Cooper sees nothing but positives from young Chicago White Sox starters
Far more than any other sport, baseball is steeped in failure.
Average just 3 hits per 10 at-bats and there's a good chance you're an all-star.
Pitch 6 innings and give up 3 runs and you've earned a quality start.
Stressing the positives in a game brimming with negatives can be a daunting task, but few do it better than Chicago White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper.
Now in his 17th season on the job, the 62-year-old Cooper always has been in his pitching staff's corner.
But with three young starters - Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Carson Fulmer - competing in their first full major-league season, Cooper has become even more protective.
"I'm impatient with many things in life, in the real world," Cooper said. "If I'm patient anywhere it's here, pitching, because I know it doesn't happen right away all the time."
At various points through the first five weeks of the season, Cooper has read or heard about Giolito being a back of the rotation starter in the future, Lopez's inability to go deeper into games and Fulmer being a better fit as a relief pitcher.
He's not having any of it.
"I can point out Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson, Hall of Fame guys that did not get it right away," Cooper said. "Shouldn't everybody else be afforded that patience?
"Here, and sometimes I think it's the reporting and getting to people and getting to people who don't know, to a dark side, it gets negative. I'm far from that. It's so different from how I wake up, and how I go about my day.
"I'm looking at the good in everything. On the sideline, when they make a bad pitch on the sideline, I'm not thinking bad. It's more, 'That might be a good chase pitch for a righty, a good chase pitch for a lefty.' I'm thinking the exact opposite."
The positive approach has been appreciated by veteran White Sox starters from Mark Buehrle to Chris Sale in the past, and Cooper has carried it forward to Giolito (1-4, 7.03 ERA), Lopez (0-2, 2.43) and Fulmer (2-2, 5.02).
"He knows a lot," Lopez said through a translator. "He has a lot of experience. He tells me how to take advantage of my abilities and how to improve myself at this level. I feel very grateful to be working with him."
You would think a veteran pitching coach would want to be paired with a veteran pitching staff, but Cooper has been invigorated by all of the new young arms in the Sox's system.
Giolito, Lopez and Fulmer already have arrived, and Michael Kopech, Dane Dunning and Dylan Cease are in the next wave.
"One thing about spring training was we got to see all the kids we acquired," Cooper said. "We're getting stronger. We've got depth down there, and they need more time. You've got to water them, let them get some sun and see how they grow, like a plant.
"There's another draft coming up soon. So we're going to get stronger and we're getting there. It was nice to see the Ceases, Dunning and how he's doing, and Kopech, all of these guys. They're coming. Last year for me when we brought up the young guys, it was kind of refreshing. Because this is big.
"We've got to make sure we're doing everything we can for these guys to have the career they're looking to have, to reach their dreams and be as good as they can be, and put them on that path."