Either doctors are getting better at performing Tommy John surgery or they've learned more about how to come back from it, because Billy Wagner could be back in a Mets uniform less than a year after going under the knife.
Wagner has thrown five scoreless innings for the Mets' Single-A affiliate in Port St. Lucie and will make two more appearances this week. If all goes well, he could be back in the bigs as soon as this weekend, which would give the Mets two closers and no save opportunities.
Unless they're gunning for some group health care rate, Wagner can't help the Mets. Might he be of use to a team that isn't swirling the drain, though?
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
Now that the hands are dealt -- expect for one or two more this month -- we can examine the pennant races to come.
There wasn't much point in assessing the races until after Friday's non-waiver trade deadline, when we know what we're dealing with. Some important pieces will change hands after they clear waivers this month, but they probably won't be difference-makers.
Before we get to the predictions, though, let's talk about one trade that didn't happen.
"We're going to do some more interviewing and hopefully we'll have something productive done by the end of the week," McLane said. "But that's not a deadline. We're going to wait until we find the right person. We're going to re-interview several candidates."
The Astros have interviewed four former GMs -- Bob Watson, Ed Wade, Jim Beattie and Dan Evans -- as well as seven who are currently serving in an assistant capacity: Ruben Amaro Jr. (Phillies), Logan White (Dodgers), Dave Gottfried and Ricky Bennett (Astros), Steve Lubratich (Indians), John Mozeliak (Cardinals) and Muzzy Jackson (Royals).
I'm not really sure why the Astros would jump the gun so quickly in hiring a candidate, especially when it's not even the offseason yet. Why not wait until things shake down after the season is over, or maybe wait until just after the offseason, to gauge newly minted candidates? I don't get it, but then again, I don't get Drayton McLane.
And no, the new GM isn't going to be Jeff Bagwell, even if anyone with the balls to wear that shirt at a jersey retirement deserves a front office job.
Well, Bagwell used [androstenedione] - banned in every sport but baseball at the time, and now banned by MLB - before McGwire went nuts in 1998. Do you see that men-tioned anywhere? Bagwell will be honored in August, when his jersey will be retired.
Will fans boo him? Will the media pester him to talk about the past?
Does Bagwell get a pass because androstenedione was legal at the time? He didn't break any laws acquiring it or using it, but the stuff is no longer on the shelves because it performs a similar function that an anabolic steroid does. You can take testosterone or take this stuff that makes your body produce testosterone.
This is the problem baseball has with its steroid witch-hunt: everyone used steroids in the 1990s. Sure, maybe not 100% of the players, but a lot more than you or I could possibly speculate. Instead of admitting there was a wide-ranging problem in the sport, baseball is using things like the George Mitchell study to single a couple guys out and say, "Here was the problem, all fixed now!" As a result, guys like Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds have been demonized while tons of players will get free passes. Is it worth diverting tons of resources to scapegoat a couple guys for image purposes as opposed to marking an entire era "The Steroid Era?" Wouldn't those resources be better spent staying a step ahead of the players and their chemists in the now, rather than trying to change something that's already happened?
Either doctors are getting better at performing Tommy John surgery or they've learned more about how to come back from it, because Billy Wagner could be back in a Mets uniform less than a year after going under the knife. 
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in 
The Astros are wasting no time in their search for a new GM. Like, no time: owner 
Jerome Solomon has a rather interesting blog entry
