A soon-to-be-cousin-in-law asks me what I think of the recent brawls between the Rays and the Yankees.

Here's what I think about it:

-zsdjghsg-

Sorry, I fell asleep and my head hit the keyboard.

More seriously, Peter Abraham says it all, far better than I could:

The idea that this somehow represents the "new" Yankees under Joe Girardi is laughable. Let's review for a second:

A Class A catcher with a .261 career batting average and six home runs in 247 games got run over and broke his wrist. Most of the regular players were home when this happened. I would venture that most of them couldn't pick Francisco Cervelli out of a lineup.

A non-roster left-hander who practically none of the regular players have ever spoken to grazed one of Tampa Bay's players with a pitch.

Then Shelley Duncan, who has played in 34 big league games, decided to go all Rambo with his slide into second base.

...The Yankees are a class team with class guys like Jeter, Pettitte, Posada and Rivera leading the way. Girardi was part of that group as a player and will be that way as a manager. You don't motivate a $205 million roster by vowing revenge on the Tampa Bay Rays. This is baseball, not minor-league hockey. You think Girardi wants to sit in the dugout and make up silly excuses for what Shelley Duncan did? That's not why he wanted the Yankees job.

The Yankees don't care if people pose for home runs or nonsense like that. They care about beating you to death with their relentless lineup then watching you flail weakly at Mo's cutter in the ninth inning. They worry about winning, not sideshows.

The idea that they "sent a message to all of baseball" is ridiculous. Having All-Star caliber players at nearly every position and the best young pitching in the game is sending a message. Shelley Duncan sliding spikes high into second base is not what the Yankees are about.

That sums it up.

As far as whether this pugnacity augurs well for Tampa this year, I will try to elaborate on this in my baseball previews (which I hope to start posting in the next week or two), but I am indeed terrified of the Rays. But fights between them and the Yankees in spring training have nothing to do with it - rather, what worries me is the number of burgeoning stars they have all over the place, and the possibility that the pieces will fit together in very short order.

Red Sox fans likely remember some crazy brawls over the years between the Sox and the Rays (this game being the most famous example). You might have noticed that they didn't lead to much success on Tampa's part. Combativeness isn't new in Tampa - good players are.

(With the trade of Elijah Dukes over the winter, the Rays have even lost the excuse of having one of the very few players who could legitimately cause everyone else in the ballpark to fear for their safety, especially after the game. One more strike against this theory.)