure, but does it usually happen when 66% of the action is on the Steelers as opposed to 34% for the Chargers, with bookies looking at a huge profit if the Chargers win? Does it also usually happen when the Steelers are penalized 13 times for 115 yards as opposed to two times for five yards for San Diego? And does it usually happen on a call so clearly wrong? Take a look at a couple of screenshots of Tomlinson's pitch back to Chambers. Notice the arm going behind Tomlinson, followed by the ball.

As you can see, Tomlinson tosses the ball backwards to Chambers, and pretty obviously at that. Could this have anything to do with the fact that, as RJ Bell of Pregame.com points out, Vegas was on the receiving end of a $64 million swing as a result of this lateral? From the looks of it, the referees did everything in their power to make sure the Steelers didn't cover. The zebras even admitted to making the wrong call at the end of the game.

So, was this just a huge mix up, or are we just scratching the surface of an NFL betting scandal bigger than the Chicago Black Sox of the MLB (White Sox players rigging the World Series in 1919 for the youngsters out there) or Tim Donaghy in the NBA?

We might not even want to know the answer to that.

Free NFL Picks Get Back to 60%

After a 3-1 day, our Free NFL Picks are back up to 60%, in case you can't read the title of this post. Clearly, the picks have been solid but struggly with consistency, as our week-by-week results show. Here's how we got back up to 21-14-2 on the year:

Dolphins 17, Raiders 15 (+10 1/2)

Titans 24, Jaguars 14 (+3)

Buccaneers 19 (-4), Vikings 13

Bengals 13 (+9), Eagles 13

The Dolphins have been playing well, but for them to be double-digit favorites proved to be a stretch, even against the Raiders. The Titans made us look like idiots, but the Bucs had a field goal day against the Vikings. Meanwhile, we're happy to be a part of the first tie since 2002, especially since we were guaranteed a cover once the game headed to overtime. And here's the aforementioned weekly breakdown:

Week 1: 3-2

Week 2: 2-1

Week 3: 2-1

Week 4: 2-1

Week 5: 0-0-1

Week 6: 3-0
Week 7: 0-3
Week 8: 1-2-1
Week 9: 4-0

Week 10: 1-3

Week 11: 3-1
Total: 21-14-2... 60%

It doesn't look like we have a play for tomorrow, but be sure to check back tomorrow for confirmation. And then come back all week, just to make sure we didn't have a pick. And then be sure to check back all year. Just, keep coming back, you know, to be safe. We'll try to get this thing more consistent for you.

Week 11 Free NFL Picks

We have four Free NFL Picks for Sunday, three of them dogs. Here's the card:

Raiders +10 1/2 over the Dolphins

Jaguars +3 over the Titans

Buccaneers -4 over the Vikings

Bengals +9 over the Eagles

Our Picks have been pretty solid so far this year and although we usually don't end up with a whole lot of underdogs, we have a decent amount of faith in this week's picks.

Good luck!

At Least Ohio State Covered

Thanks to a 30-20 Ohio State victory over Illinois, we avoided a really bad day and settled for just a bad day.

Our Free NCAA Football Picks went 1-2, with one pick covering by a point and another losing by that amount.

On the bright side, our picks are still 65% in the last six weeks, but obviously this isn't what we were looking for today. Here's our week-by-week breakdown:

Week 1: 1-2
Week 2: 2-2
Week 3: 3-2
Week 4: 3-1
Week 5: 0-5
Week 6: 1-1
Week 7: 2-1
Week 8: 2-0
Week 9: 3-1
Week 10: 5-4
Week 11: 2-0
Week 12: 1-2
Total: 25-21... 54%
Last 6 Weeks: 15-8... 65%

As you can see, this is our first losing week since that dreadful Week 5, and while it's not quite as bad, a losing week is a losing week, no matter how you slice it.

USC and Two Big Ten Favorites Today

Our Free NCAA Football Picks have been hot lately, hitting 70% with a 14-6 record over the last five weeks. They are hitting 56% on the year, but we hope to improve upon that today with USC and a couple of Big Ten favorites.

USC -23 over Stanford

Wisconsin -13 over Minnesota

Ohio State -9 over Illinois

Lots of chalk on today's card, but we we'll play whatever shows value in our system at this point.

Good luck!

Cavs Come Through

Our Free NBA Picks have struggled out of the gates, but we got our first victory of the season tonight with the Cavs beating the Nuggets 110-99 to cover the -6 spread.

Just to remind everyone, and to brag a little bit, these picks went 40-20 last year, which is 67%, and are all documented on this very Stock Lemon site for the non-believers. We have no reason to believe the numbers will be any different this year.

Stay with us throughout the NBA season to see for yourself.

LeBron Over Carmelo Tonight

We have one Free NBA Pick for tonight.

LeBron James and the Cavs -6 over Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets

Good luck!

Knicks Over the Spurs... Seriously

It's not often that you see us betting on the Knicks or against the Spurs, but tonight we're doing both in the same game.

New York Knicks +4 1/2 over the San Antonio Spurs

Without Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, the Spurs will struggle as they have all season--even at home. They really shouldn't even be favored for tonight's contest.

The Spurs knocked Mike D'Antoni's Suns out of the playoffs last year, so there's a little bit of personal grudge factor going on. With D'Antoni getting the Knicks to play a fast-paced game, the Knicks look good early, thriving in the new coach's system.

Speaking of systems, our Free NBA Picks aren't off to the best start after a great year last year, but that should change tonight.

Good luck!

Monday Night Football Pick Tonight

As promised, we have a Free NFL Pick for the Monday Night Football Game tonight.

Cardinals -9 1/2 over the 49ers

Larry Fitzgerald and the Cards are in control in the NFC West, and that should continue against the struggling 49ers tonight. Good luck!

Fashion Tip For Minnesota Sports Teams

Sports teams in Minnesota really need to learn how to dress.

In the MLB, Twins catcher Joe Mauer wears his hat backwards while catching, which despite being more practical for his position due to the catchers mask, still looks silly.

In the NBA, former Timberwolve (Timberwolf?) Marko Jaric wore his jersey backwards.

In the NFL, Viking Charles Gordon tops them all. On Sunday against the Packers, Gordon wore his entire leg backwards.

Ouch.

No matter how bad of a day you had in the NFL, this should serve as a reminder that it can't be that bad. Of course, we wish Gordon a speedy recovery.

Panthers to the Rescue

The Panthers took care of the Raiders and the -9 1/2 point spread in a defensive struggle today, salvaging our day of Free NFL Picks.

Julius Peppers got to Andrew Walter three times in this one, helping us cover in the afternoon game. Unfortunately, due to a couple of losses, the system drops down to 18-12-1, which is 60%.

It still looks like we will have a pick for the Monday Nighter tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Free NFL Picks Ready For an Encore

Fresh off of a 4-0 week, our Free NFL Picks are ready for more. The picks are 17-10-2 heading into Week 10, and we hope to improve on that 63% mark with another successful week. Here are the picks:

Texans +1 over the Ravens

The Texans have underachieved this year, while the Ravens have overachieved. At home, we think that's about to change for both squads. Much is made about the Ravens D, but Mario Williams and some others on an underrated Texans defense will make life difficult for rookie quarterback Joe Flacco. The system sees this as the strongest play this weekend.

Panthers -9 1/2 over the Raiders

The computer likes this one, and while it looks like a sucker bet, it's impossible to be talked out of making.

Jacksonville Jaguars/Detroit Lions UNDER 43

Daunte Culpepper and the Lions will be out of sync, even more than usual. The Jags should get back on track in Detroit, though this could be a surprisingly close and--let's hope--low scoring affair.

Hopefully these three Free NFL Picks can have the same success as the picks had last week. If not, it looks like we might once again have a pick for the Monday Night Football game, so stay tuned and good luck.

Free NCAA Football Picks Stay Hot!

After a mediocre start, we think it's safe to say that our Free NCAA Football Picks are finally meeting expectations.

After another 2-0 week, we've now had five consecutive winning weeks, hitting 70% with a 14-6 record during that span. The picks have had just two losing weeks, although Week 5 should count as about three losing weeks all in one.

We got to 2-0 today thanks to some Pac 10 favorites doing exactly what they were expected to do--and then some. Oregon State crushed UCLA 34-6, laughing at the -7 spread in the process, while Arizona State beat those poor Washington Huskies by a final count of 39-19, covering the -14 spread.

Below is a week-by-week look at how these hot picks have been doing. You can even see where they start to catch fire!

Week 1: 1-2
Week 2: 2-2
Week 3: 3-2
Week 4: 3-1
Week 5: 0-5
Week 6: 1-1
Week 7: 2-1
Week 8: 2-0
Week 9: 3-1
Week 10: 5-4
Week 11: 2-0
Total: 24-19... 56%
Last 5 Weeks: 14-6...70%

As you see we've recovered nicely since that dreadful Week 5, when our system decided to play a cruel joke on us. Without that week, we would be sitting pretty at 63% with a 24-14 record. But since we can't just pretend that week never happened (believe us, we've tried), our only hope is to continue to pick winners as we've done in the last five weeks.

As always, keep checking back for more free winning sports picks, especially as these Free NCAA Football Picks continue an impressive late season run.

Just Two Free NCAA Football Picks Today

It's funny how our Free NCAA Football Pick system works.

Last week, we had a total of nine plays. This week, we have just two.

Oregon State -7 over UCLA

Arizona State -14 over Washington

Take these Pac 10 favorites with confidnce. The system is still below expectations at 22-19 (54%) this season, but is 12-6 (67%) in the last four weeks.

Good luck!

Free NBA Picks Should Be Back Soon

Last year, our world famous Free NBA Picks went 40-20 for a solid 67%, even though they struggled a bit to end the year. So far this year, we've had just two picks, and neither turned out the way we had hoped.

Fear not, however, loyal Lemon squeezers, becauses this trend is very familiar. If you remember last year, our Free NBA Picks got off to a rather pedestrian start before picking it up and going on some amazing runs.

In fact, this site wasn't even created until late December, largely because the system was so sporadic early in the season and there weren't enough plays. A big reason for this is that our system, which is set up in spreadsheet format, relies heavily on the stats from the current season, rather than guessing based on numbers from last year.

Once the sample size on this year's statistics increases, you should see an increase in Free NBA Picks and, we hope, an increase in money in your bank account.

Barack Obama Wins Presidency

Barack Obama has defeated John McCain in a landside in the 2008 Presidential Election, as we predicted weeks ago.

Obama preached change throughout his campaign, and we hope that you won a little change by voting on the clear favorite down the stretch.

You're going to hear a lot about the significance of Obama's win in terms of him being the first African-American President of the United States, but even more significant is the fact that the Washington Redskins are now 18-1 in predicting the next president.

With the Redksins losing their last home game prior to the election to the Steelers yesterday, the system called for the incumbent party to lose in the election. Indeed, Republican John McCain lost worse than the Skins the night before, putting the system back on track.

All Obama had to do was ride the Bus, or at least Jerome Bettis' former team, to lead him to the White House.

It's important to note once again that this system was a perfect 17-0 prior to the 2004 election, when George W. Bush had to ruin everything by defeating John Kerry in the election despite a Redskins loss to the Packers before voting day. Judging by the way Kerry attempts to catch a football, though, we think it's only fair that he was the one to buck the trend. So, after going winless since 2000, the Redskins last home game system is back on a winning streak.

We hope you went out and voted today, and we hope that your next vote will be one for Stock Lemon. And hopefully you cast that vote more than once every four years. Come back soon!

Don't Forget to Vote Today!

As a friendly public service announcement to our readers, we would like to remind everyone to go out and vote today on who you think should be the next president of the United States... or for whoever you are betting on.

We recommended Barack Obama a few weeks ago, and he is still the clear favorite, so if you can get him at any decent odds go ahead and take that bet.

As you can tell from the picture, the loser of the presidential election might have a career in the NFL ahead. Even if John McCain can't catch passes above his head.

No matter if you're Democratic or Republican, go out and vote... for Obama so that we can win some money.

Steelers Win, is Obama Next?

Earlier, we told you about the Redskins last home game before the election system which is 17-1 in predicting the next president of the United States since 1936. With that 94% system and a 62% Free NFL Pick system of our own, the odds favored our pick of the Steelers at +2 tonight, since the Democrats are heavy favorites to win the office tomorrow.

Although some (ahem, ESPN) adjust this stat and say that it is 17-0 since 1940 based on who wins popular vote rather than who the incumbent party is, either way it's an impressive stat and one that we were going to ride. Since Barack Obama looks to be the favorite over John McCain in the presidential election, we went with Pittsburgh, and rightfully so.

The Steelers took care of the Redskins on Monday Night Football, 23-6, which, if Barack Obama wins tomorrow, would improve the election system to 18-1. When the Redksins lose, so does the incumbent party, so look out John McCain.

More importantly, the Steelers win gives our Free NFL Picks a 4-0 week, improving them to a total of 17-10-2 on the year, up to 63%.

Here's a look at how our Free NFL Picks have done on a week-by-week basis:

Week 1: 3-2
Week 2: 2-1
Week 3: 2-1
Week 4: 2-1
Week 5: 0-0-1
Week 6: 3-0

Week 7: 0-3

Week 8: 1-2-1

Week 9: 4-0

Total: 17-10-2... 63%

As you can see, the picks have been a little streaky lately, but hopefully we're back on track after this 4-0 week.

Stay with us as we continue to provide winning Free NFL Picks throughout the year, as well as a winning politcal pick tomorrow.

Obama Vs. McCain on Monday Night Football

Barack Obama and John McCain might not face off until Tuesday, but could the election really be determined on Monday night? If history is any indication, there is indeed a 94% chance that the Monday Night Football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Redskins will decide the election.

Since 1936, the Redskins are 17-1 in determining the result of the upcoming election. Here's how it works: If the Redskins win their last home game before the presidential election, the incumbent party remains in office, which would be McCain and the Republicans in 2008. If the Redskins lose their last home game before the election, the other party takes office, which would be Obama and the Democrats in the event that the Steelers win this year.

The only problem is that this system, while incredibly accurate, is on a losing streak. The Redskins were 17-0 in predicting the next president of the United States of America until the most recent Election Day in 2004, when the Skins fell to the Green Bay Packers at home on Halloween, 28-14. Since Washington lost at home, George W. Bush of the incumbent Republican party was supposed to lose the election to Democrat John Kerry--but we all know how that turned out. So either the losing streak will continue on Tuesday, or the system will start another run of 17-straight accurate predictions.

Either way, we won't know the results of this proven system until we know the results of the Steelers and Redskins game. So, since we already picked Obama to win the presidency, and since our Free NFL Picks system also likes the Steelers, we're going with the Democrats over the incumbent Republicans.

Barack Obama +2 over John McCain

Oops, that should read:

Steelers +2 over the Redskins

Those Free NFL Picks went 3-0 on Sunday, and are 16-10-2 for 62% this year. That, coupled with the 17-1 system (94%) Redskins system, should put the odds on our side.

Good luck, and enjoy the election... and the game!

Perfect 3-0 Day For Free NFL Picks

It's safe to say that our Free NFL Picks are back on track. After struggling the last two weeks, our picks went 3-0 today.

Kurt Warner and the Cardinals made sure we didn't have to fret a -3 spread against his hold team, beating the Rams 34-13.

The Vikings took care of business against the Texans with a 28-21 win to cover the -4 1/2 spread, while the Lions managed not to get blown out, covering a +13 spread in a 27-23 loss to the Bears.

After the perfect day, our picks are back up to 62% with a record of 16-10-2. It is looking very likely that we will have a play for tomorrow night's game, so stay tuned.

Three Strong Free NFL Picks

Our Free NFL Picks have stalled lately after a fast start, hitting just 57% now on the year at 13-10-2. We hope to rebound this week with three solid picks.

Vikings -4 1/2 over the Texans

Lions +13 over the Bears

Cardinals -3 over the Rams

We like Adrian Peterson and the Vikings a lot this week against the Texans, and yes, you read that right, we are betting on the Lions. The system sees a lot of value there as well as with the Cardinals against the Rams.

It also looks like we will have a play for Monday as well, which we will reveal tomorrow. Good luck and let's get back on track.

Free NCAA Football Picks Go 5-4

We were hoping for a little better results today as we played nine Free NCAA Picks, but we'll have to settle for a 5-4 day. While we were hoping to win a few more of these picks, it's still a winning day, and we can take comfort in the fact that our top three picks went 3-0 today.

Turns out, we would have been better off just going with just those three, but the other six plays had too much value for us to ignore.

TCU, Florida, Air Force, and Kentucky all covered, while Tulsa and Arkansas went under, giving us our five wins today. The 5-4 mark brings our year-to-date record to 22-19, still far below our expectations.

Here's a week-by-week look at how our Free NCAA Football Picks have done:

Week 1: 1-2
Week 2: 2-2
Week 3: 3-2
Week 4: 3-1
Week 5: 0-5
Week 6: 1-1
Week 7: 2-1
Week 8: 2-0
Week 9: 3-1
Week 10: 5-4
Total: 22-19... 54%

Though the results are a little less than what we had hoped thus far, we have still had just two losing weeks, and haven't had one since that disastrous Week 5. If only we could take that week out of the equation, we would be sitting pretty with a 22-14 record for 61%. Of course, we can't, so all we can do is continue to have winning weeks as we gradually improve upon our YTD record.

We hope you'll stay with us as we do just that.

Last Three Free NCAA Football Picks

Our last nine Free NCAA Football Picks have gone 7-2 over the span of three weeks. This week, we hope for similar success as we play nine games--all on one Saturday.

Our system has been hot, and we've already posted the top six picks for this weekend, but there are three more with very good value left on our card. They are:

Minnesota -7 over Northwestern

Kentucky +3 over Mississippi State

Oregon State -16 over Arizona State

There you have it. All nine picks for today are included in these last three posts, so get on them and enjoy a very eventful--and hopefully, very profitable--day of college football.

If you're too lazy to scroll down to check out the other picks, follow the links here and here for the rest of them.

Good luck!

Three More Free NCAA Football Picks

As we mentioned last post, our Free NCAA Football Picks, which are 78% in the last three weeks with a 7-2 record, show a ton of valuable plays for this week, so we're playing all nine of the picks that our system shows.

So here's our second batch of picks, which, though not as strong as the first three, aren't off by much. Play them with confidence.

Texas -4 over Texas Tech

Missouri -20 over Baylor

Air Force -8 over Army

As you can see, there are some big favorites in this group of picks, as well as some good games. We'll post our final three Free NCAA Football Picks for this weekend momentarily.

Huge Week For Free NCAA Football Picks

Our Free NCAA Football Picks are finally picking up some steam at 7-2 (78%) over the last three weeks, and we look to continue that success with our biggest card of the season.

So far, through nine weeks, we've played a total of 32 games. This week alone, we have nine picks.

We'll post our picks in the order of their strength according to our system, starting with the picks with the best value. The top three picks are:

Florida -6 1/2 over Georgia

TCU -14 over UNLV

Tulsa/Arkansas UNDER 76 1/2

We have six more picks to come, so stay tuned!

A Halloween Under in the NBA

We hope you're enjoying your Halloween, and hope that we can help you enjoy it just a little bit more with a Free NBA Pick

Trail Blazers/Spurs UNDER 177 1/2

With Greg Oden out for the Blazers, and Manu Ginobili out a while for the Spurs, neither team is where they want to be offensively. We expect a lot of defense out of Tim Duncan and the veteran spurs, while Brandon Roy and the Blazers might stall a bit offensively.

Good luck and enjoy this Halloween treat!

Happy Halloween!

Lemmy would like to take this time to wish all of his readers a Happy Halloween!

As always, no candy is sweeter than Stock Lemon, your main squeeze for stocks and sports wagers.

Here's to hoping that you'll stuff your faces full of candy like we stuff your pockets full of money. We promise more treats than tricks.

Bite Size: How to Make Money on Adsense

You may have noticed that we here at Stock Lemon use Google Adsense as a source of revenue. We've tried to tone it down a little over the last few months--again, a little--but they are still obvious enough for people to see.

You also might remember, some time ago, we partnered up with the folks at Cash Shark. Cash Shark orginally had a website to assist people in making money online, but is holding out on some of the information garnered over the years while they work on a more efficient web site. For now, anyway, we are fortunate enough to have Cash Shark at our disposal to talk about all topics related to online money making.

Cash Shark will be penning a new column for Stock Lemon every so often, titled Bite Size, since they once had an entire website and now are reduced to a small column over here.

Can you guess what the first topic is? That's right... Adsense! Since Adsense is a product that we use and endorse, we thought it would be a perfect first subject for Cash Shark. So without further adu, here are some of what Cash Shark is biting on.

Welcome to our shark tank, ladies and gentlemen, located conveniently on the Stock Lemon website. As the intro says, we're here to talk Adsense--but mostly to tell you about one of the things that bugs us not with Adsense users, but with Adsense bloggers!

For most new bloggers looking to find out more information on Adsense or other easy ways to make money through advertising on their site, a simple Google search qualifies as their research. This is fine, but many of the sites that pop up in the search results are bloggers simply looking for traffic to their own Adsense site, and providing little to no information to people actually looking for ways to make a little spare cash with the program.

Many of the pages that pop up give generic information about Adsense, and then tell you to buy their book or other product to learn more. Just to let you know, buying these products is like taking a dip with the Cash Shark... you're going to get bit! These sites are a total rip off, as we hope the fine readers at Stock Lemon know (we wouldn't want Lemmy getting duped into buying something like this).

The problem is that these people providing answers are hosting their sites for the sole purpose of making money with Google Adsense, so their content is always vague enough so that search engines can hook them up with traffic for searches such as "How to Make Money on Adsense." While there are some legitimate Adsense help sites out there, many of them are looking out for themselves, not the readers. We recommend checking out an Adsense forum such as this one, and getting information from other Adsense users who don't have a hidden agenda.

While some people make good money on Adsense simply by talking about Adsense, many more people fail doing this. The bottom line is if the content on the site is not updated regularly and is not of a high quality, nobody is going to come to your site. The key is to find some other niche market that you're interested in, blog about that, and Adsense will give you ads related to the content on your site. If you're the blogging world simply to make money, it's going to become like everything else you do just to make money-- a job. If you're in it to blog about something that interests you, and have Adsense to make a little spare cash on the side, you'll have much more success.

Take Stock Lemon here, for example. This is a site about sports and stocks, which also happens to host Adsense advertisements, and while we would guess that the monthly Adsense checks don't look quite this big, they do well enough to generate some extra revenue for other areas of their company. We've also heard that Stock Lemon saves up the money they make on Adsense and wagers it all on Super Bowl Prop bets to close out the NFL season with a bang. Whatever you do with your Adsense money, the bottom line is that you will be much more successful and for a longer period of time if you simply write about something that interests you and have the Adsense come secondary. Before you know it, what is secondary might even become primary, and you can spend less and less time on your blog.

Be warned, though, that generated traffic to a blog, no matter what the topic, is hard work. Some of the sites that pop up in the search engines might have you believe otherwise, but this is no get rich quick kind of thing. That hard work, though, if used correctly, can be very profitable in the end. Speaking of the end, we'll conclude our new Bite Size feature with a corny little gambling joke we've always liked.

What kind of a shark is always gambling?

A Cardshark! We would also accept the answer: a Cash Shark. See you soon!

Cash Shark will swim ashore to Stock Lemon from time to time, so be sure to keep watch for Bite Size!