San Diego Padres Minors Roster Projections: Lake Elsinore Storm

PHOENIX, AZ - JUNE 06: Manager Andy Green
PHOENIX, AZ - JUNE 06: Manager Andy Green

In our third installment of the San Diego Padres minor league roster projections, we visit the (High) A-Lake Elsinore Storm of the California League.

The Storm might have had a losing season last year, however, but they did have some nice individual seasons on the developmental side of things along the way.

With pitching prospects like Cal Quantrill, Eric Lauer, Joey Lucchesi, and Jacob Nix all receiving in-season promotions, on the offensive side, we saw mid-season promotions for Javier Guerra, Josh Naylor, and Ty France too.

On paper, it looked like this team had the makings of a playoff contender. After hovering around .500 for the first half, things turned south quickly to start the second. Mostly due to injury, and roster inconsistencies because of promotions,  this team never got things started.

This year, however, could be very different. As you will see here shortly, this team will have a very deep starting pitching staff. While the overall outlook of the team has playoff contender written all over it.

Roster Projections for San Diego Padres High-A Lake Elsinore Storm

Well, San Diego Padres’ faithful lets meet our minor league affiliate up the I-15. Here is our projected roster for the High-A Lake Elsinore Storm.

Starting pitching:

1) Logan Allen-LH

2) Michel Baez-RH

3) Pedro Avila-RH

4) Adrian Morejon-LH

5) Miguel Diaz-RH

Spot Starter/Long Man:

6) Jesse Scholtens-RH

Bullpen:

MR-Jared Carkuff-RH

MR-Spencer Kulman-RH

MR-Yimmi Brasoban-RH

SU-Gerardo Reyes-RH

SU-David Bednar-RH

CL-Colby Blueberg-RH

Starting Eight:

C-Marcus Greene Jr.

1B-Brad Zunica

2B-Chris Baker

3B-Hudson Potts

SS-Allen Cordoba

LF-Edward Olivares

CF-Buddy Reed

RF-Jorge Ona

Bench:

C-Wilfri De La Cruz

IF-Peter Van Gansen

Utility-Nate Easley

OF-Rod Boykin

OF-Taylor Kohlwey

As you can see, this starting rotation is stacked. When four of your top 30 prospects reside in it, it should be.

Overall the Storm has seven top 30 prospects off of my list, and eight overall if you include David Bednar who is on MLB.com’s list of top-30 prospects.

This should be a very entertaining season up north for the High-A team of the San Diego Padres. When you have almost a third of your “hot talent lava” of a farm system less than ninety minutes away to look at on a nightly basis, it makes for primetime entertainment.

Next: Padres Spring Training Report Vol 1

The next two roster projections for the San Diego Padres’ minor league affiliates are sure to have some surprises and controversy Friar faithful, so stay tuned…

Next Up: San Antonio Missions