What's so cool is that it almost feels like someone put 2011 Bard into a time capsule and sent him off into some alternate timeline, only to get merged back into this one in 2020. This graph says it all, IMO:He also signed a 2 year, $19 million extension. He got his money after all these years and I couldn't be happier for him.
The Bard we saw in 2012 and 2013 was a shell of his former self and, as a result <poof> he was out of baseball. But then he was back and <egad!> he's rediscovered the fastball velocity he had from ages 24-26 in his age 35-37. Father time is probably his biggest enemy right now, so I don't thikn we can expect him to pitch like this for much longer, but it would be very, very cool if he could stretch this out another 2-3 seasons.