"For the past month, Joe Blanton has thrown a baseball nearly every day.

It's a far cry from those torturous months this summer when every fiber of his being screamed for him to be on a pitcher's mound, but that nagging pain in his elbow kept saying no.

When he finally did pick up a ball and begin throwing again in August, it was as much an experiment as it was rehabilitation. He didn't know what to expect."