AL East

Here are the lineups:

Yankees
Johnny Damon LF
Robinson Cano DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Nick Swisher RF
Cody Ransom SS
Jose Molina C
Melky Cabrera CF
Angel Berroa 2B
Justin Leone 3B

Pitching: Chien-Ming Wang, Brett Tomko, Jose Veras, Phil Coke, and Jon Albaladejo

Astros
Michael Bourn CF
Jason Smith 2B
Lance Berkman 1B

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Who ever said money can’t buy happiness obviously never talked to a Yankee fan.

With the Astros signing Ivan Rodriguez this morning, it appears as though GM Ed Wade believes that the group he has assembled could be good enough to compete.

Here are the lineups:

YANKEES
Jorge Posada C
Johnny Damon LF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Hideki Matsui DH
Xavier Nady RF
Melky Cabrera CF
Cody Ransom 3B
Ramiro Pena 2B
Eduardo Nunez SS

So far this offseason has provided us with many prospect lists. Baseball America's top 10 Yankees prospects and top 100 overall.

The Red Sox slipped only a little in 2008, reaching game seven of the ALCS after entering the year as defending World Series Champions. But even if the Sox hold their ground again in 2009, others appear to have gained on them.

Though Boston returns virtually the entire roster from a team that has been the class of the AL over the last two years, it failed in its pursuit of No. 1 offseason target Mark Teixeira, who signed with the rival Yankees.

According to Mark Feinsand of the Daily News, the Yankees are completely ignoring the crowd of Yankee fans that want to see Joba Chamberlain come out of the bullpen and are going full steam ahead with the plan to use him in the rotation.

The last true setup man that the Yankees had was Tom Gordon in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Since then, the Bombers have had no steady option to hand the ball off to after the seventh inning.

I read an article that said that Brian Bruney was vying for the job. Check out what Bruney himself said:

Here's A-Rod on the cover of this month's Details magazine.

Coming from the Southeast, I am surrounded by three "fandoms": Braves, Red Sox, and Yankees.

I side with the first.

With this, came the natural hatred of the New York Yankees.

They seemed to be the polar opposite of my beloved Bravos. They always spent a TON of money and never really focused on their farm.

However, with the gradual evolution of my love of the game of baseball came the gradual increase of respect for the Yankees.