Granite, Larson hope to be healthy, productive

CEDAR RAPIDS – Zack Larson and Zach Granite carried their equipment bags from the bus Monday afternoon, walked into the Cedar Rapids Kernels home clubhouse and picked out the locker stalls they would use this season.

It's an important deal. You need to be next to someone you like, first of all.

You might want to face the clubhouse television, so you can watch when you want. Maybe you'd rather be in one of the four corners of the clubhouse for more privacy.

Or, as it was in this case, you wish to be as far away as possible from where you were last season.

'We were over there last year,” Larson said, pointing across the room. 'Now we're over here. It's opposite everything.”

Opposite stall leads to opposite mojo, which leads to opposite luck and opposite results. That's the plan.

The outfielders were limited to 62 games combined last season for the Kernels, and that's despite both being in the starting lineup on opening night. Larson tore his hamstring and missed all but 41 games of 2014.

Granite messed up his shoulder diving for a ball the first week of the season, came back in early July, then suffered a quadriceps injury. He played in just 21 games.

'It feels good to be healthy, feels good to be back here healthy,” Larson said. 'Being hurt is terrible. Having to do rehab sucks. We were miserable down in Fort Myers last summer. So we're happy to be back here and looking forward to a good season. A healthy season.”

Fort Myers, Fla., is where the parent Minnesota Twins' minor-league complex is located. That's where most injured players are sent to recuperate.

It's a miserable deal. You show up early in the morning for treatment and stuff, but that's the extent of your baseball existence.

'It was extremely frustrating,” Granite said. 'I was on the phone to my parents all the time. Really, it was a rough year. There's nothing else I can say about that. But I'm past it. It has motivated me, and I'm ready to play this year.”

The Kernels (3-0) have their home opener Sunday afternoon at 4:05 against Beloit. Larson is 4-for-13 with five RBIs and a couple of stolen bases in the very early going, while Granite is 3-for-9 with four walks and three runs.

They're playing every day, and that's the biggest thing.

'They'll both do really well if they can stay healthy and we can get them the at-bats we were hoping to get them last year,” said Kernels Manager Jake Mauer. 'Granite has been looking really good, a lot more flexible. Larson is moving way better. We brought him back up here at the end of last year, but he was pretty much toast, as far as that hamstring goes. Larson probably hit close to .600 in spring training. He was hitting the ball everywhere.

'Both those guys having the experience and being two of the older guys now, which sounds funny to say, we look for those guys to be in a leadership role and really kind of anchor our lineup.”

Granite is Cedar Rapids' leadoff hitter, a 22-year-old from Staten Island, N.Y., who was the Twins' 14th-round draft pick in 2013. Larson, a 21-year-old Floridian who was Minnesota's 20th-round pick in 2012, has been batting third.

Oh, by the way, the pair have even changed their uniform numbers this season. New jersey, new locker, new start.

'Rough year last year,” Granite said. 'But I had a healthy spring training, no injuries. I'm taking care of my body a lot better than I was, so I'm just trying to play 140 games this year.”

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