Via Hardball Talk, Edinson Volquez throws off a mound seven months after Tommy John surgery. That’s good news.

In the 35 years since the invention of the surgery, they haven’t come up with a way to bring players back quicker from the procedure. If someone came up with a way to reduce the recovery period by 3/4, it would be a great boon to players and teams. It very well may not be possible, that it takes at least a year to heal and learn to use the new ligament. In general, however, surgery gets less invasive over time, leading to faster recovery times. So far, that hasn’t happened with TJS.