Old Albert Pujols Looking Like Younger Self as He Continues Home Run Surge

Yeah, Albert Pujols is 35 years old. And yeah, that's pretty old by baseball standards.

But these days, he's swinging like he's 35 going on 25.

Pujols went into the Los Angeles Angels' Monday doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox already having a turn-back-the-clock kind of season, as he was OPS'ing .844 with 26 home runs. But by the time said doubleheader was over, Pujols made his numbers look even shinier by mopping the floor with the Red Sox.

The veteran first baseman collected two hits in the Angels' 11-1 win in the day portion of the doubleheader, including his 27th home run. In the second game, he got the Angels rolling toward a 7-3 victory with a solo home run in the second inning. That was his 28th of the year, and also the 548th of his career. That tied him with Mike Schmidt for 15th on the all-time list.

Then in the seventh inning, Pujols did this:

That was Pujols' third home run of the day, the 29th of his season and the 549th of his career. And with it, he surpassed not only Mike Trout for the MLB lead in 2015 but also Schmidt for sole possession of 15th place on the all-time list.

That's an occasion we shall now honor with a dandy graphic from Major League Baseball:

There's your latest reminder that Pujols has had himself a hell of a career. When it's over, he'll be able to book his trip to Cooperstown as soon as he hangs up his spikes.

But getting back to the topic at hand, we shouldn't take it for granted that reminders of Pujols' excellence have been coming more frequently in recent days. Certainly more so than they had been in recent years or, in a related story, than any of us could have anticipated this season.

And when we say "in recent days," we really mean "in recent days."

Though Pujols' overall numbers certainly look strong—he's now OPS'ing .878 along with those 29 dingers—it's his numbers over the last two months that take the cake. After getting off to a modest start with a .702 OPS and eight home runs in his first 44 games, Pujols has come on to OPS 1.053 with 21 homers in his last 45 games. Just like that, he's turned back into one of the best hitters in the game.

One possible explanation for this? Perhaps that Pujols knows where the fountain of youth is, and is holding out on us.

But the actual explanation? Due to certain forces at work, Pujols just plain looks like his younger self.

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

The primary force at work in Pujols' renaissance is one that's been at work for months now.

As Pujols told Ben Reiter of SI.com over the All-Star break, the main difference between 2015 and his disappointing 2013 and 2014 seasons—he played in just 258 games and OPS'd .781—is that he was able to have a normal offseason and, as a result, is healthy for a change.

"It's good to be healthy, man, and not have had to worry about any rehab going into the offseason," he said. "To be able to train the appropriate way to get yourself ready for spring training and for a long season."

Pujols' good health may explain the numbers that Grantland's Jonah Keri dug up last month. He noticed that Pujols has been hitting outside pitches and off-speed pitches again, two things he wasn't able to do earlier in 2015.

Beyond good health, it also looks like Pujols is motivated. 

Obviously, he came into the year looking to make good on the fourth year of his 10-year, $240 million contract. But as a bonus, the San Diego Padres gave Pujols even more motivation when they intentionally walked Trout to bring him to the plate in a pressure situation in a game in late May. Pujols responded with a walk-off hit and a not-too-subtle glare toward the Padres dugout, and he began his home run tear a few days later.

This is the story (or at least the CliffsNotes version of it) of how Pujols' home run surge has come to be. But perhaps a more interesting question than where it came from, however, is what it reminds us of.

With your permission, a proposition: how about Pujols at his best?

This is particularly true of the power stroke that Pujols has been showing off, provided that we keep things simple and define "power stroke" as a guy's ability to hit the ball in the air and hit the ball hard.

If we do that, FanGraphs' batted-ball data tells us that Pujols' power stroke is more effective right now than it's been since his last great years with the St. Louis Cardinals:

Span	FB%	Hard%
2009	45.7	40.6
2010	44.5	42.4
2011	38.3	30.5
2012	39.9	33.5
2013	42.0	36.2
2014	35.4	36.1
Through May 27, 2015	38.5	27.7
Since May 28, 2015	46.8	42.2

As he was OPS'ing 1.055 with 89 home runs in 2009 and 2010, Pujols was getting the ball in the air around 45 percent of the time and making hard contact more than 40 percent of the time. But starting in 2011 and continuing right through May 27 of this year, he was able to do neither of those things.

But now look at him. Pujols is back to hitting fly balls around 45 percent of the time and making hard contact north of 40 percent of the time. After four-plus years of looking like he was never again going to be the power hitter he once was, here he is looking like the power hitter he once was.

Or even better, as Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com noted:

Now, it's true that Pujols looking like his old power-hitting self doesn't mean he's looking like his old pure-hitting self. Even this red-hot Pujols has only hit .284 with a .366 on-base percentage, a far cry from what he did in his glory days with the Cardinals. 

And, yes, there are good reasons for this. Chief among them would probably be that even the red-hot Pujols is more prone to chasing pitches outside the strike zone and more easily neutralized with shifts.

There is one area, however, where Pujols the red-hot power hitter is looking like the great pure hitter he used to be.

Like that guy was, it's nigh impossible to overpower this version of Pujols. We can tell by looking at his swinging-strike rate and overall strikeout rate during his hot stretch:

Season	SwStr%	K%
2009	5.4	9.1
2010	5.9	10.9
2011	5.9	8.9
2012	7.0	11.3
2013	7.9	12.4
2014	6.9	10.2
Through May 27, 2015	6.9	12.6
Since May 28, 2015	5.5	7.9

The picture here is much the same as the one above. In Pujols' last great years with the Cardinals, it was very tough to get him to swing and miss, much less strike out. But while he still remained very good at avoiding both whiffs and strikeouts in his first three-plus years in Anaheim, he wasn't quite as good.

But in the last two months, it's been a different story. Like it was in those final years in St. Louis, now it's extremely tough to get this version of Pujols to swing and miss or strike out. He may be easier to beat than he used to be, but he's not easier to fight.

It's OK to admit that you came into 2015 not expecting Pujols to look even remotely like his younger self at any point. Based on everything we saw in 2013 and 2014, those days looked like they were behind him.

But so much for that. For nearly two months now, Pujols has been pounding baseballs to smithereens and looking surprisingly like the great Pujols we used to know and love. Maybe it won't last, but that it's happened at all feels like an important lesson.

All talent dies eventually, but great talent dies hard.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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