Cooper sees bounce-back potential in Shields

CHICAGO — White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper spoke at length with MLB.com about the team’s new direction and the trade of staff-ace Chris Sale. He also addressed a few pitchers new to the the organization. Here are some of his comments.

• A potential James Shields bounce-back from a dismal ’16?: “James is a veteran guy that knows what it takes to be good and knows what it takes to put him and his team in a position to win. We need for him to do that much more often than we saw [in 2016].

“The newness of a fresh season, not being traded for the first time at the Deadline, all the other stuff that surrounded him, the hammering of the [Padres] owner on him, the over-trying to make good on the trade and show us what he can do, it just didn’t work out the way we wanted it to work out. We got a fresh start and that’s kind of where I’m at with James Shields. I’m looking forward to the fresh start.”

• Carson Fulmer’s future: “Smart kid. Good kid. Willing kid. Hungry kid who got a taste of the big leagues. He’s better for that because now he knows what the heck is going on there over anybody else that hasn’t had that opportunity.

“I saw Carson on video his last three starts or two starts in Triple-A [Charlotte] and that really rang well with my eyes because he looked …

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