Whoa.  It appears the white flag has been officially waved.  Heilman and Harden were placed on waivers and have been claimed.  According to FoxSports.com:

Right-handed starter Rich Harden and right-handed reliever Aaron Heilman have been claimed on waivers, according to major-league sources.

A National League team was awarded the claim on Heilman, one source said. The claiming team on Harden is not known, but presumably he did not get through the NL, either. Players must pass through their own league first before being exposed on waivers to teams in the other league.

The Cubs will have until Monday afternoon to work out trades, allow Harden and Heilman to depart on claims or pull them back them from waivers.

More on this to come, but as much as I love Harden he is what is considered a “Type A” free agent.  Although I am unclear on what that means exactly, I believe that we would be receiving some first-round picks if a deal is worked out.

Blow it up.

***UPDATE: Matt at Sharapova’s Thigh clears up the Type A Free Agent thing: “We were going to end up getting a couple of draft picks when he signs elsewhere, but not if he’s traded now.”

ShysterBall had a post yesterday about the science of pitch counts, citing an article that suggested that teams should look a little more closely at how their pitchers tire during the game.  Sometimes a simple pitch count doesn’t tell the whole story.

However, the most interesting part of the post to me was a section that highlighted a couple of guys and their ridiculous pitch counts.  First was Washington’s Tom Cheney, who in 1962 threw a complete game…in 16 innings.  It took 228 pitches to get the job done.  That would make CC Sabathia blush.

The second example was Nolan Ryan, which was not surprising.  Ryan would routinely flirt with 200 pitches in a game.  He’d walk a lot of guys, strikeout others, and rack up huge pitch counts.

These kind of things are absolutely unheard of these days, in fact last year we all complained about how the Brewers were abusing CC by making him go for 120 pitches in a game.  Then you have guys like Harden who are almost sure injury cases when they pitch over 100 in consecutive starts.

Of course the change in the culture has its pros and cons.  It must have been awesome to watch a guy like Ryan simply never give in and reach back for a heater at 170 pitches.  On the other hand, guys like Harden wouldn’t exist in the majors.  The kid is a strikeout machine and after being pushed like that, he’d be out of the league within a couple years back then (or now if Dusty was in charge).

• Harden looks good in his first spring action.  The Cubs are being very careful with him, but  it’s nice to see him actually throwing off a mound. [Tribune]
• DePaul wins their first Big East game in the conference tournament.  Only like 9 more wins to get into the big dance. [Deadspin]
• Yeah the Bulls lost in a close one yesterday, but did they really play that well?  They had 13 assists as a team, one of the worst totals of any team all season. [A Stern Warning]
• Why was Bradley randomly pulling himself from games for the Rangers last year, even when he was healthy?  I’m all for giving him a clean slate, but this doesn’t sound good. [Ft. Worth Star]
• Would a trade for Bobby Crosby make sense?  I think it wouldn’t be a terrible idea.  It’s not like Vizcaino is anything but garbage out of the bullpen anyways. [Bleacher Nation]
• Could Wade come to the Bulls in 2010?  It’s not out of the realm of possibility.  One can only dream… [Sun-Times]
• Was a home for mentally retarded people forcing them to participate in a fight club?  Someone is going to hell. [HHR]