The Return of the Evil Empire

As the Jays prepare to take on the Evil Empire in today's fake game, we'll say this about the Yankees: it doesn't matter how old they get, how inept they look, or how many poor player personnel moves they make in the run of a year. No matter how badly they seem to be screwing the pooch, you still pretty much have to pencil those guys in for about 90 wins.

Having said that, we're reaching a point in the Evil Empire's evolution where they are starting to get bogged down with some of the ill-advised contracts to yesterday's heroes, so maybe this is the year that it all goes to hell. We can only hope that Mike Mussina's spring debut (five runs on six hits in two innings) is the harbinger of awful things to come for the Bronx Boys. (And seriously, that Posada contract is a real head scratcher.)

Today's Jays lineup (courtesy of hip hop purist Cathal Kelly) should look like this:

Eckstein
Rolen
Johnson
Wells
Thomas
Overbay
Hill
Stewart
Zaun

Kelly also speculated that the Yanks would toss some scrubs out against Jesse Litsch (Roy Halladay's pick for the fifth starter), but the lineup posted on the LoHud Yankees blog looks pretty close to an opening day roster:

Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu DH
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi 1B
Posada C
Duncan RF
Cabrera CF
Castro 2B