BASEBALL / GARY KLEIN : All Signs Point to Lieberthal Making a Run for the Majors

Minor league players are accustomed to autograph requests, but it has been an increasingly busy summer of signing for Mike Lieberthal, the Philadelphia Phillies’ No. 1 pick in the 1990 draft.

Lieberthal, a catcher who played at Westlake High, is batting .304 for Reading, Pa., in the double-A Eastern League. At 20, he is one of the youngest players in the league. Last Monday, he walked and scored for the National League during the double-A all-star game in Charlotte, N.C.

“There’s a lot of card collectors in Reading,” Lieberthal said. “There’s also just a lot of fans. It isn’t a burden. I try to sign as many as possible.”

Card collectors are banking on Lieberthal’s ascent to the major leagues. And based on his performance the last two seasons, it appears there will soon be a payoff for all concerned.

Last season, Lieberthal batted .305 in 72 games for Spartanburg, S.C., in the Class-A South Atlantic League. He finished the season with Clearwater, Fla., in the more competitive Class-A Florida State League, and hit .288.

Despite his impressive batting average, Lieberthal said he has endured some less than stellar streaks at the plate this season. He is in regular contact with his father Dennis, who is adept at identifying and helping to correct flaws in his son’s swing via telephone conversations.

“There will be times when I’m not hitting the ball well and I’ll be thinking, ‘What’s the deal?’ ” Lieberthal said. “I tell him what I feel I’m doing wrong, where I’m hitting the ball and where my outs have been.

“He’s usually able to get me straightened out. He’s been a big help.”

Lieberthal, who will turn 21 in January, is hoping to finish the season above .300. His defensive play, strong from the day he signed, has steadily improved.

“I see myself in triple A (next year),” Lieberthal said. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen after this season in terms of the Instructional League or winter ball.

“But it would be nice to go to big-league camp next spring.”

Making his pitch: Two days before the end of spring training, the Cleveland Indians told Scott Sharts they were taking the bat out of his hands and sending him to the mound full time.

The news stunned the former All-American first baseman from Cal State Northridge, who set the school’s career home run record in 1990 and 1991. Sharts, a 10th-round draft pick, batted .159 with five home runs and 29 runs batted in in 61 games last season at Watertown, N.Y., in the short-season Class-A New York-Penn League. He also struck out 68 times in 207 at-bats.

“They said I had the best power in the organization, but that I had not shown it,” Sharts said. “At first, it was a real downer, but when I really sat down and thought about it, I realized that I can probably move quicker as a pitcher.”

Sharts, a 6-foot-6 right-hander from Simi Valley, spent the first part of the season in extended spring training in St. Petersburg, Fla. He was 1-1 after four starts, but was moved to the bullpen a few weeks ago. He remains 1-1 with a 3.86 earned-run average in 291/3 innings.

“Sometimes I’m used in long relief and sometimes as the short setup guy,” Sharts said. “I like the role of the setup guy because it requires you to come in and get things stopped. I’ve always enjoyed that kind of responsibility.”

Sharts, however, admits that he would like nothing more than to stand, once again, in the batter’s box. “When I was at extended spring, I went to the cages a lot,” he said. “Even now, I still have bats in my locker and I look at them all the time.

“I still think that one day it might happen, I might get the chance to hit again. But right now, I have no control over that. I’m a pitcher. And I’m going to do everything I can to improve.”

Run for the border: Javier Delahoya spent last winter traversing Mexico with a Mexicali-based winter league team. The experience seems to have paid off for the former Grant High standout, who is playing for Vero Beach, the Dodgers’ Class-A affiliate in the Florida State League.

Delahoya, who started the season 0-3, evened his record Thursday night with a shutout over Ft. Lauderdale. “The parks here are nice, the mounds are perfect and the fields are big,” he said.

Those conditions are in bold contrast to the ones Delahoya faced in Mexico where his teams’ shortest bus trip was 13 hours.

Delahoya, who was 6-4 with a 3.67 ERA last season at Class-A Bakersfield, fashioned a 6-2 record for Mexicali. His opponents were mostly Mexican pros and double- and triple-A players.

“I think I benefited a lot,” said Delahoya, 21. “Burt Hooton was my pitching coach. He helped me with a lot of things and I became more consistent.”