Mound visits serve multiple purposes. If the manager comes walking out, the pitcher is generally doomed. If the catcher trots out to the mound, it could be for one of several reasons. If Roger Dorn strolls over, chances are the pitcher will later be punched in the face.

But when Anderson comes out, he usually brings a soothing message of some sort.

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Today marks Delmon Young Day around the Twins Blogosphere.

I’m not sure if it’s coincidence or not, but Delmon Young Day falls on the same day — May 12 — that he left the ball club in 2009 to tend to his ailing mother, Bonnie, who eventually passed away from cancer.

I had a chance to catch up with Delmon, and a couple others, after the Twins’ 3-2 victory over the White Sox on Wednesday.

J.J. Hardy’s triple in the ninth led to  him scoring the game-winning run on a wild pitch against the Tigers on Tuesday night, but his defensive stab in the top half of the inning kept Detroit from taking the lead.

Needless to say, J.J. Hardy is good at defense.

Former Twins RP Bobby Keppel

Fanhouse.com’s Ed Price recently took some jabs at former Baseball Prospectus and current Sports Illustrated writer Joe Sheehan regarding Ron Gardenhire’s bullpen strategy.

The bullpen argument applies to every team in baseball, not just the Twins, but Gardenhire happens to be the subject in this case.

Are teams decreasing their chances of winning due to poor bullpen strategies

?

Just an FYI for folks who haven’t heard yet… Tom Pelissero and I are doing A TON of Twins writing over at 1500ESPN.com as part of the new 1500 ESPN Twin Cities launch. Multiple updates every day, and musings about the Vikings, Twins, Wild and Gophers as well.

I won’t be posting nearly as many baseball articles on this blog, because quite frankly, it doesn’t make sense to double post when you can just find everything HERE.

Thanks for reading. Stay thirsty, my friends. Or something like that.

Flash back to Monday night’s season opener.

Eighth inning, Twins trailing 4-3, Michael Cuddyer on first base with one out, and Angels’ reliever Fernando Rodney had just missed the strike zone eight times in his first nine pitches (including the pitch Jason Kubel popped out on).

Delmon Young, who smacked a two-run bomb over the left field fence off Jered Weaver in the second inning, came up to the plate, swung at the first pitch, and grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.

The Angels obviously went on to score two runs in the bottom of the eighth, thanks to back-to-back home runs by Hideki Matsui and Kendry Morales, to effectively put the game out of reach.

As awesome as it was to see Delmon rip a line drive over the left field fence to tie the game in the second inning, it was equally frustrating to see him swing at the first pitch against a pitcher who had very little command.

Overall, Delmon provided reasons for optimism on Monday night. Aside from the home run — which equaled his total from April and May combined in 2009 — Young also legged out an infield single and stole a base, thanks in large part to a more, shall we say, “trimmed” physique. Delmon also seems to have carried over the same swing mechanics that helped him hit .300/.322/.502 with nine home runs during the second half of the season last year, ditching the front leg kick for a more compact stride.

That said, Delmon has never shown a great sense of plate discipline, and it can be frustrating when he unloads on the first pitch in situations where conventional wisdom calls for a patient approach.

To put Delmon’s aggressiveness in perspective, only one player in all of baseball swung at the first pitch more often in 2009 — San Francisco’s Pablo Sandoval, who hacked at the first pitch in 48% of his plate appearances. Delmon took a cut 47% of the time.

Delmon also swung at the first pitch twice in four plate appearances in Monday’s season opener.

Swinging at the first pitch doesn’t necessarily correlate with being a good or a bad hitter. Sandoval (.330/.387/.556, 25 HR) was one of the best hitters in baseball last season. Jeff Francoeur and Carlos Gomez, for instance, who both sat near the top of this list in 2008, were two of baseball’s worst hitters that season.

The first pitch in an at-bat can actually turn into quite the chess match. With advanced scouting reports and pitch-by-pitch data, it’s no secret which hitters frequently swing at the first pitch, and likewise, it’s also no secret which pitchers are pumping first pitch fastballs at a high rate.

Now, granted, Delmon’s offense improved considerably during the second half of 2009, but the biggest difference between him and Sandoval was the ability to make contact on pitches out of the strike zone — not just on the first pitch, but on all pitches.

When Sandoval (age 23) swung at pitches out of the strike zone last year, he made contact 75% of the time. When Delmon (age 24) swung at pitches out of the zone, he made contact only 54% of the time.

In other words, Sandoval’s free-swinging style leads to a ton of contact, much like Vladimir Guerrero. Delmon’s free swinging style is… well… still a work in progress, and pitchers will (or at least should) continue to exploit that aggressiveness by extending the strike zone on the first pitch.

But if he can continue to hit bombs to left field on a semi-regular basis, Delmon’s occasional and/or frequent over-aggressiveness will be much easier to swallow. Not to mention, his “calmer” batting stance these days allows him to wait on pitches a split second longer.

We’ll revisit this later in the season.