The Dodgers approach the trade dealine in really good shape. The best overall record in baseball (for about the last 10 weeks), a +101 run differential (the next best is +79, Boston and Tampa Bay). The talk right now is Roy Halladay or some help in the bullpen (Joe Torre does tend to be hard on bullpens).
On the Halladay front, getting him would be great, but not for the current asking price, which apparently is Kershaw and Ethier. Halladay is under contract for this year and next, but he's still 34, has racked up a lot of innings and is going to want a big contract after his expires. Kershaw recently is 5-0 with about a 0.65 era. This is a guy, who along with Billingsley, anchors a staff for the next 7-10 years. Personally, I wouldn't trade Kershaw for Halladay straight up. Toronto is a team going no where in the near future. They have shown no ability to compete with the Red Sox or Yankees and they aren't as good as Tampa Bay. If they wanted, say, James McDonald, Scott Elbert, and maybe two other front line prospects, that would be a good trade for the Dodgers (and Toronto), but no current starters at all should be included. I would also send along Juan Pierre, even though he's been valuable so far this season.
The other thing is that Toronto apparently wants to send Vernon Wells along in any trade, which is nothing but a salary dump. Wells provides no value (certainly no value to the Dodgers), so if they insist on that Halladay will still be with Toronto after the deadline.
The Dodgers could use a realiable set up man since Kuo, Wade and McDonald have all been hurt most of the season (only McDonald is currently pitching). Broxton is fine and his workload has been fine, his bump in the road before the All Star break was due to an injured toe.
The only other significant concerns the Dodgers really have is Russell Martin and Rafael Furcal's continued lack of offense. Both have shown some signs of hitting in the last week and both of them just getting back to their lifetime averages would be huge.
I know the home manager of the All Star game is always going to pick his guys, but really, how does Matt Kemp not make the All Star team (while Charlie Manuel selects his entire outfield to fill spots). The baseball All Star game, like all the other all star games is really a thing of the past. The baseball All Star game really stopped being important when televised games proliferated. When I was growing up you only saw the Dodgers on television (besides the World Series) nine times a year (all the away games against San Francisco). Now with all the stations and packages everyone can see every team play every night. So, people who would watch the All Star game to see players they never got to see, don't care about an exhibition game anymore. They see all these guys in both leagues every night.
Having the All Star game decide home field for the World Series is really insane, no one really likes this idea except for Bud Selig, the commissioner. I was amused when he was asked why home field for the series couldn't be decided by the team with the best overall record (like, say, every other major sport), he said it was impossible because securing hotel rooms and logistics for the series couldn't be completed in time if you wait until the end of the season. Now, perhaps this sounds reasonable at first glance, except that no one actually knows who will be in the series until after the playoffs anyway. At the end of the season any one of eight teams could be in the World Series. Selig's reasoning is pretty much, "I had this great idea, I like this idea, and since it's my idea and I'm the commissioner, this is how we're going to do it." His lame excuse about logistics is just that.
Finally, since the Dodgers are in good shape and the Yankees have a chance, this could be a boon for baseball. What the World Series needs is the Yankees and Dodgers. The two largest markets, historic series rivals, etc. The World Series has declined in ratings the last several years becasue the match ups haven't been all that interesting and have had a lot of small market teams (Tampa Bay, Arizona, Colorado, Detroit, etc.).