Mike Hampton declared himself ready for a minor-league rehab assignment Tuesday, which means he could soon return to the mound for the first time since 2005.

Hampton threw his third bullpen session since he strained his pectoral muscle in the bullpen before he was scheduled to make his season debut on April 3. He threw with nearly maximum effort Tuesday and came away confident he was ready to take the next step.

After a couple of days' rest, he could head out on a minor-league assignment as soon as Friday.

"I let it go about as much as I could in a bullpen," Hampton said. "You always wonder if that pitch will happen again where you feel it again. Hopefully a minor-league rehab will get that thought process out of my head and I'll be able to move forward and get back in the rotation."

Hampton mixed in his cutters, curveballs and changeups in 62 pitches Tuesday. He threw all his pitches, he said, except the one he injured himself April 3 — a sinker inside.

"I still wonder why it happened the first time," Hampton said. "I'm not going to go out and throw and act like nothing happened."

He said he's thrown sinkers away but stuck to four-seam fastballs and cutters inside.

"I can get by without it if I can hit my spot," said Hampton, who said it's probably more of a mental hurdle than physical. "It shouldn't be any different, but I don't know. Maybe [I'll] save that [pitch] for after the All-Star break."

Hampton said he's used the extra time to get his legs in better shape and to start hitting in the cage, so he's more ready for other aspects of the game than he was coming out of spring training.

Glavine readies for return

Tom Glavine doesn't plan for his first-ever disabled list stint to go any longer than necessary. He's eligible to come off Tuesday when the team is in Washington, and Glavine is gearing up to start that night.

He's given his sore right hamstring nine days' rest, and other than some soreness where there was bruising, he said it's feeling much better. Glavine said flexibility is still an issue but is not something he thinks will prevent him from getting back on the mound.

Glavine plans to play catch today, his first activitiy since injuring his hamstring on a pitch in Washington on April 13. Then he plans to give the hamstring a real test in a side session on Thursday.

"It's progressively getting better," Glavine said. "It's not 100 percent yet, but I don't really have pain. It's sore where the [bruising] is. That's normal. The biggest thing with me when I did it was my flexibility. I'm usually pretty flexible. Now it's tight, but it doesn't hurt."

Watching his teammates roll off five consecutive wins has made his wait go more quickly.

"For me to be on the DL, you have that feeling of disappointment and feeling like you're letting the guys down," Glavine said. "The time I go down we're in the middle of a losing streak, so it's just like one thing after another. The fact that Benny [Jeff Bennett] filled in and pitched well and Chuckie [James] filled in and pitched well and we won five in a row — it's a little bit easier to be patient."

Bennett, who's scheduled to pitch tonight against the Marlins, had a 100.7-degree temperature Tuesday. But he's still scheduled to pitch, either way. "Got to," manager Bobby Cox said.