Mike Schmidt on Odubel Herrera

[schooldoc]

Not sure if this was posted/discussed elsewhere. If so, I apologize for the re-post.

Mike Schmidt with some ill-conceived comments, to put it nicely, on Odubel this morning on WIP.

On WIP, Mike Schmidt blasts Phillies' Odubel Herrera

[Austinfan]

I don't think Schmidt is completely off base, a lot of LA players learn enough English to communicate with Anglo teammates, Blanco for example.
It's one of the things they now start teaching early, you don't have to be able to write a term paper, but it does help to communicate, and Anglos who don't come from Texas or California often don't have much experience with Spanish (I took French in school, what a waste!).

In the same way it would aid an Anglo player going to winterball to pick up some basic Spanish.

[PiedmontPhilly]

Frankly, the language thing makes Schmitty look kind of bad, but what he said wasn't all that outrageous. In my mind, he's not the kind of player you build around because, basically, he's not the kind of player you build a team around. He still has maturity issues, and I thought it was a year too early to give him a 5 year contract.

The main point from all of this seems to be, is that he doesn't think Herrera can be a team leader, and he may be right. That being said, maybe he can be more of that in the future, but he isn't now.

What was lost, is that he said he'd be a fine #1 or #2 hitter on a championship team.

I hope he doesn't lose his broadcasting gig over this.

[zambonir]

I think he'll have to apologize. More because he also works for the Phillies (separately from his TV gig for Comcast).

Apparently Herrera speaks English too, Maybe not great, and not enough to be comfortable on camera, but more than enough.

Of course we could also say you can't build around Tommy Joseph, because he can't talk to the other infielders (and also because you can't build around him. So yeah, that part wasn't controversial. Nobody's ever wanted to build around Herrera, IMO. Perfect world he is the 5th or 6th best hitter on the team).

[andyb]

I doubt Schmidt has a clue how well or not well Herrera speaks English and communicates with his teammates. He just looks bad and out of touch here. He should not lose his job because I am sure all this was unintentional, but hopefully it is a learning situation for him and others. He is just a little out of touch. It is as much the language barrier as "not understanding young people or Latino culture".

[EastFallowfield]

Every time I hear Schmidt on the broadcast I wonder why I used to think he was a smarter than average player.

[bigegypt0417]

I don't think Schmidt is completely off base, a lot of LA players learn enough English to communicate with Anglo teammates, Blanco for example.
It's one of the things they now start teaching early, you don't have to be able to write a term paper, but it does help to communicate, and Anglos who don't come from Texas or California often don't have much experience with Spanish (I took French in school, what a waste!).

In the same way it would aid an Anglo player going to winterball to pick up some basic Spanish.

This is essentially painting with a broad brush. Mike Schmidt is still my favorite phillie of all time but what he said was unfortunate.

You've spoken about this issue and ones that paint with a broad brush in the past...

[allentown]

I'm very disappointed in Schmidt over his comments. Given all the grief he got from fans, media, and Phillies employees for not carrying Phillies teams on his back and not being a leader, when Phillies teams, on which he was a star but which lacked supporting talent to be a WC, not surprisingly didn't win a WC that year, I just expected that he'd be wiser than this. It's also a non sequitur answer to the question he was asked. The player you build the team around doesn't need to be a great communicator or a rah rah guy. Schmidt himself really wasn't that. If the guy does his work, plays extremely well, and gives the team a consistent +4-8 WAR, then that's a guy you can build a team around. Team's like leaders, by which they typically mean the guy who says 'do what coach tells you to do'. I remember the year that the team was dying under Bowa and Burrell and I think it was Tyler Houston actually became REAL team leaders, leading a revolt with the purpose of winning their way to the post-season for themselves and Bowa be darned. It was working, but TPTB shut that down very quickly and Tyler was quickly gone. That was leadership and it was not at all appreciated. Not long after, Gillick was given orders to get rid of Burrell, but pat wouldn't waive his FNTC, which Wade had gratuitously awarded him. As the team's All Star last season, Odubel might or might not exhibit good work habits in the weight room, batting cage, and pre-game stretches. He might or might not always play the game flat out to win. But that isn't what Mike was talking about. He picked on language skills. Shouldn't be a big deal. Also hard to be the in-game rah-rah guy from CF. I hope this was just a brain fart on Schmidt's part and not something he was trotted out to do, in the old Dallas Green role, or the announcers assigned to character-assassinate Abreu.