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Weekly Q&A with Doc's Sports Expert Handicapper Raphael Esparza

by Doc's Sports - 10/4/2016

Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista

The month of October signals the start of this year's quest to win the 2016 World Series for 10 MLB teams starting with Tuesday and Wednesday's 'winner-take-all' wild-card games. In this week's discussion with Doc's Sports expert handicapper Raphael Esparza, we will get his thoughts on which two teams he likes to advance to the divisional series round.

Formerly known as the Vegas Sports Informer during a long and successful career in the Las Vegas sportsbook industry, Raphael rose through the ranks to become the Director of the Race and Sports Book for MGM Grand's Aria until his retirement in 2013. As one of the top sports handicappers in the nation, he continues to run a very successful and diverse sports investment service from his home base in Las Vegas as well as from the Big Easy in New Orleans. The following is this week's Q&A with one of Doc's most interesting handicappers.

Doc's Sports: The Las Vegas sportsbooks have been killing it in the early weeks of the NFL season, but with a mixed bag of results in last week's games did this winning streak continue or did the betting public get some of its money back?

RE: The results up and down the Las Vegas Strip were mixed, but the general consensus was still a very small gain by the books. They cleaned up on the early games with wins by Chicago, Buffalo and Atlanta, but they gave quite a bit of money back with Denver and Dallas winning later in the day. Interestingly enough, there was quite a bit of late money on both Kansas City and the New York Giants to help preserve a fourth-straight winning week.

Doc's Sports: The first quarter of the NFL season is in the books and there have been some early surprises both good and bad for a number of teams. Can you give us one or two of your biggest takeaways from a betting standpoint for these first four weeks?

RE: I would put teams such as Atlanta, Philadelphia and the LA Rams at the top of my list as the biggest surprises in light of the divisions they play in. Despite the loss to Buffalo last week, New England has been a pretty big surprise at 3-1 without Tom Brady in the lineup. My two top shockers have been Arizona and the New York Jets at 1-3. I thought the Cardinals would have been the class of that division and that the Jets would have taken a major step backwards following a winning season in 2015.

Doc's Sports : The college football season enters Week 6 with Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Michigan holding down the top four spots in both major polls. Would these four teams be at the top of your list right now, or is there someone else out there that deserves to be in this elite group?

RE: I have no problem with this top four, especially with Clemson and Michigan coming off big conference wins. I would also have to throw Washington in the mix following a dominating victory over Stanford. You could actually make a pretty decent argument that the Huskies should be fourth, but for now I am okay with the way things stand.

Doc's Sports : The first MLB wild-card game this week pits Baltimore on the road against Toronto in a very familiar matchup between two AL East teams. The Blue Jays are listed as solid home favorites, but which way are you leaning in Tuesday night's game?

RE: I was ready to play the "under" in this game until I found out they are opening the roof at the Rogers Center tonight. That could actually favor the Orioles if this game turns into a slugfest.

Doc's Sports: Wednesday's NL wild-card matchup is a much closer battle between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets. We all know that this is San Francisco's time of the year given its past title runs, so would you have to go with the Giants in this game as slight road underdogs?

RE : The winner has to play Chicago, so that makes me a bit biased as to which team I would like to see win after New York eliminated the Cubs last year. From a purely objective standpoint, I would still give the slight edge to San Francisco with Madison Bumgarner on the mound.

Click here to visit Raphael Esparza's Insider's Page at Doc's Sports for more information on his amazingly-profitable sports handicapping picks. Also, get $60 worth of Esparza's member's picks absolutely free - no obligation, no sales people - you don't even have to enter credit card information. You can use this $60 credit for any sport Esparza handicaps. Click here for $60 worth of free picks from Raphael Esparza .

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