I’m in a prognosticating mood; here are three July trade deadline predictions.

• Phillies acquire Joe Blanton for Carlos Carrasco and Adrian Cardenas.  Pat Gillick’s last hurrah.
• Padres acquire Jason Bay for Kevin Kouzmanoff and Wade LeBlanc.  Bay returns to San Diego to provide some power and solve the left field issue.  Chase Headley takes over at third for the Padres.
• Rays acquire Javier Vazquez for Wade Davis and Desmond Jennings.  Just a fun prediction to ponder.  In this scenario the Sox opt for a complete rebuild and the Rays make a somewhat surprising playoff push.
• Your turn.  Why are my proposals ridiculous?  What reasonable July trade scenarios can you concoct?

Let’s make some 2008 Cy Young picks…

AL: Justin Verlander.  Runner up: Erik Bedard.

NL: Johan Santana.  Runner up: Jake Peavy.

Who are you taking?

I’m not going to make wacky, sleeper MVP picks just for the sake of it.  Here’s who I’ve got:

AL: Alex Rodriguez.  Runner up: Miguel Cabrera.

NL: David Wright.  Runner up: Matt Holliday.

Let’s see your picks in the comments!

Before the 1996 season, I predicted that Derek Jeter and Todd Hollandsworth would win the Rookie of the Year awards.  I believe that was the last time I made an accurate preseason award prediction.  However, requests for award picks were common in yesterday’s chat.  I didn’t post any because I wanted some time to mull it over.  I’ll post more predictions over the next few days. 

Here are my 2008 Rookie of the Year predictions; I’m interested to see yours in the comments.  Tough call in the NL, lot of good choices.

AL: Clay Buchholz.  Runners up: Evan Longoria, Jacoby Ellsbury, Joba Chamberlain.

NL: Kosuke Fukudome.  Runners up: Johnny Cueto, Geovany Soto, Clayton Kershaw.