Mike Hampton won't be ready to return any time soon from an aggravated pectoral muscle, but an MRI ruled out the worst-case scenario: a tear and another season-ending surgery.

And yes, a guy who hasn't pitched in 32 months let the idea of not pitching this season —- or ever again —- creep into his mind after re-injuring himself Wednesday in a rehab outing for Class AAA Richmond.

"Yeah, sure, retirement creeped in, surgery has creeped in," said Hampton, 35 and in the last year of his contract. "There are all kinds of thoughts going through your mind when you go through something like this, where you feel like you have a chance, and now this has happened again. There are some doubts in there, but I'm not going to give up. "

When he injured the pectoral muscle in the bullpen before his scheduled April 3 start, Hampton took a week off before he started throwing. It took him a month to get his arm ready for a projected May 10 return.

Hampton said the pain Wednesday was worse, and he plans to take more time to rest this time. So he would be doing well to return in June.

He's as frustrated as anybody about, among other things, not knowing when he'll be back.

"It's frustrating talking about another injury," Hampton said. "It's been a lot of years of frustration, but I'm a pretty strong guy."

Smoltz addresses issues about future

Implications of John Smoltz's impending move to the bullpen continue to shake out. Smoltz addressed some of those Friday, as he looks ahead to two weeks of rest and then probably a minor league rehab assignment. Here is Smoltz on:

> Why it's better this time for him to pitch fewer innings more often than once every five days despite his 2.00 ERA through five starts:

"I know the success that I've had has confused people ... but it's only been five innings at a time, and it was getting harder to do that. ... Pitching an inning, sitting down, pitching an inning, sitting down was getting tougher as I got to the fourth and fifth inning. I feel like one inning at a time might be a little bit better at this point."

> His contract, which has a $12 million option for 2009 that kicks in if he reaches 200 innings this season:

"That's not going to happen. There's no magic that's going to make that happen. That's fine. That's just the way it is.

"Rather than pout, I choose to find a better way to attack the problem."

> Thoughts of retirement (Smoltz turns 41 on May 15):

"If tomorrow a fortune teller says 'You're never going to pitch again,' I'm completely fine with it. If they told me I'm going to pitch another two years, that would be great. ... I refuse to start thinking down those trails. That does you no good.

"I'm focused on trying to do whatever it can possibly take to help us win this year."

Moylan will test elbow in bullpen

All signs have been pointing to season-ending elbow surgery for Peter Moylan, but Moylan's not so sure.

After two weeks of rest, Moylan has felt good enough to begin throwing again. He has played catch for three days and is set to throw in the bullpen today to test the elbow, which has a bone spur growing into his ligament. After feeling "pretty good" throwing from 120 feet Friday, Moylan was not yet ruling out a return.

"I'm done interpreting, I really am," said Moylan, who's going to let his arm dictate what happens.

"When it first happened, I thought my elbow was going to explode, and two weeks ago I thought there was no chance I'd be able to pick up a ball again without surgery. But then all of a sudden it just sort of loosened up, and my arm is straight again.

"The only time that I really feel anything is when I extend my arm, and that's not the same sort of pain."

Etc.

Brent Lillibridge was optioned back to Richmond to make room for Saturday's starter Jo-Jo Reyes on the roster.