THE OHTANI ATTENDANCE EFFECT

[@emilaubry6856]

A hundred percent YES. I started getting excited about baseball again since Shotime came on the scene. He makes baseball exciting again

[@SimpleSabermetrics]

Absolutely! He’s a ton of fun to watch, I haven’t seen anything like the effect he has on attendance in my time around the game - so cool!

[@Philobiblion]

Good point. This is my experience too.

[@masonturner2124]

Great video illustrating the data analysis process for answering a good question! The process may not be easy at times, but like you said, digging deeper and doing some cleaning and processing can lead to some interesting answers!

[@cwj9202]

At 4:42 the 7/28 home game against the Rangers, the attendance figure 27,719 should be green, as that total is 670 above average.

[@SimpleSabermetrics]

Good catch! Not sure how I missed that one, appreciate your keen eye!

[@adventurer3479]

Absolutely.. I never care about MLB until now.

[@ellamorris5664]

Love the video!

[@shinestar2912]

Very good Metric for establishing a players overall value. Because let's face it. MLB is about Money, Ledgers, and Books.

[@Kickingit06]

What is Shohei Ohtani's batting stats on days that he pitches? Honestly, it seems like he has a dip in power and average on the days he pitches.

[@mikemurray1506]

That's easy to say, Ohtani puts fans in seats. That being said, that's why the Angels didn't trade him. Now can they do enough in the off season to keep him in a Angels uniform. Suggestion, go after Trey Turner, pick up a left fielder and catcher that can throw or hit if not both.

[@chriskelly6559]

That's a start.

[@BentleyVB]

Bro attendance at Miami game was serious . I was there the first night .

[@pumkinreeves4]

Hell yeah

[@allstarr9tc]

Do you think the current, err, WAR calculation (not sure if thats the right phrasing for what I'm asking, honestly) for two way players, so Ohtani lol.. is optimized as well as it could be to "accurately" assess what they contribute in full? It seems like it's overly punishing on the side of treating their offensive production as only a dh, ie giving arguably excessive negative defensive stats. There might be an argument for the offensive war being measured as that of a dh, granted idk what else you'd call his hitting position.. but idk it just doesn't seem like it's accurate to assess a two way player by just adding pitching war and dh war together. It doesnt seem like a stretch for there to be an argument as to the war formula/calculation not being err.. fair? to two way players, and i think that makes sense given there more or less hasnt been a comparable player like this ever, so why would the calculation for it be optimal.

[@ryanarteaga7505]

What in your opinion is the best stat for measuring power? ISO?

[@winterking9799]

You also have to look at thr variable of that time of the day and day of the week.. as at times people have Jobs or its during a late night where they need to go to work the next morning pronto

[@SimpleSabermetrics]

Very good point! I noted a small portion of this in the Yankees example with bad weather and a bad first pitch time coming in to play… Other variable to consider is the effect that promotional events have on each games attendance. These are things I looked into but did not include in the video (other than the huge examples of the WS Anniversary game and the Yankees rainout). Thanks for the comment!

[@dr.a.995]

Attendance, excitement, sales of anything Angel, but Ohtani, tops, views on uTyub....everything goes up...except Angel runs!

[@mrknowall2849]

I don't mean to be nitpicky but on 7/28 of the home game, you put on black typical attendance 27'049 and when Ohtani's pitching 27,719 that should come in green because, unless my math is wrong, more fans came but you put in red which means fewer people showed up isn't it 27,049 is less than 27,719?

[@shirleyhubbert5547]

This is wrong. Ohtani's appearance at Angels Stadium pitching in games. Definitely boosted attendance

[@jyee2217]

It will wear off after it becomes normal or if he falters in one area.

[@SimpleSabermetrics]

It will be very interesting to follow over the course of a career, that’s for sure!

[@TruongNguyen-eg8po]

Ohtani better for baseball

[@suika197]

ohtani Goods distribution day.The seats are all sold out.

[@Kickingit06]

To me, this video shows that Ohtani has had a marginal effect on average attendance overall. That is not what I would have expected.

[@rubaiyat300]

I think there are a couple confounding factors. I'm not sure if there was any attempt to eliminate the fact Ohtani was bumping up the average attendance at home on his start days due to the quirk with his pitching cycle coinciding with the week like was mentioned. Also, Angels fans are likely to come on other days cause Ohtani is also a mostly everyday player when he doesn't pitch. Which wouldn't be a problem if he ONLY pitched on like Wednesdays but that obviously isn't the case. And then of course for some teams we start getting into capacity issues where no player can significantly move the number cause there just aren't more seats (that aren't otherwise claimed like season ticket holders) for more fans to sit in. Still a 5% bump for a single player is nothing to sneeze at.

[@Kickingit06]

@@rubaiyat300 There's a bump; but it's not the mega star bump I'd expect. You make a good point about it being mitigated by also being a batter. I guess a comparison of attendance increases of other top starters would be needed to bring clarity. Perhaps due to the increased k/9 and great ERAs by many more pitchers, it's not like before when the top handful of pitchers is must-see action when they come to town.