NEW YORK -- The fact that Aaron Judge might be back as a fearsome hitter is a testament to his head.

While Judge's size always stands out, his success begins with his brain. It has been more than a year since Judge was called up to the big leagues, and since the day he arrived he's shown an attitude more suited to a 10-year veteran than a rookie.

That's why it should be no surprise that it appears he's shaking off his second-half slump. He smashed a pair of homers in two of the past four games to give him an AL-best 43. His OPS over the past 10 games is first-half quality -- 1.309.

If you extend that number out over the past month, his OPS is not MVP-worthy but still a respectable .890.

The reason Judge might be right again is because of his attitude. If there was something to learn about Judge from his 84 at-bats in 2016, it was his approach. He struck out 42 times, but even though he was K'ing every other time he went to the plate, he never changed before or after games.

Judge had the confidence as a rookie to become the New York Yankees' DJ upon his arrival. For years, dating to Derek Jeter, the Yankees almost never had music in the clubhouse. When Judge arrived, he noticed the inconsistency of the tunes in the locker room. With the blessing of CC Sabathia and Aaron Hicks, who had sometimes manned the music before, Judge turned into Casey Kasem. He didn't stop when he wasn't playing well.

After games, he was always in front of his locker, answering questions. His answers were fine. They were not particularly insightful, but they were direct. He did not seem to lose confidence, which can easily happen to a rookie.

With his head right, Judge just needed a way to get his contact rate up again. Yankees manager Joe Girardi has preached since the beginning of spring training that if Judge can connect, the ball will go far.

The numbers bear this out, looking at the past 25 games as a sample. In the first 15 of this string, he hit .157, striking out 32 percent of the time while walking 18 percent. In his past 10, he has hit .294, and although his strikeout percentage is only down slightly at 30 percent, he has walked at a 24 percent clip. He's letting more bad pitches go by.

If you go deeper inside the numbers, you'll find this to be even more true. His miss percentage has gone down 5 percent from the two sets of data. In those first 15 games, he was missing 32 percent of the time he swung, while in the past 10 games it's dropped to 27 percent.

That might not seem like a lot, but because of how big and strong the 6-foot-7, 282-pound Judge is, it makes a big impact. The more balls he puts in play, the more likely good things are to happen because he hits the baseball as hard as anyone in the game.

Judge tries to keep things simple. When he had his MVP-caliber first half, he never acted as if he had figured everything out. As he struggled in the second half, he never seemed down. It bodes well for the future -- near and far, as well as high, far ... and gone.