Phillies prospects Adam Haseley, Mickey Moniak and Cornelius Randolph hope to break out of slow start in Reading

READING -- Adam Haseley hadn’t experienced much adversity since the Phillies made him the No. 8 overall pick of the 2017 draft out of the University of Virginia.

Last month, it was a different experience for the Reading outfielder.

After hitting .316 in 39 games for double-A Reading last season, following his promotion from high class-A Clearwater, Haseley was expected to pick up where he left off.

“I was talking to [teammate] Darick Hall about how the game doesn’t owe anybody anything,” Haseley said Saturday, hours before the Fightin Phils’ home game against the Portland Sea Dogs. “It doesn’t roll over into the next year.”

It certainly didn’t roll over into the season’s first month.

Haseley, who turned 23 in April, batted just .172. Ranked as the Phillies’ No. 7 prospect by The Inquirer, he has rebounded this month, hitting .345. He has played 13 games in center fielder, 18 in right, and one in left, hitting .252 for the season.

“Haseley has had good at-bats all year, it has been a matter of getting a couple to fall lately,” Reading manager Shawn Williams said.

He certainly had good at-bats this weekend. On Friday, Haseley hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning, in Reading’s 3-1 win over Boston’s affiliate. He added two more home runs in Saturday’s 4-1 win, giving him six for the season.

Haseley is part of an all-first-round-draft-choice outfield, which includes Mickey Moniak, the No. 1 overall pick in 2016, and Cornelius Randolph, the No. 10 overall selection in 2015.

Moniak hit .195 in April. In May he is batting .301. For the season, he is hitting .243 with nine doubles, an Eastern League-leading five triples, three home runs, and a team-high 20 RBIs.

A native Californian, Moniak, who turned 21 on May 13, doesn’t blame his rough start on the weather. Last year at Clearwater, he hit .213 in April. Being able to bounce back is the key, he said.

“I knew from Clearwater that as fast as you can do down, you go up as well so there was no panic this year,” said Moniak, who finished strong by hitting .311 in August. “I think that is what the minor leagues are for, learning to handle failure and finding ways to kind of bring yourself out of it.”

Williams, who managed Moniak at Clearwater, loves his upside. This season, Moniak has played 23 games in center field and 11 in right.

“Moniak has a huge ceiling in my opinion,” Williams said. “He did the same thing last year, started slowly, but he was pretty awesome by the end of the year and is starting to do those things right now.”

Randolph, who batted .241 last year, is in his second season at Reading. This year he hit .229 in April and is batting .218 this month.

Randolph, who will turn 22 in on June 2, is showing more power this year. After hitting five home runs in 410 at-bats last season, he has four in 90 at-bats.

“I feel my AB’s are better,” Randolph said. “I am hitting the ball hard consistently, whether they fall for hits or not.”

Randolph is usually a slow starter, hitting .152 in April 2018 and .203 the previous April.

“To me, if this is his slow start, that is pretty darn good, because I managed him [in 2017 and 2016], and as the season goes on, he gets a lot stronger,” Williams said.

The Reading manager said he is confident all three outfielders will continue to improve and cautioned that it is too early in the season to judge them on their statistics.