For Harden, waiver process definitely a learning experience

Cubs pitcher Rich Harden admitted to knowing little or nothing about baseball's waiver process, so it wasn't surprising that he also didn't know he'd been put on waivers by the Cubs and claimed by at least one team.

"I was surprised to hear it but lot of guys are claimed and nothing happens," Harden said Friday. "I'm happy being here and would like to be able to stay, but we'll see what happens. No, I wasn't even familiar with it."

Few people are.

At this time of year, nearly every major-league player is put on waivers, if for no other reason, to gauge trade interest.

The Cubs likely put all 25 of their players on waivers, and it appears that at least a half-dozen or so were claimed by other teams. The names of Harden and reliever Aaron Heilman were leaked to the news media, probably from another team.

The Cubs have until Monday to either let the team awarded the claim take the player, work out a trade or pull the player back off waivers and keep him.

Harden won't be allowed to go for nothing. If the Cubs were to think about trading him, they'd have to weigh whether what they'd get in return is better than the draft picks they'd get if he leaves as a free agent this winter.

Call-ups coming: Look for the Cubs to call up about seven or eight players from Class AAA Iowa after rosters are allowed to expand Sept. 1.

How many and when will depend on Iowa's playoff situation.

Pitchers Justin Berg, David Patton and Esmailin Caridad are likely to be added to the big club, as well as infielder-outfielder Micah Hoffpauir, infielder Andres Blanco and infielder Bobby Scales.

"The people that we're going to call up are pitchers and players that have been here before," said manager Lou Piniella. "We'll mix them into the equation. It's not like we're bringing up what you would say is a young player that hasn't been here that you need to really, really look at."

No morning person: Right fielder Milton Bradley admitted the first year playing at Wrigley Field has been a tough one, what with the Cubs having a majority of day games.

"Strange as it may seem, what people don't understand is you play baseball your whole life, and you're on teams that play mostly night games," he said. "You're getting up at 2 in the afternoon to come in and do whatever you do. Here, you've got to get up at 8 o'clock in the morning and get ready. It's an adjustment for your body. You may be ready for it and say, 'I can do that, I can handle that.' Your body's going to tell you something different."