Brian...other way around...the NW-SE faults are the transforms and the NE-SW faults are the orientation of the future spreading centers. Some (all?) think there are spreading centers already under southern Salton Sea and south of there, but they behave very differently than those in the oceans because they are flooded with sediment. Farther south in the central and southern Gulf of California, there are short ENE-WSW spreading centers linked by long transforms.

Glad you pointed out the static stress changes. The southern San Andreas is also negative. But, all this means is that quakes on this part of the San Andreas are delayed by a year or 2 (I think) and on the southern Elsinore, advanced by a few years. If it was going to be 300 years before the Elsinore was going to fail, now it is 295 years (example). For San Andreas, the "big one" could always initiate farther north and propagate both directions; it is still ready enough to go that it would support a throughgoing rupture.

Sure, it is reasonable to think something is going on on the southern Elsinore. There was M>3 quake on it a week or 2 ago.
Chris