Mike Shildt on Yu Darvish's return, another award for Jackson Merrill and Ha Seong Kim update

how much are you looking forward to seeing you garbage back on the map very excited you know we always welcome you back and I know he's excited the club's excited and be good to have him out there all the reports are that he's been throwing the ball really really well has it surprised anybody how quickly he's gotten up his speed and how sharp he's looked so far to get ready at this quickly doesn't surprise me at all I me as the guys you know won 200 games in the big leagues and been doing this a long time and and I think you know took advantage of his time away um to put himself in this position what's real realistic expectation for today in terms of pitch counts and his sharpness and what should we expect yeah I mean I think uh you know Hugh's like I said a veteran guy that has been throwing through up to 66 pitches last time out four ups and downs so uh we'll evaluate let the game tell us what's been fun is talking to the other starting pitchers who get a chance to talk with him I mean he seems like he's been a great mentor and teacher to to a lot of these guys what's what's just his presence back in this Dugout yeah no it's important you know to have guys we talk about this you know a fair amount it's really important that you know we share experiences and um the guys that have more of them share them and the guys who don't have as many take advantage of their own and then others and so um you know used got a wealth of experience that he's he's very willing to share and wants to share and um you know smart for the people to take advantage of Jackson Mar working of the Year second time or of the month I should say I'm getting ahead of myself but as you know Jackson he doesn't like to talk about himself and maybe you can share with us uh your thoughts on him getting the award a second time yeah I mean welld deserved clearly another um Stellar month for Jackson um played really well big part of helping us win games and uh you know I can't speak for Jackson I think we have similar sentiments like it's great um he's deserved it now let's uh let's move forward you clearly knew he was good coming out of spring training did you did you expect him to be this good this soon uh it's it's hard to really I I'm not a big you know put limits either way on guys you know I knew he's clearly had a a lot of ability I knew he had a um strong desire to win strong desire to compete he had a high baseball IQ um you know it's it's hard to say you know I'm an optimist by Nature so I you know have we we did start him in center field for a reason and um you know course he clearly rewarded that um you know to say he's done his well and it's surprising I can't say I'm surprised cuz I know the person and the talent but um it is pretty impressive he refuses to talk individual Awards but how much the guys in his team want be the year award for him I think all of our teammates and Clubhouse guys on this club want individual recognition for their teammates um you know I think we want all the guys to get Allstar games and rookie of the years and you know anything else they may up may be up for um but I also know that this group is uh more excited about what this team's looking to accomplish the two guys you brought back now without rehab since because they've been ready getting ready through Arizona what are the things that kind of go into understanding when a guy is ready to be activated from I know you're not your focus is here but what are the things going understanding whether guys yeah I know I I've been on the rehab side of play development side of you know getting back to to majorly competition side of it um I think it's a combination of things you know look there's a lot of people that weigh in on what that program looks like you know the medical clearly and our medical staff does an excellent job here um you know the strength conditioning component to it as well uh I know a big part of that especially with players like darish and toddy guys that um know their bodies have experience in this game you know we're going to we're going to listen to them as well we're going to part of them on what that looks like and at the end of the day we're going to trust them and so um you know again I like the idea of him being able to um get in a controlled environment and and get up to his pitches and he's been a controlled environment I mean the guy's pitched a lot of years so I think he knows what this environment looks like and I refer to him when he says he's ready and all the whitness test of him being able to throw his pitches all the things that we use from a sport Science standpoint that indicates that you know his shapes are looking similar to what they've looked like when he's healthy um all go into the equation and when now it's matter him to go out there and compete for us could Kim come back without that might of the rehab games I think you're ahead of yourself but um I wouldn't say I wouldn't roll it out you know he's not been away too terribly long um everybody's got their individual preference to what they do and we'll just evaluate Kimmy as we go fancy football is a Hot Topic this week I'm curious if you fit that into your busy schedule I do not all right I could I I couldn't have you who's your football team then if you have one I'm from I'm from Carolina gotta kind of a rough uh year at possibly I'm an optimist I like it I'd rather not pin my club on a on a bad footing so I'm an optimist fair enough we can be realistic too though have you ever played excuse me have you ever played it fantasy football um I think when I was like 20 years ago yeah this time of year I don't have much much bandwidth of our fantasy fot I'm glad the guys play it it's a nice you know opportunity for them to enjoy it amongst themselves but um yeah I don't I can't beir down on the third receiver for the Vikings right now anything else cool thanks