By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
One often-heard criticism of Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt's broadcasting style is that he doesn't seem to be able to let a pitch go by without saying something. An announcer's job, by definition, is to give their thoughts on the game, but there are times where saying nothing and allowing fans to judge with their own eyes is better than saying something just to say something.
In life, there's many times where not speaking at all is better than criticizing someone. Schmidt may find that out this week.
In an appearence on the WIP Morning Show Tuesday, Schmidt suggested that he doesn't believe the Phillies can build around Odubel Herrera. That is an opinion that he is entitled to have and is shared by many. However, his reasoning for having that opinion isn't cool:
“My honest answer to that would be no because of a couple of things,.” Schmidt said. “First of all, it’s a language barrier. Because of that, I think he can’t be a guy that would sort of sit in a circle with four, five American players and talk about the game. Or try and learn about the game or discuss the inner workings of the game. Or come over to a guy and say, ‘Man, you gotta run that ball out.’ Just can’t be — because of the language barrier — that kind of a player.”
If Schmidt had given a second to think his answer over, he probably would have realized how flawed it is. As Jon Taylor of Sports Illustrated pointed out, a good percentage of the Phillies roster speaks Spanish. In fact, manager Pete Mackanin's ability to speak Spanish is one of the reasons that the Phillies like him being in charge of this young team so much. The other problem is that while Herrera may use a translator to do interviews and not be overly comfortable speaking English, he does speak English. When he uses a translator to speak English on an interview, it's probably because he's nervous he won't understand a question or will misphrase an answer. But if he needed to get a message to a teammate, he's probably capable of doing that without the translator. If not, that's why the Phillies employ a translator.
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Any outrage Schmidt receives for these comments isn't because of a society that is concerned with being politically correct, it's because of a society that is concerned with just being correct*. Schmidt's reasoning behind his comments is incorrect.
In the interests in presenting all parts of the story, Schmidt went on with why he doesn't believe that Herrera can be a player that the Phillies build around:
“Odubel can be — you see what he’s doing the last three days [8-13, 6 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBIs] and we saw the inconsistency that dropped his batting average all the way down to the low .200’s prior to the last three games, and that’s really the first time we’ve seen that kind of inconsistency from him,” Schmidt said. “However, he’s more of a sort of, play the game, allow his exuberance for the game to kind of spread around the team. I think the fans love him. He’s not afraid to do things that sort of irk the other team if you will, and you know what that is. I probably would hate him if I played against him because of his antics on the field, but he’s not afraid.
Herrera's inconsistencies are troubling, because when he's bad, he seems to be really bad. He hit .183 with 30 strikeouts in May. However, when his timing is down at the plate, he's been really good, as evidenced by the fact that he's hitting .615 in the first 13 at-bats that he's had this month.
Schmidt also doesn't seem to grasp how leadership in a modern clubhouse works. When he talks about Herrera being a "lead-by-example" type and suggests that is a bad thing, he sounds silly. That's exactly the type of leader that Chase Utley was. That's not to say Herera and Utley's examples were the same, but it is to say that leading by example isn't something that Herrera should be criticized for.
Also, the two or three best players on the team aren't necessarily the leaders in a clubhouse. Utley, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins were the three best players on the 2007 Phillies, the first team to make the playoffs since 1993. While they were leaders, veterans like Aaron Rowand and Pat Burrell also took on large leadership roles with the club.
The jury still very much is out on Herrera, though the long-term extension the Phillies gave him this past offseason seems to suggest that they feel he will be an integral part of their next great team. Whether that turns out to be true or not, Herrera's native language isn't what is going to hold him back.
(*Kyle Kulinski came up with this genius way of responding to allegations of political correctness)
