Carter is Lake Elsinore's leading hitter

Although Josh Carter was sent down to the San Diego Padres’ Lake Elsinore farm team early in the season, he finished 2004 as Lake Elsinore’s leading hitter among regulars and batted .300 in the California League for the second consecutive year.

Carter’s .305 batting average at Lake Elsinore led all Storm players who played in at least ten games. In his 89 games with Lake Elsinore Carter had 101 hits in 331 at-bats. Those hits included 23 doubles, two triples, and a home run. The 1998 Fallbrook High School graduate scored 38 runs and drove in 41, and he stole four bases.

“It was tough getting sent down, but I finished off strong,” Carter said.

Carter batted .300 for Lake Elsinore in 2003 and began the season with the Padres’ Class AA Southern League affiliate in Mobile. Carter didn’t feel that he struggled in his initial Class AA experience.

“I didn’t think it was that much of an adjustment at all,” he remarked.

“I thought it was a lot easier up there,” he noted. “The pitchers are a lot better.”

Carter explained that the Class AA pitchers had better control of the strike zone. That worked to Carter’s disadvantage; he batted .225 in 33 games with Mobile, accumulating 20 hits in 89 at-bats. He had three doubles, a home run, six runs scored, six runs batted in, and a stolen base.

“I didn’t really struggle at all. I was hitting the ball hard and guys were catching it,” Carter said.

On May 12 the Padres promoted pitcher Tim Stauffer from Lake Elsinore to Mobile and sent Carter from Mobile to Lake Elsinore. In the minor leagues, being sent to a lower level isn’t necessarily a demotion; factors such as the need for a player at a certain position can cause a player to be transferred to a lower affiliate. (Carter experienced that in 2002, when he was temporarily sent from the Padres’ Fort Wayne affiliate in the Midwest League to the Eugene farm club in the Northwest League for nine games.) Carter’s experience was also valuable in mentoring the younger players at Lake Elsinore. “You just kind of help them out,” he noted.

Being a team leader in general was more important to Carter than leading the team in batting average. “I don’t really look at it in that sense,” he said of leading the team in batting. “Just helping out the team to win and doing what I can do to drive in runs and being one of the leaders on the team is pretty much what I try to accomplish every year.”

A .300 average, however, is a benchmark for hitters. “Any time you hit over .300 it’s going to make you happy,” Carter noted. “It’s a goal that I have every year to hit over .300.”

Carter batted .268 while with Fort Wayne in 2002. In 2001 a torn elbow ligament limited him to 23 games with Eugene and a .186 batting average. Carter spent the 1999 through 2001 collegiate seasons at Oregon State University, where he was converted from a third baseman to an outfielder, and the Padres selected him in the 14th round of the 2001 draft.

Carter’s next short-term goal is returning to Class AA. “I’ll be there next year,” he remarked.

Carter is not playing in a Fall league this year; he is working out at Fallbrook High School with three other former Warriors in the minor leagues: Donny Lucy, Matt Chico, and Troy Cate.

“It will be a good off-season,” Carter said. “Come back next year and tear it up.”