Albert Pujols Swing Analysis
Home Run to LCF

As you may know, one of my pet peeves is how little the commentators on TV and the radio, at both the local and national levels, seem to know about what a good baseball swing looks like. They spend most to all of their time talking about false notions and outright myths, like extension at the point of contact, that seem important but are actually the effect of a good swing rather than the cause of a good swing.^[1] As a result, they leave kids and their parents with a false sense of what the best hitters actually do when they swing the bat. That ends up hurting, rather than improving, kids' swings. Let me explain what a good swing actually looks like using a clip of Albert Pujols hitting a home run to Left Center Field.

The Pitch
Before I get into the swing, let me give you some context. The pitch was an 85 MPH fastball, right down the middle, thrown by Livan Hernandez in the fifth inning on April 23, 2009. The prior two pitches were 78 and 79 MPH sliders just outside. The ball landed about rows up in the Left Field bleachers, just a few seats in from the aisle and the grassy knoll in Center Field.

Shorter is Sometimes Better
The first thing to notice is how short Albert Pujols' swing is. It comes in at 5 frames (based on a 30 FPS clip). Because his swing is so short, and so simple, Albert Pujols has more time than the average player to read the pitch and try to get a sense of what it is and what it is going to do. That increases the likelihood that he will be able to hit the ball squarely and, as I will discuss in a moment, that is the key to Albert Pujols' ability to hit for both average and power.

Albert Pujols' Home Run Swing

To Stride or not to Stride
While it is true that Albert Pujols doesn't stride as much as many players, if you watch what his front foot does in the clip above, you will see that he does take a stride of 9 or so inches. Also, and more importantly, if you watch the movement of his back hip, you will see that he gets a significant weight shift. That weight shift is important because it helps to power the rotation of his hips and thus his entire swing. Without his short but powerful weight shift, Albert Pujols wouldn't be able to hit the ball as hard as he does.

Ted Williams Was Right
Albert Pujols' swing is consistent with Ted Williams' principle that the hips lead the hands. Notice in Frame 8 that Albert Pujols' hips start to open up while his shoulders, and thus his hands, stay closed. Once Albert's hips have opened a frame or two, the contraction of the muscles of his core then powerfully pulls his shoulders around.

Albert Pujols - Frame 8

That Swing Ain't Level
One thing that you will hear constantly at any youth baseball field is parents and coaches telling kids to, "Swing level." The problem is that if you look at Frame 11 of the clip above, you will see that Albert Pujols doesn't swing level to the ground. Instead, he drops his back shoulder, lets the head of the bat get below the level of his hands, and swings with a moderate uppercut. That allows him to match the plane of his swing to the plane of the pitch and hit the ball squarely.

Albert Pujols - Frame 11

No Bugs Were Squished in the Filming of this Clip
You can also see in Frame 11 above that, rather than squishing the bug as many people teach, Albert Pujols' back toe is completely off the ground at the POC. His back toe gets pulled off the ground by the extension of his front knee and the resulting rapid rotation of his hips. Albert does eventually get to a position that looks like squishing the bug, but he reaches that position in Frame 15, which is well after the POC.

Albert Pujols - Frame 15

Extension: When, Why, and Why Not
Many baseball announcers and commentators are absolutely fixated on the concept of extension at the Point Of Contact (POC), but if you look at the clip below you will see that Albert Pujols doesn't reach full extension until Frame 12, which is two frames after the POC.

Albert Pujols - Frame 12

At the POC in Frame 11, Albert Pujols' back elbow is in a position that rotational hitting instructors call the Power L and which is quite different than the Power V position that many of Charley Lau Sr.'s devotees preach.^[2] Albert Pujols' back elbow is in the Power L position at the POC in part because, rather than being thrown at the ball, at the POC Albert Pujols' hands are connected to, and rotating with, his back shoulder. Albert's bat and hands are then pulled out into extension by the tremendous centrifugal force that he generates during his swing.

Albert Pujols - Frame 11

For Further Reading
If you are interested in learning more about Albert Pujols' swing, you should look at the flipbook analysis I put together of this swing...

   - Albert Pujols Flipbook Swing Analysis (Home Run)

Why Albert Isn't Himself in Home Run Derbies
Many people have wondered why Albert Pujols has fared so (relatively) poorly in the home run derbies he has participated in and why he doesn't hit as many towering batting practice home runs as some power hitters. I would argue that this is directly related to why Albert Pujols is such a great hitter, and in particular to why he can hit for both power and average.
     To understand why this is, you have to understand that there are two ways to hit a ball a long way.
     Type I power hitters swing as hard as possible, pray that they hit the ball square enough, and pray that the ball carries enough to clear the fence. You see this approach in most high-power slow pitch softball swings and some major league baseball swings. It makes sense that most high-power slow pitch softball power hitters are Type I power hitters because the ball isn't coming in very hard. As a result, what they have to do is generate energy in the bat (in the form of high batspeed) and using it to propel the ball a long way. That isn't an issue for them because they don't have to protect against the change-up. Type I baseball players get away with this approach because, while it will tend to hurt their ability to hit for average, it will also mean that they will absolutely crush the ball if they square it up (and still hit the ball hard and/or a long way even if they miss it by just a bit).
     Type II power hitters swing a little slower but try to hit the ball more squarely more often (which enables them to hit for both power and average). What you are doing in this case is taking the energy that is in the ball and, to a large degree, just redirecting it in the opposite direction.
     Three things make it clear that Albert Pujols is a Type II power hitter. First, Albert Pujols' bat speed is only 87 MPH, rather than the 100+ MPH numbers that you see in some Type I power hitters (e.g. Prince Fielder and Bryce Harper). Second, Albert Pujols is a fastball hitter; which makes sense because it gives him more initial energy to start with. When Albert Pujols is hitting a batting practice fastball (which is also the type of pitch that you get in a home run derby), the ball is coming in slower and, as a result, doesn't have as much energy. As a result, while Albert will tend to hit the ball hard, it won't go as far as it would have if it were a fastball. I would argue that that is why many of Albert's home run's during the 2009 ASG HRD only just made it over the wall. The third and final piece of evidence that Albert Pujols is a Type II power hitter is that fact that he tried to modify his swing during the home run derby before the 2009 All Star Game. Basically, what he was trying to do, by experimenting with a larger leg kick and such, was incorporate more Type I aspects into his swing. However, it yielded only mediocre results (and may have knocked him into a small slump) because he couldn't overcome his muscle memory and its Type II orientation.^[3]

Albert Pujols and the Steroid Thing
What I see in Albert Pujols swing is a mechanically perfect swing that is highly repeatable. Even in his "bad" swings, meaning swings that result in outs, he often misses the ball by as little as 1/8 of an inch.^[4] As a result, I absolutely believe Albert Pujols when he says he doesn't use any illegal, performance-enhancing substances. I think the best explanation for Albert Pujols' numbers is once-in-a-generation talent, rather than steroids.

[1] For whatever reason, baseball commentators, observers, and instructors tend to confuse cause and effect quite frequently, which is why so much instruction is so bad.

[2] If you read Charley Lau Sr.'s book "The Art of Hitting .300" or view the related video, he never once talks about the concept of extension or making the Power V at the Point Of Contact. However, the book is full of pictures of George Brett doing just that...

George Brett Demonstrating the Power V at the POC

...so it's not surprising that that is generally how the book is interpreted. Of course, if you go through George Brett's best swings frame by frame, you will see that they look nothing like the swing he demonstrates in Charley Lau Sr.'s book.

[3] It would be interested to see what would happen if, during a home run derby, the batting practice pitcher threw the ball harder to Albert than they normally do during batting practice. That might give him more energy to work with and result in more home runs without requiring him to alter his swing.

[4] The frame below is of a fly out to the right field warning track (third pitch of first at bat on 7/31/2009). Albert Pujols is in a mechanically perfect position in this frame. The result of the swing was only an out, rather than a home run to right field, because Albert chased a high pitch and got under the ball by maybe 1/8 of an inch (note the position of the ball on the bat). To the pitcher's (Brian Moehler) credit, he went up the ladder on Albert and got him to chase a pitch just out of the top of the strike zone. But talk about dodging a bullet.

Albert Pujols Not Squishing The Bug