As the season crosses the one-third pole, it’s time Lupin Cliff Hanger fans around the world to take a look under the hood and see what’s real and what’s not.  The bottom line reads pretty well, the team stands at 32-21, a game up on Naha Shisa and two over the dastardly Edo Battousai.  They’ve scored more runs than any other team in the only group that plays real baseball (meaning, where the pitcher hits), and the pitching staff has given up more than a run a game less than the next best staff in the group (and have allowed the fewest free passes and homers of any club in Japanese baseball).

The biggest question, really, is “why are the Cliff Hangers only a game up?”

Some fans have blamed fates, others wonder why GM Collins didn’t peel back the wallet even farther than he did during the off-season.  Others think manager Kinnosuke Iwasaki may well be in the declining years of his mental capacity–and, finally, some blame organized crime’s hold on the game.

But let’s not be greedy, shall we?  Cliff Hanger fans have been in the desert for far too long to start complaining about not leading the Group by too small of a margin.

Let’s pause a moment, before the glitter wears off or the injury bug hits or whatever other terrible misfortune that can befall the team manifests itself, and let’s take a closer examination of the team as it stands today.

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Catchers:

After a solid June (.877 OPS), switch-hitting catcher Shigekazu Munakata has hit another 1-18 swoon in July.  He’s a natural lefty, and his numbers show it in such a strong fashion that there is apparently some discussion about asking manager Kinnosuke Iwasaki to platoon him.  The problem, of course, is that backup catcher Sosa Kiyomizu also hits left handed.  Of course, the team has steady RHB Russell Foster down in Yamauchi (900+ OPS).  The quandary is even bigger when you note that Munakata’s defensive performance has been sub-league average.

 Bottom line, the team is concerned, and it should be.

Infield:

Let’s start with the pleasantries. 

Shortstop Shiro Adachi (5 homers, 24 RBI, .374 OBP from the leadoff and #2 slot) is already a local hero, and if he keeps this kind of performance up, the 26-year-old is going to be a legend among Lupinites.  His +2.3 ZR is solid, and he’s on a path to steal more bases this year than ever (though that’s only 12).  Let’s face it: Adachi comes to play, and the fans know it.

Adachi’s mate on the left side of the infield is Dan Stewart, who has handled the hot corner with aplomb, and has 7 homers, 33 RBI and a .795 OPS.  “He’s a blue collar guy,” said Adachi one day last week.  The jury is still out on Stewart, and you have to worry about a sprained ankle that puts a guy out for six weeks.  But right now new GM Ron Collins’s splurging on a lifetime PEBA minor leaguer is looking pretty good.  How good, you ask?  Stewart was named the BBG’s Rookie of the Month for June.

Second baseman Kazuma Yamada has suffered no little fan scrutiny for some early season errors, but his defense overall has been at least solid, and his .367 OBP in the #8 hole continues to add considerable value.  The biggest problem with Yamada has been in the form of a gimpy oblique–an injury that has sidelined twice already, the last time including a stint on the DL.  With the addition of Soichi Koyama in the Kichida deal, we’ll see what happens–though Stewart’s bum ankle may well help the team push that decision off another month or two.

Which bring us to the quandary that is first base.  The team took a gamble on oft-injured, 31-year-old Kichibei Kumagi because they felt they had a steady hand around in 24-year-old Takechi Yoshida.  The left-handed Yoshida had posted a pair of OPS stats north of .850 in his 22 and 23 year-old seasons, and the team saw no reason for a fade in 2019.  But, let’s face it, May was a disaster at the first sack as the pair combined to hit .145 with only 4 homers.  They struck out nearly 22% of their at bats.  June was barely tolerable at .244 with 5 doubles and 7 homers, but the pair’s strike out rate soared to 30.5%.  Fans are grumbling, but there could be a silver lining in that the July returns are showing a definite upswing at .333 with a pair of homers and a K-rate south of 17%.  So, the jury is still out.  With luck, though, the team should see a stronger bat from that role in the future.

Outfield:

Pre-season pundits were excited about the team’s young outfield, and who wouldn’t be.  With 25-year-old Kuniyoshi Kato and 24-year-old Keisuke Takahashi in the corners, and super-star in the making, and 27-year-old Sadatake Sato roaming center, the team’s fans could be seeing the outfield of the now as well as the future.  The backups of steady 30-year-old veteran Mashashi Yano, and upcoming 25-year-old Hiroyuki Masuda, the team appeared to be set.  And, wonders be, the pundits were right.  The Cliff Hanger outfield has been the backbone of its league-leading offense, an offense that’s been led by Kato’s sizzling numbers (.475 OBP, 1.032 OPS, 3.0 WAR), and Sato’s anchor in the three-slot (9 homers, 41 RBI, .312/.368/.540).  Takahahi’s sprained elbow kept him out of action for three weeks, but his .383 OBP has provided great value while he was in there, and Yano (5 homers, 20 RBI, .812 OPS) and Masuda (3 HR, .451 OBP, 1.014 OPS) have held down the fort just fine, thank you ma’am.

Starting Pitching:

Shinobu Takeuchi heard the questions all off-season.  Would he be able to shrug off the elbow soreness that shut him down last season?  Would he be the same guy at 24 as he was at 23?  He had suffered bumps and bruises and the other injury detritus that nag professional athletes, but he had never been seriously injured before.  Could he make it back?  At 7-2 (2.80), the ace of the staff has pretty much quelled the questions.  But #2 man, Akira Watanabe’s situation is the reverse.  Everyone knew “Four Eyes” was ready for a breakout season, but 2019 has been nothing of the sort.  His ERA has been over 4 for most of the year, a number he hasn’t seen since his earliest days in the minors.  There is hope, though, his last three outings have resulted in two wins and a 2.11 ERA.  Fans are still salavating.

 But the story of the Cliff Hanger rotation may well lie in the bottom three, where Tsuyoshi Nishiyama, Yoshitora Koyama, and Gustavo “Old Man Wonder” Rivera have combined to post a 14-9 record and a 3.41 ERA.  The 31-year-old Koyama was signed on the relative cheap as a refugee from the US-based PEBA, and has rejuvenated his career.  Nishiyama (who, at 30, has his own injury history), has been quietly marvelous, and the 33-year-old veteran Rivera has provided great service at the bottom of the rotation.

 If this rotation can keep healthy, and if Watanabe is actually reverting back to his previous self, this could be a solid unit.

Bullpen:

While most team insiders were pretty comfortable with the rotation as the year started, it wasn’t hard to find folks who thought the bullpen was a brick short of an implosion.   It was a patch-work of aging veterans, recovering convalescents, and Rule-5 picks.  But, let’s face it, the Lupin Bullpen’s combined ERA of 1.78–best in the BBG, is a remarkable achievement.  “No one wanted to believe in us,” said Tokimasa Daisen, a 31-year-old who bounced around the PEBA before spending a couple uneventful seasons with Kure, and who found himself on Lupin’s opening day roster via the Rule 5 draft.  He’s also registered a 1.15 ERA in his 15 innings.  Fellow Rule 5-er Yodo Yoshida has thrown only four innings, but has yet to allow a run.  The rest of the middle relief corps–Motonobu Hirano (26 years old) and Yasushi Yamasaki (25), have both blossomed, and both posted eye-popping numbers after toiling in credible obscurity in their younger years.

And let’s not forget the performance of 29-year-old set-up man, Katsumi Okano.  Okano was, perhaps, the biggest question mark for the bullpen coming into the season.  Would the team get the version of Okano who had posted sub-3.00 ERAs from 2015-2017, or the one whose ERA ballooned to 7.55 in 2018?  Answer: 2019’s ERA is a career-best 2.03 in 27 innings.  He’s given up only 3 homers and walked only 5 batters.  “I don’t know what happened last season,” Okano said recently, clearly not interested in talking about it any more.

Which brings us to the closer role, which on opening day belonged to 29-year-old Tadao Harada, a man who was coming of a rushed-recovery from Tommy John surgery.  Fans should not have been concerned, however, as Harada registered 6 saves and an ERA just north of 2.00 in the two months he led the closer role–and then he did a remarkable thing.  When the team acquired (25-year-old ) Jo Kichida from Hyakuuju, Harada accepted his demotion to the set-up role with aplomb, and hasn’t given up a run in his three July outings.  “I’ve been around long enough to know things change,” Harada said.  “Now it’s Jo’s time, here.  Maybe later it will come my time again.  That is how life works.”  In the meantime, Kichida’s arrival has cemented the pen as well as told both players and fans that the front office is willing to do what it takes to win.

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So, what does this mean going forward?  Will the Cliff Hangers go on to win it all?  Will they stand atop the BBG for the first time in over a decade? 

Who knows?

But Lupin fans, well, right now they really don’t are to think too far ahead because for the first time in a long time, the future is truly right now.