The Denver Brewers are off to a good start in the first week of the 1982 WPK regular season, going 5-2, and among the many players who deserve credit, none perhaps was bigger than first baseman
Brett Taranto.
For his excellent week he took home MGL Player of the Week honors and is currently at the top of the leader boards in batting average. (Yes, it's just one week and this is an extremely small sample size, but for a guy who has now won three MGL batting titles in his career this is a fine start.)
Other Brewers off to great starts are
Val Guzman (.500/.609/1.167) who hit the first inside the park homerun of the Brewers season and has 2 homers to go with 4 doubles and a triple, third baseman
Craig Hoover (.407/.448/.704), whose 5 doubles lead the WPK, and
Joe McPhillips (.429/.429/.500).
Pretty much the entire pitching staff has done well so far other than
Austin Bond, who gave up 5 runs on 10 hits over 5 2/3rds innings in his lone start thus far.
Batters off to slow starts include 3-time running MGL MVP
Antonio Acuna (.182/.182/.318), who hit a massive home run in his 2nd at-bat of the season but has done little since, and shortstop
Shawn York (.267/.294/.333.)
Longtime Brewer
Bobby Erbakan, it should be noted, started the season on the IL with a back issue (herniated disc) and isn't expected to be ready to play for a few more weeks. In his absence, the newly acquired
Dustin Moore has done a fine job taking his place, both at the plate (.308/.308/.346) and even more so in the field (already 1.4 ZR).
Elsewhere around the WPK, the Brooklyn Aces and Baltimore Lords have both gotten off to a great start in their quest to win the MGL East title, tied at 6-1. The St. Louis Redbirds are in a tie with Denver also at 5-2. The Boston Berserkers are at the top of the standings, also 5-2, in the SJL East and the Seattle Alligators and San Antonio Keys are tied atop the SJL West at 4-3 each.
The worst starts so far: the Los Angeles Spinners and Phoenix Speed Devils, both at 1-6.