First off, thanks to one of my regular readers for setting me straight on the Cal League playoffs. Seems I got a little too excited at the 12-game winning streak and skipped a round of playoffs. At any rate, the Storm now play a best-of-five series against San Bernardino. Meantime, Modesto plays a similar series against Stockton. The winner of those two series then meet for the championship.

Next, I guess I’m not the only one who thought picking up Keith Ginter would be a good idea. The Brewers agreed and grabbed him as a PTBNL in the Mark Loretta deal.

On a more positive note, Sean Burroughs had his third straight two-hit game since returning to San Diego. It was his first big-league start at second base, with Ramon Vazquez moving over to shortstop, where he belongs.

Speaking of Vazquez, he’s hitting a crisp .321/.387/.411 since the All-Star break. As a leadoff hitter, he’s batting .307/.370/.385. That’ll work.

And how about Jake Peavy? Seven shutout innings, four hits, no walks, nine punchouts. Needed only 83 pitches. Oliver Perez has gotten most of the press, and deservedly so, but Peavy is the pitcher around whom the Padres will build. He is a pleasure to watch on the mound.

Finally, Xavier Nady was named by Baseball America as the 11th best outfield prospect in baseball. Nady came on strong toward the end after struggling in his initial exposure to Triple-A pitching.