Monday afternoon musings (UPDATED)

Getting to the ballpark early is one of the fun things about this job. You see teams take early BP, and today, coach Matt Sinatro was working on catching technique with Geovany Soto. The other thing getting to the park lets a writer do is get caught up on a few things.

Here's one thing that's in fresh: The Cubs have named Peoria's Kyler Burke their minor-league player of the year and Tennessee's Casey Coleman their minor-league pitcher of the year. Tennessee advanced yesterday to the Southern League finals. Burke had a .405 OBP to go along with 43 doubles, 3 triples, 15 homers and 89 RBI. Coleman went 14-6 with a 3.68 ERA at Class AA Tennessee. He was part of Tim Wilken's fast-rising 2008 draft. He also has won a game in the playoffs to help Tennessee into the Southern League finals.

Lineup
Theriot, SS
Fukudome, RF
Lee, 1B
Ramirez, 3B
Soto, C
Fox, LF
Baker, 2B
Fuld, CF
Dempster, P

Lou reiterated that Marmol is his closer and will be entering next year. He also said Angel Guzman needs a couple more days as he rests some muscle soreness in his arm. He noted that Fukudome has been "spinning" at the plate again and that he needs to start going to left field again.

Here is where we left off earlier:

Who’s hot
D-Lee has a six-game hitting streak, during which he’s gone 10-for-24. His overall line is .302/.381/.575 for a robust OPS of .956.

Here’s more. D-Lee is second in RBI since July 1, with 58. Matt Holliday has 59. D-Lee leads in homers since July 1, with 21. He also leads in OPS since July 1, at 1.078. He’s followed by St. Louis destroyers Holliday (1.068) and Pujols (1.057.)

Aramis Ramirez has a five-game hitting streak, during which he is 9-for-19. His line is .322/.382/.519 for an OPS of .901.

The aforementioned Soto has a personal season-high five-game hitting streak. He’s gone 7-for-16 during that stretch. He’s got 9 RBI in his last four games. He’s driven in at least two runs in his last four games. The last Cub with four straight multi-RBI games was Fred McGriff, back in May of 2002.

Who’s not hot:

Jeff Baker is on an 0-for-12 skid. There are a couple of warning signs with him. His groundball rate is 51.5 percent, and his BABIP is .404. You have to figure some of those grounders are going to be gobbled up and not get through. That’s just the law of averages.

Milton Bradley is 1-for-13 on the homestand. His hitting line is .260/.380/.403. I suggested in a column last week that he could be better in a second year with the Cubs, much like Moises Alou. The Cubs were none too thrilled with Bradley’s approaches at the plate this weekend, with Lou first on that list. I’m thinking there might not be a next year here for Bradley. He’s batting .214 with runners in scoring position.

Ryan Theriot is 1-for-7 on the homestand. Here’s a fact that might sneak up on you, and the reminder courtesy of an e-mailer who chimes in here often: Ryan Theriot is going to be 30 years old this winter. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Anyway, Ryan’s OBP is .336, or 51 percentage points below last year’s level. Looking at fangraphs.com (you should, too), they list his wOBA, or weighted on-base average, at .317.

Fangraphs lists Theriot’s line-drive rate as 20 percent, his groundball rate at 49.5 percent and his flyball rate at 30.5 percent.

Last year, the line-drive rate was 23.2 percent, the groundball rate was 56.6 percent and the flyball rate was 10 points lower, at 20.2 percent.

For the Brewers, former Cubs farmhand Casey McGehee has 5 homers and 18 RBI over his last 13 games. Old Case has a hitting line of .304/.369/.519 slugging percentage. He has 15 homers and 57 RBI.

Back later with lineups and stuff from Lou.