I know what Paul DePodesta is feeling right now, because I’ve been to the racetrack. Many times I’ve put my hopes on a daily double. As you probably know, the daily double means you have to pick the winners of the first and second races. Just picking one will yield nothing. If you fail to win the daily double, it can take a lot of enjoyment from the rest of your day.

I’ve won the first race many times. I felt like I was sitting pretty. I would even make plans for my winnings, based on my best calculations. I imagined myself at a fine restaurant, ordering two or three appetizers and a bottle of bubbly before a lavish main course and dessert. But when the second race unfolded, and my horse finished out of the money, I would go get a beer instead. It was usually flat.

DePodesta, the Dodgers’ 31-year-old general manager, certainly must be experiencing the same wave of emotions. He did his best, but failed. He tried to improve his ballclub, but didn’t. He gave it the old college try, and for him, the old college try isn’t all that old. Somebody should buy him a beer to cheer him up, even if it’s flat. It will match his franchise’s mood.

DePodesta attempted his own daily double before Saturday’s 4 p.m. ET trade deadline. The first leg was somewhat successful, depending on whether you agree that he should have attempted this gamble at all. And I don’t. But he obtained starting pitcher Brad Penny, first baseman Hee Seop Choi and minor-league left-handed reliever Bill Murphy from the Florida Marlins for catcher Paul Lo Duca, setup reliever Guillermo Mota and outfielder Juan Encarnacion.

But as I’ve already pointed out, winning just one half of the daily double will get you zilch.

DePodesta obviously wanted to make a splash, so he bet big. He wanted owner Frank McCourt to be hailed by an adoring faithful like Caesar. He wanted to steal the headlines away from the Anaheim Angels and their free-spending first-year owner Arte Moreno, who have been encroaching on Dodger turf lately.

So he designed his wager so the second half of his daily double would net ace Randy Johnson, outfielder Steve Finley and catcher Charles Johnson.

After the trade deadline passed, all DePodesta could do was tear up his tickets.

Dodger fans might just do the same.

I admire DePodesta for boldly attempting to seize the momentum down the stretch in a taut race. If the Dodgers had the Big Unit, they would have one of the most dominating starters in the majors. A player like that is invaluable in a playoff series where he could get two starts and maybe even three. I can see the logic.

But the Dodgers are atop the NL West anyway. What they needed to do was augment what they had. If there was a way to add a starter without giving up more than a couple of prospects and maybe one current major leaguer, then they would be boosting an already lively team.

Instead, DePodesta chose to rip up the core of his roster and replace it with only two months to go in the season. That’s a much bigger gamble than a daily double. That’s a sucker's bet.

And sucker is what DePodesta is looking like today. He’s an extremely bright and creative executive who may go on to greatness someday. But it seems he made the first half of the two-part deal without a guarantee that the second would happen.

The stumbling block had appeared to be Randy Johnson’s refusal to go to L.A., but he changed his mind and gave his approval. Then the Diamondbacks apparently played hardball. They upped the ante at the last minute. The Dodgers backed away.

DePodesta was able to complete a trade with Arizona for 39-year-old outfielder Finley that included sending the recently obtained Murphy to the Diamondbacks. But now he doesn’t have an everyday catcher, other than 36-year-old journeyman Brent Mayne, a throw-in in the Finley transaction, and current Dodger David Ross.

Lo Duca is gone to Florida, and Charles Johnson of the Colorado Rockies refused to waive his no-trade clause that would have enabled him to become a Dodger again. Also, the Dodgers gave up highly regarded minor league catching prospect Koyie Hill in the Finley deal, so they not only damaged their catching present, but their catching future as well. That’s a daily double of disaster.

What DePodesta gambled away was Lo Duca, who was an outstanding player, a fan favorite and a good clubhouse guy. Why he would trade the popular Lo Duca at this critical juncture in the season and tamper with team chemistry is one of the great mysteries of 2004. DePodesta also sent away Mota — the Dodgers’ dependable bridge between the wobbly starters and closer Eric Gagne — and handed the job to the fragile and oft-injured Darren Dreifort.

It’s nice for the Dodgers to have Penny, who could become the team’s No. 1 starter by default. Having Hee Seop Choi at first will enable Shawn Green to return to the outfield. Yet this is all still mystifying. I understand you have to give up something in order to get something. But when a team makes a trade, it usually gives up something it has an overabundance of in order to get something in return that it has a shortage of — and the other club does the same.

The Dodgers had holes before, and now they just have different holes.

There could be another explanation for why DePodesta’s daily double failed to pay off. Maybe it was never a daily double to begin with. Maybe it was all a smokescreen.

Maybe McCourt — who had to borrow heavily in order to buy the Dodgers, and who recently missed another payment on a Boston parking lot he owns — wants to cut the payroll. Maybe he orchestrated this to make the fans think he was after a superstar starter in Randy Johnson when what he really wanted to do was slash expenses.

Lo Duca, Encarnacion and Mota earn a combined $9 million, and Lo Duca will probably get double his current $4 million salary in arbitration after the season. By getting rid of them and acquiring Penny and Choi — earning a combined $4 million — McCourt saves himself plenty. Yes, they did acquire Finley and his $7 million salary, but more than half of that has already been paid out for 2004. Plus he’s a free agent after this season and expressed a willingness to return to Arizona, so the Dodgers are only renting him for the rest of this season. And the Dodgers dealt outfielder Dave Roberts on Saturday to the Red Sox, ridding themselves of another $975,000.

That fiscal conspiracy theory could have been easily dismissed if the Dodgers had acquired Charles Johnson, whose salary is $9 million. But they didn’t. Maybe they really didn’t try that hard.

Maybe DePodesta played the daily double and came up short. Or maybe McCourt had the whole thing fixed from the beginning. Either way, the Dodgers look like losers.

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