User:GhostRiver/lieberthal

Professional career

Draft and minor leagues

Going into the 1990 draft, the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB) planned to use their third overall draft pick on either Lieberthal or Tim Costo, then-shortstop for the Iowa Hawkeyes. They selected Lieberthal, who signed with the team that day for a signing bonus of $250,000, including an additional $40,000 if he attended college during the offseason, and was assigned to the Rookie-level Martinsville Phillies of the Appalachian League. He recorded a hit in his first professional baseball at bat, a single off of Alan Embree, then with the Burlington Indians. Despite being fresh out of high school and weighing only 165 pounds (75 kg), Lieberthal was expected to receive regular playing time during his rookie season in order to build up the necessary stamina for a professional catcher. He played 49 games that season out of a potential 76, batting .228 with four home runs and 22 RBIs in 184 at bats.

After attending spring training with the Phillies, Lieberthal opened the 1991 season with the Class A Spartanburg Phillies of the South Atlantic League. A year removed from the draft, Lieberthal felt that he was able to relax more, telling reporters, "I don't have the burden of being the first-rounder anymore. Now there's a new number-one so it's all his." He batted .305 in Spartanburg, with 31 RBIs and 34 runs scored in 243 at bats. By the end of July, Lieberthal had been promoted to the Class A-Advanced Clearwater Phillies of the Florida State League, with whom he batted .288 with seven RBIs in 52 at bats.

• 1992 Reading Phillies
• 1992 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons
• 1993 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons
• 1994 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons

Philadelphia Phillies (1994–2006)

Although Lieberthal impressed at spring training, batting .400 while successfully picking off attempted baserunners, he opened the 1994 season in Triple-A as the Phillies had two solid major league catchers in Darren Daulton and Todd Pratt. On June 30, however, Lieberthal was called up to the major leagues to replace Daulton, who had fractured his collarbone on a foul tip off the bat of Miami Marlins player Jeff Conine. At the time, LIeberthal had been hitting .260 with 14 doubles and 27 RBIs in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and Phillies manager Jim Fregosi said that he intended for Lieberthal to catch every member of the starting rotation except for Danny Jackson and David West, who would be backstopped by Pratt. Although the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Phillies in Lieberthal's debut, he recorded his first major league hit in that game, a fourth-inning single off of Pedro Astacio.

• 1994
• 1995

Although the offseason free agent signing of Benito Santiago seemed to relegate Lieberthal to another year as a backup catcher in 1996, Santiago was soon moved to first base to fill in for an injured Gregg Jefferies, a move that Fregosi said was "a great way for Mike to break in" to regular major league play. Lieberthal impressed Phillies management through the first half of the season, hitting seven home runs and throwing out 10 attempted base stealers while receiving limited playing time, and by July, the team began investigating trade options for Santiago that would allow Lieberthal to take over as the team's starting catcher for the last two months of the season. After the All-Star break, however, Lieberthal's performance began to diminish: he went from batting .289 with seven home runs and 18 RBI before the break to .158 with no home runs and five RBI afterwards. At the end of August, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans revealed that, on June 26, Lieberthal had suffered a small tear to the medial meniscus of his left knee while chasing a foul ball against the Cincinnati Reds, and that he had been able to play through the injury before aggravating it two months later. The injury would require a season-ending surgery, thus putting Santiago back into the starting catcher role. Lieberthal was able to play in 50 games before the injury, batting .253 with seven home runs and 23 RBI in 166 at bats.

• 1997
• 1998
• 1999
• 2000

Fully recovered from his elbow and ankle injuries by the new year, Lieberthal was optimistic going into the 2001 season behind new manager Larry Bowa. That optimism was cut short, however, when on May 14, Lieberthal suffered a knee injury while trying to avoid a pickoff during a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had to be carried off the field while waiting to hear whether he had injured his medial collateral ligament (MCL) or anterior cruciate ligament (ACL); the former would sideline Lieberthal for four to six weeks, while the latter would end his season entirely. In the meantime, Johnny Estrada stepped up as the Phillies' everyday catcher, with Gary Bennett serving as his backup. MRI scans revealed that Lieberthal had actually torn both his MCL and ACL, as well as his lateral meniscus, and he would have to miss the remainder of the 2001 season. After allowing the MCL to heal naturally for about a month as recommended, Lieberthal underwent a reconstructive arthroscopy on his right knee at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, after which he faced another six to eight months of rehabilitation. Rather than returning home to California, Lieberthal remained in the area to provide moral support for his teammates as they continued their season. The Phillies suffered without the catcher: they had a .618 winning percentage and a team earned run average (ERA) of 3.70 before his injury, but dropped to a .508 winning percentage and 4.28 team ERA in his absence. In the 34 games that he did play, Lieberthal batted .266, with one home run and five RBI in 79 at bats; behind the plate, he had a .992 fielding percentage and successfully threw out five out of nine attempted base stealers.

Bowa wanted to ease Lieberthal back into the 2002 season, preventing him from catching every day, while Lieberthal argued that he was capable of handling a starting catcher's workload, and that, "When I'm sore, I'll let them know." By June, Lieberthal had resumed his role as the starting catcher except in games where Brandon Duckworth was starting. Although Duckworth did not ask for backup Todd Pratt to serve as his personal catcher, the Phillies frequently paired the two after seeing their chemistry: when Duckworth pitched to Pratt, his ERA was 1.93, compared to 6.17 when Lieberthal was behind the plate. As a hitter, Lieberthal started the season in a slump, with only 11 RBI in his first 149 at bats, but started to return to form after the All-Star Break, with three home runs and 13 RBI between July 6 and August 4. On August 20, Lieberthal added a three-year, $22.25 million extension to his existing contract, keeping him under Philadelphia control until at least 2005, with an additional $7.5 million option for the 2006 season. Lieberthal believed that, ideally, this contract extension would allow him to spend his entire MLB career with the Phillies. After finishing the season bating .279 with 15 home runs and 82 RBI, Lieberthal both took home the Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year and tied with John Smoltz for the Players Choice Comeback Player awards. After the season ended, Lieberthal underwent additional surgery on his right knee for an injury sustained while golfing, but he was anticipated to make a full recovery by the next year's spring training.

• 2003
• 2004

Additionally, he batted only .143 with runners in scoring position, the lowest of any batter that season.

• 2005
• 2006

Los Angeles Dodgers (2007)

On December 6, 2006, Lieberthal signed a one-year, $1.15 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers to serve as a backup catcher to newcomer Russell Martin. The contract also included an option to make $1.4 million in 2008. Lieberthal played only sparingly behind Martin, but manager Grady Little was unfazed by his backup's poor numbers: by August 28, the Dodgers were 2-10 when Lieberthal started behind the plate, and he had a 7.02 earned run average (ERA). These numbers were inflated, however, by the fact that struggling pitcher Mark Hendrickson had started three of Lieberthal's games.

Legacy

In addition to catching the most games of any Phillies backstop, Lieberthal had a career .275 batting average and .450 slugging percentage with the team, as well as 1,137 hits, 255 doubles, 150 home runs, and 609 RBI, all of which were the most of any Philadelphia catcher.

Honors and awards

Award	Season(s)	Ref.
NL All-Star	1999, 2000
NL Gold Glove Award	1999
MLB Players Choice NL Comeback Player	2002
Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year Award	2002