SBLM Career Review: Sora Mekajiki

Sora had a good season in the SBLM. He was drafted 3rd overall by the Sherbrooke Mohawks before the inaugural SBLM draft and it paid off for the Sherbrooke Mohawks. He was the Canadian team's leadoff batter for most of the season, and it showed in the leaderboards, as he ranked 1st in all of at-bats, hits and singles. He also ranked 5th in total bases, despite being more of a contact hitter than a power hitter. Well, I say that, but he did slug 20 homeruns. You put all that together and you get pretty good slashline of .313 / .361 / .460.

But, despite being one of the top contact hitters in the league, there were some blaring holes in Mekajiki's game. First of all, for a leadoff batter, he's pretty slow. He only manage to get 10 doubles and 3 triples on the season, topping that with an impressive 0 steal attempts. He needs to learn to hit doubles or singles followed by steals. Next, Mekajiki has shown great patience at the plate, striking out only 54 times in 520 plate appearances, but he has only been walked 33 times, showing that he'd rather try and reach the bases swinging that waiting. It's not a wrong way to play, but getting walked a bit more wouldn't hurt either. Last point though, and it's a big one, is his defensive contributions. He's not a bad center fielder, definitely not, but he certainly doesn't focus his training sessions on getting better at it. His +3.1 zone rating and 1.001 efficiency are fine, but pale in comparison to Dale Cooper's +16.4 zone rating and 1.057 efficiency. Add to that the fact that Cooper has been seen almost exclusively training on getting these numbers up in the SBL, and you understand why Mekajiki is not viewed as a very reliable outfielder on defense.

But all in all, Mekajiki was the best offensive CF last season in the SBLM, and that's the kind of play he'll bring to Toronto next season.