"Mark Teixeira can still remember the adrenaline spike as he arrived, mid-game, in Atlanta after being traded to the Braves by Texas four summers ago. Teixeira had been told he wasn't in the lineup that night, but clubhouse workers were running toward him yelling, "Get ready!"

"I said, 'What do you mean?'" Teixeira recalls. "They said, 'You're active!' Talk about stressful. I got my equipment and got ready real quick, but we hit a couple home runs, so I didn't end up playing that first night. But if it had been a close game, I would've pinch-hit and I would've either struck out or hit a 700-foot home run, because the adrenaline in my body was incredible."

Teixeira's experience is a slice of life from what it's like to be traded, a unique time in a ballplayer's existence that morphs into a logistical logjam once the dealing is done. Any number of players in the majors could be affected by it this week - the trade deadline is next Sunday - including Mets' star Carlos Beltran. In the final week of the non-waiver trading period last year, 63 players were traded in 25 different deals, not including players to be named later.

That's a lot of flights, hotel rooms and cars getting shipped across country. No wonder players call the experience "mass chaos," as Jason Bay put it. When you don't know where you're going - or even if you're going - only one thing is certain:

"It's a crazy time," CC Sabathia says."