Sweet Martha's cookies. This is such an automatic it's not even funny. What's better than the smell of freshly baked cookies? Sell 'em in a Twins bucket, and let people bring the bucket back for discount refills. If they sell nothing else in the ballpark, they've got to sell these, provided Martha's owner/namesake Martha Rossini Olson can swing it. Olson did not respond to a phone message, but a Martha's rep told MinnPost in an email, "The Twins have been in contact with Sweet Martha's and it is up in the air whether or not they will be included in the new ballpark."

Sometimes the gamesmanship goes a little too far. A few weeks ago I was leaving a high school game and on my way to another one. I was expecting to be in the car for at least an hour, so I planned to stop at the bathroom before leaving. With no indoor bathroom in sight, the port-o-potty on the way to the parking lot was the only option.

As I approached, I thought I heard a voice. It was only when I reached out my hand to grab the door handle that I heard the voice loud and clear. It was a scout, inside the port-o-potty, on his cell phone reporting what other teams were in attendance at the game. Out of respect for his effort (and sacrifice), I kept walking.

Originally taken out of an Iowa high school by the Twins in the 17th round of the 2001 draft, Matt Macri opted for college instead of signing and played three seasons at Notre Dame, batting .367/.465/.667 in his final year. Selected by the Rockies in the fifth round of the 2004 draft, Macri hit well between two levels of Single-A to begin his minor-league career before batting just .232/.293/.370 with a 66-to-22 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 84 games at Double-A in 2006.

Asked to repeat Double-A last season, Macri bounced back by hitting .298/.349/.502 with 11 homers, 34 total extra-base hits, and a 58-to-20 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 79 games. Traded to the Twins in August for Ramon Ortiz, Macri moved up to Triple-A and finished the season by hitting .286/.322/.554 with four homers in 17 games. Macri now carries a .282/.350/.467 hitting line in 296 career games, with solid numbers everywhere except for the season at Double-A in 2006.

He's played all over the infield defensively and is considered a solid glove at third base, so it's easy to see Macri emerging with a major-league job at some point. On the other hand, he turns 26 years old in May, doesn't have much plate discipline, and has struck out in 21 percent of his career trips to the plate. He might be stretched as an everyday player, but being productive platooning against left-handed pitching is doable and the Twins' system lacks good bats, let alone infielders with power.

The change in Tampa Bay's defense this season has been stunning, and you can attribute much of the improvement to Bartlett. He has brought calm to the infield and confidence to a pitching staff. ... Bartlett is getting to balls that, in years past, have routinely scooted through the infield for singles.

Based on figures from STATS Inc., Tampa Bay had the worst defensive shortstops in the American League last season. The Rays' zone rating--which measures a player's efficiency on balls hit in his vicinity--was the second worst for any team in the AL in the past 20 years. And Bartlett's zone rating? Last week, he was third in the American League.

"He is making the routine plays, and then some more on top of that," Rays third-base coach Tom Foley said. "He's got the knowledge, he's got the athleticism. We've seen multiple plays this year with the bare hand over the mound, or turning double plays on balls that you weren't even sure he could get to."

The propaganda about Ponson's sinker coming from the Twins' brain trust in spring training was such that LaVelle Neal admitted going on an obscure radio show and predicting ''13, 14 victories'' for the husky righthander (Sidney, not LaVelle). The Star Tribune's senior hardball writer was only generous by 11 or 12.

I thought I had earned my stripes there. I had a tough role. You'd go a week without playing, but I thought I did my job. I guess they didn't think about that when they made the decision. I'd like to get a shot at them. I know that.

Remember how I said Hicks reportedly doesn't want to pitch and that he was a toolsy outfielder as well? Here's a team that might be willing to take a shot on those considerable tools. Hicks has shown the ability to be a game-changing center fielder, though it may take some time for the bat to come. You never want a fall-back for a pick this high, but any team giving Hicks a shot as an outfielder surely knows that they can always turn to pitching and his 96-mph fastball if things don't work out after a while.

There were indications Gardenhire was ready to shuffle the lineup. Brendan Harris would get some starts at third base and Tolbert would be in the lineup nearly every day. Gardenhire's goal with the moves would have been to shore up defense up the middle, especially turning double plays. ... With Tolbert out indefinitely because of strained ligaments in his right thumb, Gardenhire's plans have been foiled.

We're not so much concerned about how many times they walk, and this and that. Yeah we pay attention to on-base percentage, and we want guys at the top of the order who have good on-base percentages and set the table for the middle of the order, but what we're most concerned about is players going up and taking swings at good pitches. Don't get yourself out, and chase sliders away and balls in the dirt. Swing at good pitches, and give yourself a chance to hit good pitches--more so than looking at all the different numbers that so-and-so has or whatever.

Sure, we try and do that with Delmon. We try and do that with Gomez in particular. But they're both 22 years old, and the one thing you don't want to take away is their aggressiveness. ... He's an exciting player who's gonna learn on the job just like Torii Hunter did, just like Jacque Jones did, a lot of players learn on-the-job with us.

Anyone who prattles on about the Twins "doing the little things" right is living in the past. It is a catchphrase of the national media, which tends to live a few years behind reality when it comes to teams not playing on the Coasts or in Chicago, and of local loyalists who need vision and comprehension checks. It's just not happening any more and the sum total of the Toronto sweep should drive home that point to anyone still doubting it.

The former manager, Tom Kelly, imbued his teams with the fundamentals and Gardy's division-winning teams were in large part the result of Kelly's ways of doing things. The current group has lost the right to carry that banner.

Young's problem has not been warning-track outs, it has been getting the ball out of the infield. He rarely pulls the ball, and when he does, he does not do so with authority. He has taken the concept of the "inside-out" swing--a la Mauer--to a ridiculous degree, dragging the bat head through the hitting zone so belatedly that his hits can only be ground balls up the middle and bloops to right field.

After posting a fantastic .228 Isolated Power in 936 plate appearances between Single-A and Double-A, his Isolated Power in 1,416 trips to the plate between Triple-A and majors has been a pedestrian .141. In other words, he's lost about 40 percent of the power that he showed early in his pro career. ... A big part of the decline in power is that Young has been an extreme ground-ball hitter in the majors, which makes it difficult to hit the ball into the gaps and impossible to hit the ball over the fence.

I'm not so sure about Delmon anymore. He swings at everything. And he's not a very good breaking-ball hitter. You spin it, and he can't lay off it. And if he hits it, he doesn't do much with it.