Kernels’ J.J. Fernandez learning from self-inflicted injury

CEDAR RAPIDS - J.J. Fernandez is an emotional player. That's not always good in a professional sport where you play every day.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels outfielder broke his left hand during a game last season punching a wall in a moment of frustration. That cost him the final two months.

He learned the hard way that the even-keeled way is the best way in baseball.

'Last season was a lot of lows and highs,” Fernandez said, after the Kernels' 5-1 loss to South Bend on a miserably cold and wet Saturday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium. 'At times, I was trying to do too much. When something wasn't going too well, there was a lot of frustration. But after the season, I tried to clear my mind and get ready for this season.”

He has been swinging the bat much better of late, even after an 0-for-4 night here. The 22-year-old switch-hitter, a seventh-round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins in 2012 out of a high school in Puerto Rico, came into Saturday hitting .429 in his previous five games and .371 in his previous 10.

That included his first home run of the season, a long drive the other way over the porch in left the other night against West Michigan.

'I change a little bit, my approach,” Fernandez said. 'I've tried to go the other way a little more. Just try to go that way, so I can see all the pitches better, get on top of the ball.”

'He's harder on himself, probably, than anybody,” said Kernels Manager Jake Mauer. 'He got frustrated, especially last year, easily. In this game, you fail so much, you can't allow yourself to (get frustrated), or it will swallow you up. That probably happened to him the first six weeks last year.”

Fernandez pulled a ball down the line for a double in a June game at Kane County but missed first base and was called out. Understandably mad at himself, he took his left hand and swung at a clubhouse wall.

The wall almost always wins in that case.

'I was pretty disappointed in myself,” he said. 'I was not trying to do that. At the time, I was feeling so frustrated. I was not trying to hurt myself. It was a bad move.”

'He was really starting to swing the bat good when he got hurt,” Mauer said. 'Hit one down the line at Kane County, missed first base, went up to the clubhouse and punched a wall. That's a young mistake, a frustration mistake. It sounds funny to say, but you've got to accept that you are going to make outs. It's just going to happen. The sooner you realize your days of hitting .400 are over, that the pitchers are way too good, the better off you will be.”

Cedar Rapids (13-10) was limited to three hits, with South Bend (13-9) scoring three times in the first and once in the second for an early lead that held. Starting pitcher Dereck Rodriguez (0-4) took the loss, giving up six hits and five runs, in four innings.

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