Let's take a look at the standings on the 1st day of June of the 1986 WPK season:
The Chicago Fire remain atop the SJL West with only the resurgent El Paso Dawgs giving them much competition at this stage of the season. El Paso is getting good offensive production, including key contributions from both young (B.J. Dyer, 24 years old) and veteran (Jose Gutierrez, 34) players. Their starting rotation has also been very good, including some quality innings from a few former Brewers- Sadahige Kawasaki (5-4, 3,81) and Jim McKnight (3-1, 2.13).
The Jacksonville Wolf Pack have been a bit of a surprise in the SJL East, and probably the biggest key to their success is the emergence of a terrific 1-2 combo at the top of their rotation in 23-year old David Parker (8-0, 2.02) and 23-year old Casey Van Fossen (6-2, 3.13). The Philadelphia Mud Hens have regressed a bit lately and their offensive is unimpressive. Their pitching isn't bad and in fact their bullpen is the top ranked in the league, but the defense behind them isn't great either. Washington, the winners of the division the last four seasons, certainly can't be counted out, continue to have solid pitching and at least a few key members of their lineup who have under-performed thus far but are likely to get hot at some point.
It certainly wasn't how it was expected to go down prior to the season, but the MGL West at this point is the powerhouse division of the WPK. Both San Francisco and Phoenix got off to torrid starts though they have cooled off slightly of late, allowing the Denver Brewers, winners of 8 of their last 9 games in May, to climb back into contention.
And the MGL East remains uninspiring. Though at least one team- the Detroit Falcons- are now above .500, if only barely, and another at .500.
Early leaders in candidacy for post-season awards honors are David Parker of Jacksonville, Ryan Rystrom (5-3, 2.56) of Washington, and Jody Valle (7-2, 3.19) of Philadelphia for the SJL Harris/Lee award. Top candidates for the SJL MVP are Boston's Kyle Adams (.360/.462/.549, 2.9 WAR), Matt Van der Heyden of Pittsburgh (.376/.507/.599, 2.8 WAR), and San Antonio's John Mussaw (.316/.354/.549, 2.7 WAR).
In the MGL, the top Harris/Lee candidates are Oklahoma City's Matt Greene (5-5, 2.50), Portland's Kyle Gilbert (6-4, 2.13), and Phoenix' Jonathan Riechman (5-1, 2.07).
MVP candidates in the MGL include Phoenix' rookie Hyeong-uk Chun (.352/.438/.849, 4.3 WAR), San Francisco veteran Mike Shervey (.354/.418/.641, 3.1 WAR), and his teammate Ryan Frommeyer (.409/.444/.557).