"Twins star closer Joe Nathan, a rare reliever who's also a team leader, will test his right elbow by playing catch either Saturday, Sunday or Monday in what's being portrayed as a long-shot attempt to avoid Tommy John surgery and save his season. That may be true, but the Twins are not looking at the situation as a lost cause for the year --- at least not yet. Gardenhire, who admits to being perpetually optimistic, said that the Twins have heard from a few doctors suggesting that there's a chance that Nathan might be able to pitch despite his torn ulnar collateral ligament.

"Some say he could pitch through it, others say no,'' Gardenhire said. The list of pitchers who've pitched through the injury doesn't seem to be very long, though. One is Takashi Saito, now with the Braves. The Twins have done a fair amount of research on this. Former Minnesota starter Scott Erickson pitched without that ligament, Gardenhire said."

I was reading Jon Heyman's latest article and came across this nugget of info. How does Saito pitch with that ligament torn??? I have a real bad feeling about this signing.