Soto flattered by MVP talk

Cubs catcher Geovany Soto said Tuesday he was flattered to be mentioned as a possible candidate for the Most Valuable Player award.

ESPN's Peter Gammons tossed that one out there on his blog recently after getting prompted by a Cubs player.

"I don't know," Soto said. I'm just here just to have a great year and help my teammates to win, go to the postseason and hopefully go deep and see what happens. I just want to have a good start here and prove to these guys I belong here, I want to play here. I work hard. That will take care of itself.

"Just the mention is flattering, and I'm honored. But there are a lot of guys with big numbers and big names out there. Just the fact that they even think of me, I think I won it already."

Soto is batting .286 with 18 homers, 69 RBI an on-base percentage of .368 and a slugging percentage of .502. Among NL rookies, he's first in batting average, homers, RBI and slugging and second in OBP. He should be a shoo-in to win NL Rookie of the Year honors.

Soto also has won rave reviews for his game-calling and his handling of the pitching staff.

Minor matters: Third baseman Josh Vitters, last year's first-round draft pick, extended his hitting streak to 24 games Monday for Class A Boise.

Center fielder Sam Fuld went 5-for-6 for Class AA Tennessee, extending his hitting streak to seven games.

Jake Fox hit his team-leading 23rd homer.

Center fielder Felix Pie went 2-for-4 and scored the winning run for Class AAA Iowa. Pie entered Tuesday 27-for-82 (. 329) since the all-star break. He's a likely September call-up.

Infielder-outfielder Micah Hoffpauir, also a probable call-up, hit his career-best 23rd homer and recorded his team-leading 86th RBI for Iowa.

Lineup roulette: Manager Lou Piniella likes the "bottoms up" approach to his lineup. Piniella has found that putting good hitters at the bottom of the order creates RBI chances for leadoff man Alfonso Soriano.

"We try to put combinations of lineups together that we get contributions from 1-8 or 1-9," Piniella said. "You've got Soriano in the leadoff spot. You want some strength at the tail end of your lineup so he'll get some RBI chances out of the 1-hole. We've been relying on that all year. We look to our 3 and 4 hitters more than anything else, but at the same time, for us to function as a team offensively, we need to hit 1-8."