Minor League Preview - The California League

The full season minor leagues started their season on Thursday, and with that in mind, the prospect staff here at Fake Teams will be taking a look at some of the relevant information with each league. While we always hope that you'll come to us when you're looking for fantasy writing and analysis to help you in your leagues, we also want to help you get a better understanding of what we're looking at so that you can do some of this analysis should you need it quickly. Next up is the first of three Single-A Advanced leagues, the California League.

The Basics

The California League is a 10-team league which is situated exclusively in the state of California (shocking, I know). The league is three levels below the major leagues, and has become known over the years for a number of high-offense environments. Specifically in the southern half of the league, teams in the Inland Empire region like High Desert, Bakersfield and Lake Elsinore have been the home to some rather ridiculously high-scoring games in previous years, including a loss by High Desert in which they scored 18 runs and still lost by 15. Even with that said, there are still some parks which did not help hitters at all like San Jose. The concerns about the offense in the southern half have led some teams to skip pitchers straight from Low-A to AA in order to avoid those environments.

Last Year's Champion: Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (Dodgers affiliate)

Teams

Instead of breaking down the rosters, I'll share some prospects that bear keeping an eye on. Any players that appeared on the Fake Teams Top-100 will be notated with their ranking in parentheses.

Bakersfield (SEA) - Austin Wilson, Tyler Pike, Drew Jackson

High Desert (TEX) - Yohander Mendez, Luis Ortiz (#66), Jairo Beras, Travis Demeritte

Inland Empire (LAA) - Taylor Ward, Roberto Baldoquin

Lake Elsinore (SD) - Javier Guerra (#83), Franchy Cordero

Lancaster (HOU) - Akeem Bostick, Jamie Ritchie

Modesto (COL) - Forrest Wall, Dom Nunez

Rancho Cucamonga (LAD) - Grant Holmes, Julian Leon, Yusniel Diaz

San Jose (SFG) - Aramis Garcia, Martin Agosta

Stockton (OAK) - Yairo Munoz, Mikey White

Visalia (ARI) - Domingo Leyba, Jimmy Sherfy