MILWAUKEE -- Brewers left-hander Chris Capuano began a throwing program earlier this week in his continuing bid to avoid elbow surgery.

He has completed five minutes of throwing at 60 feet and three minutes at 75 feet, Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash said. The program will progress in the coming days in terms of times and distances, to 90 and then 120 feet, but Capuano is still weeks away from trying to throw off a mound.

Still, his current program should provide a gauge of his elbow strength and whether Capuano will need surgery after all.

"The feeling of the therapist was [the possible need for surgery] won't surface until he goes through his throwing program," Ash said. "The rehab stuff he was doing was not sufficient to give him the kind of reaction that would convince him he would need or not need surgery. So we just take it each day."

Capuano re-injured his surgically-repaired left elbow in a Spring Training game against Seattle, and he was advised March 23 by Brewers physician William Raasch that he had torn the ulnar collateral ligament and needed a second Tommy John surgery. Capuano went for a second option from Dr. James Andrews, who performed the original surgery in 2002, and Andrews recommended a month-long rehab instead.