The biggest emotional roller coaster of them all

Yep, the Trade Deadline. Every year now, it seems like the Dodgers' entire season revolves around the moves they make on July 31. In 2006, they were floundering in last place, with barely any pitching and half their team on the DL...and then Ned Colletti pulled Greg Maddux and (to a much lesser extent) Julio Lugo out of his ass, and the Dodgers went on to win like their next 12 games and eventually make it into the playoffs. And, of course, last year, the Manny trade ignited one of the dullest, most disappointing teams in Dodger history and basically won them the division. So, with the Dodgers up by 7 games in the standings on July 31, 2009 but still having some very glaring pitching problems, what would Ned Colletti do? And what would happen with the rest of the league? Here's a recap of what I can remember:

11 AM, EST: I wake up, unusually giddy. There are only a few sports days that I wake up feeling this way for. The first day of March Madness...January 1st for the bowl games...the day of the Super Bowl...the first day of baseball season...and the trade deadline. That's pretty much the list. Of course, today, I'm coming off a 4:30 a.m. wakeup which was then followed by 17 hours spent in airports or airplanes, all because I missed my initial flight, and basically ruined the days of every single one of my family members involved in the trip I was taking. So...maybe my spirits are dampered a little.

11:01: Nah. Screw it, I'm still excited.

11:45: I'm all showered and packed, and ready to just chill out and let the trades and trade rumors come. The biggest names rumored to be on the move are Roy Halladay, Victor Martinez, and Jarrod Washburn, with the Dodgers apparently feverishly pursuing Halladay to shore up their rotation. If they get him, I'm reacting like the little kid in the PS2 Christmas morning commerical.

11:48: MLBTraderumors is loading. Seriously, is there ANY better baseball website than this? I say no.

11:49: Already, a big trade: Jarrod Wasburn dealt to Detroit for two prospects, who are "fringe-good" according to most scouting websites. Not a bad one for the Tigers. Hmmm, wouldn't Washburn have been perfect for the Dodgers, considering their main competition in the NL is the lefty-loaded Phillies? No, I guess that makes too much sense.

12:30 PM: MLBTR has an update which indicates that the Dodgers are "pursuing relievers over starters," mentioning Mark Lowe, David Weathers, Matt Capps, Arthur Rhodes, and Jason Frasor as possible trade targets. When your bullpen is amazing, and your starting pitchers suck, the logical solution is, of course, to...get...more...relievers?

1:00 PM: Incredibly, there's still not much going on...and now my mom and stepdad are here (because my flight got in so late, and they were an hour's drive from the airport, I stayed with a friend of theirs), and frankly I'm scared to death of what their reaction is going to be of my missing my flight yesterday, since it cost them 50,000 travel miles and almost worried them to death. At the very least, I know that I can't be running to my room to check MLBTR every five minutes when they're at a friend's house. So I bite the bullet, and call my dad to tell him to text me updates whenever they come in. My Dodger fan life is now hanging on my dad's ability to text. Ugh.

1:07 PM: Tmobile online message from my dad (hey, it's something): "LET THE VINNY ROTTINO ERA BEGIN! ROTTINO FOR VARGAS!" I have to laugh. The Dodgerblues guys are probably getting a kick out of that. And Vargas wasn't important at all; this is almost definitely a cost-cutting move meaned to free up salary for a trade. My excitement builds.

3:04 PM: After waiting on pins and needles for the last two hours, another Tmobile text comes in: "RUMORS! GONZALEZ TO LA?!?!?!??!" I'm dying. DYING. Need MLBTR...Need MLBTR...

3:05 PM: No! I can't...have to put on a good show for the fam...have to put on a good show...UGH...

3:11 PM: We're now in the car on the one-hour drive to my mom and stepdad's house. Another Tmobile text comes in, and my hands are shaking as I open it, expecting a Shawn Estes-for-Adrian Gonzo trade...nope. "V-MART TO RED SOX FOR PROSPECTS." Eh. Good trade for the Sox, I guess, depending on the prospects. I relay the info to my mom and stepdad, both diehard Sox fans. Their reaction? "You've got to get to the airport earlier from now on!"

3:20 PM: New one: "ADAM LAROCHE TO BRAVES, JERRY HAIRSTON JR. TO YANKEES." Huh? Didn't the Braves just trade LaRoche to the Pirates like 5 minutes ago? And what the hell do the Yankees need with Hairston? AND WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON WITH ADRIAN?!??!?!?

3:25 PM: Another text. Okay, this has to be it. Maybe they had to throw in Loney or something, but this is definitely the Gonzo text..."ROCKIES ACQUIRE JOE BEIMEL." Or it could just be a trade that rips my heart out. I love Joe Beimel, and now he's playing for a divison rival? Great. Why don't the Rockies just sign Bono and trade for Bruce Springsteen while they're at it?

3:46 PM: "REDS TRADE FOR SCOTT ROLEN." Cool. What about the Dodgers????

4:00 PM: The deadline. And...nothing. It's alright, I tell myself, the Manny trade didn't offically come in till like an hour after the deadline. Surely, the Dodgers have completed some blockbuster, and Roy Halladay or Adrian Gonzalez is going to be throwing shutouts/smashing home runs for LA any day now. Right?

4:05 PM: A text! Okay, this HAS to be it. "Dodgers acquire Halladay, GONZO!, GONZO AND HALLADAY OMG!" or something like that. I smile as I open it up, get ready to party, and...

4:05 PM: ..."MARLINS ACQUIRE NICK JOHNSON."

4:06 PM: Yep, it's just now dawning on me that the Dodgers' big deadline acquisiton was Vinny Rottino, a 29-year-old Double-A catcher who was batting .250 in the Brewers' system. No Halladay, no Adrian Gonzalez, nothing. The Dodgers are now going to war with like 2 1/2 competent starting pitchers and a heavily overused bullpen. What a freaking cocktease.

It only gets worse a couple hours later, when MLBTR reports: "The Padres very nearly traded Heath Bell and Adrian Gonzalez to the Dodgers for James Loney, Russell Martin, James McDonald, Blake Dewitt, and Ivan Dejesus, but the Dodgers backed away." Hmmm, so they almost had the World Series wrapped up (Manny and Gonzo in the middle of the order? Heath Bell, George Sherrill, and Broxton sharing the same bullpen? Yeah, I'd be getting advance tickets to the Dodgers' World Championship parade) but backed away at the last second. Awesome. Last year they managed to pull the trigger, but...not this year. Go figure.

Things improve later that night, when July 30 acquistion George Sherrill makes his first appearance as a Dodger with LA leading 4-0 in the seventh in a two-on, nobody out jam, and proceeds to strike out the side. Jason Schmidt picks up the win, throwing six shutout innings (no, really), Andre Ethier homers and doubles, and the Dodgers pick up a game on both Colorado and San Francisco...but I just can't shake the feeling that they blew a big opportunity. Adrian Gonzalez AND Heath Bell, for a few young guys that were either disappointing (Loney, Martin) or hadn't panned out yet despite numerous chances (McDonald, Dewitt)? That would have been a freaking steal, and possibly a championship-clincher. Alas...George Sherrill will have to do. Go Dodgers, and may Cliff Lee lose his next seven starts.